meanwhile there's a bigger effort to stem the tide of drug overdoses in Patterson where the city's black lives matter chapter recently opened a harm reduction Center a strategy to give resources to more black community members in need of the help with the goal of saving more lives and reducing the spread of HIV infections Melissa Rose Cooper reports I'm tired of living in the streets and um everybody says it's a choice absolutely it's a choice that I'm out there but I'm human something Nancy says people who see her often forgets a lifelong Patterson resident she has spent many years living on the streets but now Nancy says things are beginning to look hopeful thanks to the black lives matter Paterson harm reduction Center basically this is my family right now you know it's very few few people that say oh you know we love you we love you but not one love comes out there and be like listen are you cold are you hungry you need something you need a place to lay your head my mornings were standing out there trying to hustle to make sure that I get my next fix my mornings now is right here the harm reduction Center helps people affected by substance abuse and opioid overdose and aims to prevent the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and since other factors like housing and food insecurity can worsen the impact the goal is to focus on a person's overall health and well-being even providing free food so we do things like uh we have hygiene kids we help people fill in our Section 8 applications their Medicaid or you know the applications the research getting people into rehab or detox brieazonato says she understands how important a harm reduction Center is to an area like this where oftentimes the Black and Latino communities who need help are neglected our culture is a lot more stigmatized because we're not getting the education so one thing that we're trying to do here is bring out the education because the only way we're going to be able to combat stigma is through education and through not normalizing in but in a way normalizing the it making sure that people understand that sometimes substances are a part of The Human Experience right whether you are taking Tylenol for a toothache you have an accident and you can take a Percocet something small as that can lead into addiction this is the first harm reduction Center to open in Patterson assemblyman Benji Wimberley says it's a necessary resource unfortunately Patterson has been a hub for uh heroin for years so this is not new to our community Wimberley says the center is a good move in an effort to combat drug addictions he's hoping the state's opioid settlement will provide funding to help people seeking substance abuse treatments stay on their feet right now we have transitional housing but not enough so you're talking about transitioning to housing to health care to uh job creation job opportunities to educational to vocational that's where those funds have to go because we can't treat them for six weeks eight weeks or three months and then expect them just to be you know flying your own you know we have to be those wings and for as a NATO who used to come to some of these same street corners looking for her dad who was living with substance abuse this Center means the world bringing harm reduction back to the black in the Latino Community is something important to me especially if someone of mixed race um uplifting our community making sure that we get resources and bringing us back into the conversation and making sure that the children of the people who are in addiction don't go through a lot of the obstacles that I had to face right because harm reduction is not necessarily just for the person experiencing it's also for the family since opening in February the center now helps about 60 people each day saving one more life at a time one day at a time for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper