For the past three years a group calling themselves "Hope Crew" has come to the Mariner Park and Ride in South Everett to feed homeless addicts and try to get them off the streets.
They've also been handing out clean needles -- needles the group concedes have been ending up scattered throughout this community. Their purpose is to stop the spread of disease and keep users alive until they are ready for recovery.
Dottie Drake makes no excuses for her work because her son was once on these streets.
"If I didn't do this, I would hope someone would do it for him," she says.
Hope Crew does not require addicts to exchange a dirty needle to get a new one.
"We are letting them know somebody cares," says Dottie. "They're not throwaway people."
Used needles, however, are becoming a serious safety hazard all across Everett. While Hope Crew's needles only account for a fraction of those found in the community, they are part of the problem.
With that in mind, an organization called Take Back Our Neighborhood is now taking action against Hope Crew.
The neighborhood group's mission is removing all those dirty needles from Everett's streets, parks and alleyways. Complaints from the group helped convince Community Transit to pull Hope Crew's park and ride permit, stopping the needle handouts.
In a Facebook post, Save Our Neighborhood declared "another battle has been won."
"I appreciate most of what they're doing," said Take Back Our Neighborhood's Cate Harrington, "but I can't hold one hand while the other is putting needles on my streets."
The end of the park and ride outreach also means the end of food distribution, as well as that of the lifesaving overdose antidote NARCAN.
"There is an issue with needles getting tossed, but there's a drug epidemic" said Hope Crew's Meagan April-Niva. "We didn't cause it. The needles will be there, no matter what."
In the meantime, Hope Crew members say they have no intention of stopping their work. Dottie Drake says they'll continue handing out needles even if they have to do it driving around in their own cars.
