01/21/25 Intersection of Harm Reduction and Homelessness

Program
Century of Lies
Date
Guest
Gerasimos Grammatikopoulos with OKANA
Organization
European Network of People who Use Drugs

This week on Century of Lies: The Intersection Between Harm Reduction and Homeless Service Work. Homelessness is on the rise around the world. People who use drugs and who are unhoused, or at risk of being unhoused, are key user groups of harm reduction services. Harm reduction itself is a core principle of the Housing First approach, which is a growing paradigm for work against homelessness in many countries. Despite the overlaps between harm reduction services and homeless services, the two sectors are often siloed. Breaking down those silos and encouraging communication and coordination makes all that work more efficient and more effective. On this edition of Century we’re going to look at the intersection between harm reduction and homeless service work. We hear from Emilia Piermartini with the European Network of People who Use Drugs, Gerasimos Grammatikopoulos with OKANA, the Organization Against Drugs, and Anika Apfel, Location Manager at AMOC, a safe consumption room in Amsterdam. They spoke on a panel entitled At the interface between harm reduction and homelessness work at the Sixth European Harm Reduction Conference.

Audio file