51�Թ�

Under the new policy, city staff and nonprofits that receive city funding are barred from handing out sterile syringes and other supplies unless they actively work to connect people with treatment and counseling.

The Sidewalk Project is one of several groups that provide resources to homeless people, including some supplies specifically geared toward drug users, such as sterile syringes.

The troubled public square in Westlake has seen gang shootings, rampant drug use, discarded syringes, homelessness, people experiencing mental health crises, and an “open air market” of stolen goods.

A few years later, a newspaper splashed images of dozens of syringes littering the street over its front page.

Carefully and slowly, the carers support their heads with pillows and push the contents of their syringes into the tubes.