A pilot program offering needle exchange services twice a week out of a downtown Bangor church is ending Monday.
The partnership between the harm reduction nonprofit Needlepoint Sanctuary and the Unitarian Universalist Society of Bangor offered a more convenient downtown location for residents seeking syringe services, but it also created tension with neighbors of the Park Street church.
The six-month experiment — seen as a success by the people carrying it out — represented one attempt to address the overlapping crises of homelessness, substance use disorder and an ongoing HIV outbreak as Bangor struggles to determine a long-term strategy to get people off the streets.
Needlepoint Sanctuary will continue providing other services, such as infectious disease testing and recovery support, at the church on Tuesdays, but will shift all of its syringe service operations to its Ohio Street office, about 3 miles from downtown.
Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness is the only other syringe service provider in the city, offering needle exchange services at its office on Hancock Street.
Willie Hurley, Needlepoint Sanctuary’s executive director, reported that his organization’s board of directors voted unanimously not to continue the pilot at a City Council meeting in May. His announcement was met with a mix of applause and boos from residents in attendance.
“This was a difficult decision as the pilot has been a tremendous success,” Hurley said. “Our goal with providing syringe services on Park Street was to provide a critical intervention to address what is now the largest HIV outbreak in Maine’s history. We have succeeded.”
Zach Falcon, the church’s council chair, previously said that many of the church’s members were “very proud and energized by the public health successes” of the program.
Hurley declined to comment further for this story. Falcon was unavailable for an interview.
Program participants reported that the project made it easier for people who use drugs to get clean supplies, medical care and other support. But greater foot traffic to the area also caused some disruption for nearby residents and businesses, and a statement from the two organizations noted “challenges associated with providing these services in a church setting.”
Syringe litter and other visible symptoms of homelessness and substance use have been frequent subjects of complaints at City Council meetings this spring and summer.
“It is our hope that this decision demonstrates our sincere commitment to finding a balance between the needs of all community members while upholding the necessity of our, and the necessity of all social service programs, in Bangor,” Hurley said.
Dr. Rupa Patel, a clinical consultant for the program, said in a statement from the two organizations that the pilot helped “avert new HIV and Hepatitis C infections, saving millions of dollars in healthcare costs for the residents of Bangor.”
The Penobscot County HIV outbreak, which is primarily affecting people who are homeless or who use intravenous drugs, began in October 2023 and reached 45 cases in July.
“There is no operation equivalent to this in the area that reaches this number of people so efficiently,” Patel said of the program.