The city’s fire chief is firing back after an alderman announced on social media over the weekend his intent to make a motion this week to shut down the Safe Station program.
On Friday, Alderman at Large Joe Kelly Levasseur posted a message on his personal Facebook page, stating that 61 percent of those accessing Safe Stations in Manchester “are from somewhere else.”
“When they don’t have any money and can’t afford to buy any drugs and are going through withdrawals, they simply show up at a Safe Station where they get an Uber to bring them to a local clinic which then houses them for at least a week — maybe more,” wrote Levasseur. “Once again we keep legislating for the fringe of our society at the cost of the middle class. I will be making a motion on Tuesday to stop allowing Safe Stations in Manchester.”
“I have no intention of stopping the program,” Manchester Fire Chief Dan Goonan said on Sunday. “It’s helped too many people. I saw the Facebook post. It was as inaccurate as it was sad.”