"Our findings contribute further evidence supporting tenant-led naloxone distribution and overdose education as a critical intervention to address overdose vulnerability in SRO [Single Room Occupancy] settings (Bardwell et al., 2019; Nowell & Masuda, 2020). At the time of writing, the City of San Francisco funds naloxone distribution in seven of its approximately 75 supportive housing SROS, and has committed to making naloxone available in all its supportive housing facilities by 2026 (San Francisco Department of Public Health 2022; Thadani & Palomino, 2022). Rapidly increasing naloxone availability is crucial to reducing overdose deaths in SROs (Bardwell et al., 2017; Rowe et al., 2019). This evaluation foregrounds the benefits of pairing targeted naloxone distribution with programs that train and compensate tenants to lead overdose education and response in their buildings. The city has so far earmarked $1 million dollars to expand the SRO program model into eight supportive housing facilities (San Francisco Department of Public Health 2022). This investment is promising and will allow the specialist program to run in eight additional SROs until June 2023. However, this evaluation highlights the need for enhanced training and psychosocial supports for the housing staff and tenants who are routinely responding to overdoses. Given the broader forms of support and mutual aid that specialists described in this evaluation, they could benefit from expanded training in other social competencies such as collaborative leadership, crisis response, violence prevention, and conflict de-escalation. Involving tenants early on in program planning and training curriculum development may help better tailor training to needs of different SRO environments. Psychosocial supports including grief counseling and post-overdose de-briefing were also requested by specialists and supportive housing team members to address the emotional burden of overdose response work. Regular check-ins with specialists about their workloads will continue to be important to identify and mitigate scope creep."
Michelle Olding, Neena Joshi, Stacy Castellanos, Emily Valadao, Lauren Hall, Laura Guzman, Kelly Knight, Saving lives in our homes: Qualitative evaluation of a tenant overdose response program in supportive, single-room occupancy (SRO) housing, International Journal of Drug Policy, Volume 118, 2023, 104084, ISSN 0955-3959, doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2023.104084.
