The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • A8

8 THE BALTIMORE SUN NEWS TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2015 Baltimore to get more U.S. help in heroin fight origin," Cameron said. "If they can do that with a flu bug, think of what they can do with heroin and tracking it back to its source." The White House program focuses on five of the nation's 28 High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, or HIDTAs. In addition to the Baltimore-Washington area, they include Appalachia, New England, Philadelphia-Camden and New York-New Jersey. Each HIDTA is to have a public health and a public safety coordinator who will oversee the sharing of information, such as on particularly dangerous batches of heroin that appear in certain areas, according to the White House.

The goal is to enable a rapid response, by both health and law enforcement agencies, that could lead to preventing further deaths or interupting a heroin supply chain. The funding will enable Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh to hire two new prosecutors "who can immediately begin bringing cases that will disrupt the supply of heroin coming into Maryland," spokesman David Nitldn said. "The partnerships have been set up between local agencies, the state and the federal government to bring more attention to this problem," Nitkin said. "Now more resources are coming, so those partnerships will be even more effective." The White House initiative follows other efforts to curtail heroin deaths in Maryland.

Frosh, for example, announced in January that he and his counterparts in other northeastern states would be sharing information and prosecuting heroin traffickers jointly. Both Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Raw-lings-Blake and Maryland Gov. Larry Ho-gan have appointed task forces to study the heroin crisis and recommend solutions. In July, the city's heroin task force called on the city create a round-the-clock facility to provide treatment on demand for substance abusers. The task force, which spent nine months holding neighborhood meetings and investigating the problem, also recommended a public education campaign and a data-tracking system to identify "hot spots" of overdoses and treatment needs.

Dr. Leana S. Wen, Baltimore's health commissioner, said the White House program will help efforts already underway. Wen said the new partnership should enable "real-time information" during critical times such as earlier this year, when health officials noticed a spike in deaths from heroin laced with fentanyl, a powerful painkiller. There were 39 deaths in the city linked to fentanyl in the first quarter of the year, compared with 14 during the same period last year, prompting officials to issue a warning to users about what they might be buying on the street.

Botticelli, the drug czar, visited Baltimore earlier this year, impressing those he met by speaking about his own struggles in the past with substance abuse in his case, alcoholism. "It was extremely moving," Wen said. "Everything he said shows he understands addiction as a chronic disease." The state heroin task force has held a series of "summit meetings" to hear from medical, addictions and law enforcement professionals as well as addicts themselves. The panel is due to issue an interim report to Hogan on Monday. A spokeswoman for Hogan called the federal initiative "a positive step forward." "The governor is pleased that members of the Maryland congressional delegation and the White House are taking steps to combat heroin and fentanyl drug trafficking in the Washington-Baltimore region and other Eastern states," spokeswoman Erin Montgomery said.

jean.marbellabaltsun.com By Jean Marbella The Baltimore Sun The Baltimore-Washington area will participate in a $2.5 million White House initiative announced Monday to combat a persistent rise in heroin deaths over recent years. Michael Botticelli, the White House drug czar, said the new Heroin Response Strategy will increase collaboration between public health and law enforcement agencies to track and, it is hoped, interupt the flow of the deadly drug. The program is part of $13.4 million in funding for areas of the country that have been hit particularly hard by heroin. Last year, 578 people died of heroin overdoses in Maryland, more than double the number several years ago. Officials trying to stem those fatalities welcomed the assistance from the White House, saying the pairing of public health and law enforcement agencies is vital to gaining control of the crisis.

"It's a great partnership," said Sheriff Timothy K. Cameron of St. Mary's County, a member of the governor's task force on heroin. "Think of what public health does really well: They can track a strain of flu to its City likely to expand Safe Streets to Sandtown-Winchester area accounts for some of the city's grimmest statistics. The 72-block neighborhood is part of a section of West Baltimore where about half the children live below the poverty line, nearly a quarter of adults are out of work, and the homicide rate is more than double the citywide average.

