WASHINGTON — D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has declared public emergencies on the opioid crisis and youth violence in the District.
The Bowser administration says that both problems have not only persisted, but worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic. Declaring public emergencies will allow District government to respond more efficiently and urgently to the two issues.
"Although each of these urgent situations are, to some extent, geographically concentrated, the nature of the two emergencies demands city-wide responses," the administration said in a press statement.
Here's a closer look at what the emergency declarations do.
Public Emergency on the Opioid Crisis:
Between 2018 and 2022, opioid-related deadly overdoses have more than doubled, from 213 to 461 lives lost per year. Fentanyl and its analogs, potent synthetic opioids, were linked to 96% of the opioid-related fatal overdoses in the District in 2022, the Bowser administration said. In 2023 to date, there has been an increasing percentage of these substances, where fentanyl and its analogs are now linked to 98% of overdose deaths.
Opioid deaths in the District fall most heavily among Black men and residents of Wards 5, 7, and 8, underscoring that this public health crisis raises health equity and systemic concerns.
In December 2018, Mayor Bowser released Live. Long. DC., the District's strategic plan to reduce opioid use, misuse and opioid-related deaths.
Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Ciana Creighton said Monday that the opioid epidemic is not new, but requires a constantly evolving situation.
"There is no one-size-fits-all solution for this epidemic," Creighton said.
The public emergency will allow the District to immediately modify its current data sharing agreement between the Department of Behavioral Health, DC Health, and the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department to require District agencies to input suspected non-fatal overdoses into a common data tracking system. Enhanced and expedited data sharing, consistent with the safeguards in the existing data sharing agreement, can provide a complete picture of opioid-related fatal and suspected non-fatal overdoses as they occur, allowing for the deployment of outreach teams to overdose hotspots and impacted areas and for the provision of harm reduction services and supports.
"Having a common data tracking system will give us a better picture of the opioid use and effects in the District," Creighton said. "The goal is to keep people alive."
Public Emergency on Juvenile Crime
The District continues to grapple with a rise in violent crime, particularly among young people. In the first nine months of 2023, there have been 458 arrests of juveniles for robbery, including carjacking, homicide, or assault with a dangerous weapon. That's 10% more than the total number of such arrests in all of 2022, according to the Bowser administration. D.C. leaders say young people represent one-third of all carjacking arrests.
Throughout 2023, the District has taken steps to address the rise in violent crime among young people.
Steps include the Safer Stronger Amendment Act of 2023, introduced in May, which focuses on gaps in the District's public safety and juvenile justice ecosystem.
The emergency order means the District will procure additional placements for youth at shelter homes, group homes, supervised independent living facilities, secure facilities, residential treatment centers, psychiatric residential treatment centers and foster homes.
The District will also engage in cooperative agreements for programs and placements for detained and committed youth, including rehabilitative, therapeutic, substance-abuse, and trauma-informed programs. Leaders will also engage with the Department of General Services to undertake what the administration calls expedited renovations at the Youth Services Center for a 10-bed unit.
It will offer incentives for private providers.
"While we don't want any of our youth involved in the juvenile justice system, we want them to be in DYRS (Department of Youth and Rehabilitation Services) custody when they are," said Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Lindsey Appiah. "Because we know, whether pretrial or committed, they're safer."
We asked DYRS's director, Sam Abed, what more space will mean for his department.
"Having more space gives us that ability to make sure that [young people] are safe. We need to be able to classify kids and move them into different spaces based on a number of criteria that we look at," Abed said.