Earlier this year, AFP photographer Dominick Reuter and Getty photographer Spencer Platt both visited the Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to photograph “El Campamento,” one of the largest open-air drug markets and shooting galleries on the East Coast, before it was shut down. According to Getty: “People come from throughout the city, and some as far away as the Midwest, for heroin that is remarkably cheap and pure.” At the end of July, the encampment, littered with mattresses, used needles and other refuse, started to be cleaned up and closed down by city workers and Consolidated Rail employees, while outreach workers try to help place homeless residents of the camp. Getty further reported that “over 900 people died last year in Philadelphia from opioid overdoses, a 30 percent increase from 2015.”
Closing Down a Notorious Heroin Camp in Philadelphia
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Read moreSamantha, a homeless heroin addict, pauses under a bridge where she lives with other addicts in the Kensington section of Philadelphia, on July 31, 2017. Kensington has become a hub for heroin use. Today was the first day of a long-anticipated clean-up of one of the largest open-air drug markets on the East Coast. #
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Read moreDiscarded needles at a heroin encampment in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 7, 2017. #
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Read moreJessica, a homeless heroin addict, walks along the railroad tracks near the bridge where she lives in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia on April 14, 2017. #
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Read moreJessica, a homeless heroin addict, arranges some belongings around the spot under the bridge where she lives in Kensington, Philadelphia, on April 14, 2017. "Eighty percent of us want to get out," said Jessica, before outlining the numerous ways she has tried to get treatment for her addiction. In one case, she said, there weren't any available beds. In another, a treatment provider required a positive drug test before delivering aid, meaning if she hadn't used recently, she'd be denied. Instead of getting treatment, she spends her nights trying to keep warm on a mattress under a bridge in the very spot where she was raped and infected with HIV. #
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Read moreSteven, a homeless heroin addict, pauses under a bridge where he lives with other addicts in Kensington on July 21, 2017. #
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Read moreA discarded needle and row of chairs near a heroin encampment in Kensington on April 10, 2017. According to the city's health commissioner, Philadelphia is on track to see 33 percent more drug-overdose deaths in 2017 than last year. #
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Read moreA mix of cocaine and heroin waits for a user near a railway underpass in Kensington on July 31, 2017. #
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Read moreMike, 22, a heroin addict who began using opiates when he was 13, pauses to shoot up by a railway underpass in the Kensington section of Philadelphia on July 31, 2017. #
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Read moreChris, a homeless heroin addict, shoots up by a railway underpass in Kensington on July 31, 2017. #
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Read moreA police officer patrols in the Kensington section of Philadelphia, which has become a hub for heroin addicts, on July 21, 2017. #
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Read moreMike, a heroin addict who wants to get help, panhandles for money in Kensington on July 21, 2017. #
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Read moreA sign for help with addiction is displayed in the Kensington section of Philadelphia on July 21, 2017. #
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Read moreAmy, a heroin addict for over six years, stands in the Kensington section of Philadelphia on July 21, 2017. #
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Read moreJimmy, a heroin addict from South Jersey, showers and washes his clothes in an open fire hydrant in Kensington on July 21, 2017. #
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Read moreA man administers Narcan as he tries to revive a man who overdosed on heroin in Kensington on July 21, 2017. The man later came to and was taken to the hospital. #
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Read moreSneakers hang from phone lines near what was a heroin-shooting gallery in Kensington on July 31, 2017. #
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Read moreMakeshift privacy construction at a heroin encampment in Kensington on April 10, 2017. #
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Read moreA man injects himself in the foot with heroin near a heroin encampment in Kensington on April 14, 2017. #
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Read moreA Philadelphia police officer patrols under a bridge near a heroin encampment in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia on April 14, 2017. #
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Read moreUsed needles are left behind in what was a heroin-shooting gallery in Kensington on July 31, 2017. #
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Read moreWorkers start to clear an area near what was a heroin-shooting gallery in the Kensington section of Philadelphia on July 31, 2017. Hundreds of outreach workers, city employees and Conrail workers started to clear an area of heroin users from a stretch of train tracks today as part of a long-anticipated clean-up of one of the largest open-air drug markets on the East Coast. #
Spencer Platt / Getty
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