The City of Woonsocket has ordered a mobile health clinic licensed to dispense addiction treatment medication to leave its current location, saying it’s in violation of city zoning laws.
The “cease and desist order” states that the mobile clinic operated by CODAC Behavioral Healthcare is parked in a major commercial district rather than an area zoned for a hospital. The order, dated Dec. 30, 2022, says the mobile clinic must “immediately” vacate the property or face municipal court action and fines of up to $500 a day.
The Cranston-based nonprofit is continuing to operate the converted RV in Woonsocket and will go to court, if necessary, to fight the order, Linda Hurley, CODAC’s president and chief executive officer, said Friday. “It’s absolutely critical that people have the services,’’ Hurley said. “It is a hotspot” of overdose deaths.
In 2021, Woonsocket had the state’s highest rate of drug overdose deaths.
The city’s zoning official and solicitor did not respond Friday to requests for comment.
The order comes six months after the CODAC launched one of the nation’s first mobile clinic’s licensed to dispense methadone in more than a decade. CODAC was taking advantage of 2021 federal regulations designed to expand access to addiction treatment. CODAC received a one-year $296,000 grant from the state to operate the mobile clinic in Woonsocket.
The CODAC van rolls into Woonsocket each morning from Monday through Saturday, and sets up in the back parking lot at 800 Clinton Street owned by the nonprofit Community Care Alliance. Neither CODAC nor the Community Care Alliance have received any complaints about the mobile clinic, the nonprofit’s top officials said.
Benedict F. Lessing, Jr. ,president and CEO of Community Care Alliance, said in a Jan. 3 email to the Woonsocket City Council that the mobile clinic’s presence is similar to the dental van that has operated a few blocks away at the Thundermist Health Center.
“Owing to the fact that CODAC’s van is parked on private property and the unit itself is an added value to residents, particularly those that are homeless and struggling with addiction,’’ Lessing said in the email, “the logic of this ‘order’ makes little sense relative to the health and well-being of the community.’’
The closest brick-and-mortar methadone clinic in Woonsocket is a 15-minute bus ride from the city’s downtown, where many of the poorest residents congregate.
When CODAC first launched the mobile clinic last July, outreach workers had hoped to drive the van to a public park, closer to people living in tent encampments. But people close to the discussions said that idea got a cool reception from park officials.
Hurley, CODAC’s CEO, said lawyers from CODAC spoke with the city solicitor this week and the discussion was “very civil.” She said she is “cautiously optimistic,”’ but declined to offer more specifics.
Health Reporter Lynn Arditi can be reached at larditi@thepublicsradio.org.
Follow her on Twitter @LynnArditi