Councilman William "Pete" Welch, who represents the area, said he supports the expansion of Safe Streets but wants to see "much better personnel practices and interviews" for screening workers. Councilman Nick Mosby, who also represents part of Sandtown, welcomed the expansion but said he hopes there's a commitment for long-term funding. "I'm a huge advocate and supporter of Safe Streets," said Mosby, who pushed to bring the program to the Mondawmin area. "If you look at the statistics, the numbers speak for themselves." Cherry Hill went 440 days without a gun killing until last month. McElderry Park hasn't seen a fatal shooting in 315 days.

And Park Heights went 423 days without a fatal shooting until last month. Mosby said he believed the initiative will be successful if the city can secure "additional funds to keep it afloat for several years." lbroadwaterbaltsun.com Twitter.comlukebroadwater "There's no reason why we wouldn't fund it, if it's effective," Embry said. "We want to reduce crime, and we think Safe Streets is one of the most effective interventions to reduce crime." He said he saw no reason to abandon Safe Streets because of last month's arrests. "It would be reasonable to assume that if you're hiring ex-offenders, some portion of them are going to offend again," Embry said. "I would expect some in the future will break the law.

The important thing is whether crime goes down in that area." Despite being the target of a multimillion-dollar revitalization effort over two decades, Sandtown-Winchester is home to more people held in prison than any other Census tract in Maryland. From 1989 to 1999, at least $130 million in public and private money was spent to build or renovate about 1,000 houses. Millions more went to develop specialized curriculum for Sandtown schools, to ensure that babies were born healthy and to provide job training for residents. The neighborhood dragged into the spotlight by the arrest there and subsequent death of Gray, and the protests and riots that followed has become a national symbol of the deep-rooted challenges confronting urban America. It is home to about 8,500 people and year.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence pays for the fourth. Safe Streets reaches about 15,000 city residents, or 2.4 percent of the city's population. Its programs serve neighborhoods covering a total of L4 square miles. Baltimore is enduring one of the deadliest stretches in its history. Last month, 45 people were killed the most since the 1970s.

But homicides and shootings are rare in Safe Streets neighborhoods compared with many others, according to Health Department statistics. A 2012 assessment of the program by the Bloomberg School found that Safe Streets had led to reduced gun violence at nearly all its locations. Three of those areas have gone more than a year without a homicide by shooting, Wen said. Safe Streets workers intervened in 880 conflicts in the past year, she added. Abell Foundation President Robert C.

Embry Jr. said the organization would like to commit more resources to Safe Streets in future years. SAFE STREETS, From page 1 having lived in the same or similar neighborhoods, and are an outlet people can turn to for help if they don't trust or want to cooperate with police. But drug-related arrests have marred its successes. In 2013, the Baltimore Health Department, which runs Safe Streets, suspended the Mondawmin branch and retrained employees after two outreach workers were arrested within two weeks.

Rawlings-Blake also froze funding briefly for two Safe Streets sites in 2010 and ordered an investigation after federal authorities said the East Baltimore branch had ties to the Black Guerrilla Family gang. In July, the East Baltimore office again caused concern when police officers found seven guns and drugs stashed there. Its operations were suspended. Wen said the Rawlings-Blake administration continues to believe in the program, though the July arrests slowed the timetable for expansion. The city funds three of the program's four Safe Streets centers, paying $770,000 a 'IS SUMMER DOOR SALE MHIC 46549 Entry Doors Storm Doors Sliding Glass Cm YOUR DECK A fACEUFT Save 50 compared to a entire deck replacement with tun wiutui No more yearly maintenance work Save tons of money without replacing Over 50 premium colors to choose from No more splinters, cracks, and warping Increase your home's value Fast, Easy Affordable! ii IP I Sri FREE INSTALLATION Up to $500 Value FREE FINANCING Upon Approved Credit FREE SECURITY VIEWER Takes Digital Photo Of Visitor $250 Value Months No Payments No Interest A 410-988-4545 Rating bbb Not valid with previous orders, must present at time of estimate.

5640 D-Sunnyside Avenue, Beltsville MD 20705 www.deckwiz.com.