WASHINGTON — On 906 H St NE, HIPS is a harm reduction center combatting the drug epidemic. Standing for Honoring Individual Power and Strength, the center has been running since 1993. The staff are almost exclusively people who have lived experience, past or present, in drug use or sex work. "We are a family," several workers said. They carry this philosophy in their un-dying efforts to create a safer and better world for people who use drugs and do sex work, in hopes that their services and activism can give those people dignity and humanitarian rights. This documentation and portrait series is a long-term development of an empathic approach to addiction, recovery, and the in-between: harm reduction.
Nkeiru and Phoenix hold each other in a laughing embrace outside HIPS, 906 H St. NE.
Ms. Kenney gathers equipment in the storage room. HIPS gives out syringes, fentanyl testing strips, Narcan, and condoms to at-risk people in D.C.
Sabreen is a student at Georgetown University who has been working at HIPS the past semester. On this day, she was teaching a CPR training. (December 2023)
A homeless encampent near the Georgetown Waterfront.
A drug known as "boot" on the streets, scientifically eutylone, has continually spread in the DMV area over the last decade.
Johnny Bailey has been clean from alcohol and methamphetamine for 10 years. He credits harm reduction as the one of the only careers he can bring his experience of addiction to.
Phoenix is a member of the Chosen Few, a subgroup of HIPS that focuses on helping the at-risk black population in D.C.
Johnny DJs at Atlas Brewery. His background of nightlife promotion has brought HIPS' outreach to several clubs and nightlife venues in D.C.
