Courtney Gary-Allen, at-large city councilor, speaks Jan. 25 during the Augusta City Council goal-setting meeting at the Augusta Civic Center. Gary-Allen is the executive director of the new Maine Recovery Access Project’s Access Center, expected to open in June at 53 Water St. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

AUGUSTA — Organizers of a new nonprofit operation planned in the north end of the city’s downtown, that will include a syringe exchange and a space where people in recovery and others without anywhere else to go can spend their days, say the center will help, not harm, downtown.

City councilors said they’ve heard from constituents who have concerns the new Maine Recovery Access Project’s Access Center, expected to open in June at 53 Water St., could create more problems. Some say downtown is already plagued by a transient group of people, at least some of whom are homeless and using illegal drugs, hanging around businesses and buildings, begging for money and intimidating shoppers, residents and visitors.

Courtney Gary-Allen, executive director of the project and a city councilor, responded by acknowledging people using substances have caused problems downtown. But she said the center will not be part of those problems, it will be part of their solution.

Gary-Allen said the new center, in the basement of the Edwards Inn, will be a place for people with nowhere else to go during the day. For example, homeless people staying at the Augusta Overnight Emergency Warming Center, which closes during the day and is only open during the winter months, might now spend their day on the street downtown. But at the new center, they would be safe and welcomed, and would not bother anyone else downtown.

“We want this project to be part of the solution and not part of the problem,” Gary-Allen told city councilors at their Thursday meeting, at which she recused herself as a councilor to speak for the access project. “Anyone with concerns, I’m happy to talk through it, to give you a tour, and adjust the plan. If something happens then we will adjust the plan. We’re not here to harm the downtown community. We are here to support the downtown community, and to acknowledge that harm has been created and make amends for it.”

The center will offer a syringe exchange program in which drug users can turn in a used needle for a clean one, part of harm reduction efforts meant to reduce the transmission of infectious diseases between drug users, and decrease the number of used syringes disposed of improperly.

The center will also be the base of an on-call community syringe disposal service, through which anyone who sees a needle disposed of improperly, such as on a city street or in a park, can call a hotline and an organizer will make sure to dispose of it properly.

Ward 3 Councilor Mike Michaud said he asked Gary-Allen to make a presentation about the center, saying he has a hard time with a substance abuse recovery center also providing addicts with needles, which they will use to do drugs, which he said seemed like an oxymoron to him.

Gary-Allen said a syringe exchange program reduces harm by limiting the spread of diseases, and research has shown that people involved in a syringe exchange program are five times more likely to eventually enter substance use disorder recovery. Sharing her own experiences, she said that’s because drug users develop a relationship with syringe exchange service providers, and those providers become someone an addict can turn to when they’re ready to better their lives and quit using, when they may have nowhere else to turn.

Gary-Allen said her own recovery from substance use began almost 15 years ago via a syringe service program, one on Green Street that is still operating today. She said when she was in active use she used heroin every day. When she found out she was pregnant with her son, she knew she wanted to stop using substances but didn’t have anyone to turn to for help. So she went to see a nurse in the syringe exchange program she was using, who helped her get into treatment the next day.

Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Judkins said some Water Street business and building owners, and residents, have told him they support the center opening to provide much-needed services, but others were “very, very nervous about it. We, as a council, have put some time and effort and resources into trying to get things in a better way for the downtown district, because it’s kind of the soul of the city. However, this looks like a well-designed, well-thought-out program. I think it could go either way. It’s either going to be part of the problem, or it’s going to be a real solution. And I’m going to put my hope and faith that it is the solution.”

The center will host meetings by recovery groups, as well as a youth caucus made up of young Mainers impacted by substance use.

Volunteers and workers with the project also conduct four yearly cleanups on city streets and in parks and other public areas.

The center, which will be open Thursdays through Mondays, will only be open during the day, but will be open year-round. It will have showers and an area where people who are homeless can store their belongings and get their mail. And workers there will be able to refer people to treatment and counseling.

Mayor Mark O’Brien said the City Council has no role or approval process for the new center, which is an allowed use in the zoning district where it will be located. But he said Thursday’s presentation was held because councilors are aware there is interest in the proposal in the community, and advocates with the group were willing to be transparent and share information about the project. The project is funded by a two-year, $500,000 grant from Maine Recovery Council, a group overseeing distribution of opioid settlement money received by the state.