But it’s unclear if the story of Española, where a quarter of the population is poor and the murals of the dead are painted on junction boxes, will be a narrative about how to save a town from addiction - or lose it. Rallying voices are trying to fix this community under siege. The state police and the county sheriff have been called in to help Española’s understaffed Police Department, which reported 224 burglary calls last year, up from from 155 in 2020. But like others in this city, he contends with burglaries, robberies and thefts carried out by fentanyl addicts desperate to fuel their next high. Madrid-Estrada spends much of his time at the shelter, giving addicts beds and warmth on frigid nights. “I was here last night when my fiancee called and told me someone was trying to break into our house. “You can’t believe it sometimes,” said Madrid-Estrada, the homeless shelter’s chief executive officer. Others headed toward the marshes on the city’s fringes, where, as the morning frost lifted, Cristian Madrid-Estrada, a bearded man of 23, sat with a gun holstered on his hip at the Española Pathways Shelter. Men wearing hoodies and expectant gazes drifted toward a house with barred windows. Cars came and went from a methadone clinic. Shoppers and workers drove past addicts roaming Riverside Drive, the main drag in this town of 10,500.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |