Street Sense Vendor Dominique Anthony talks to Shakita Chapman, the social services manager at HIPS, as part of her series on harm reduction. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Editor’s note: Dominique Anthony has both worked at and received services from HIPS.
Dominique Anthony: Can you give an introduction?
Shakita Chapman: Sure. I’m Shakita Chapman. I am the social services manager at HIPS, and I am definitely a harm reductionist from birth. I have been with HIPS since 2013. I started as a testing specialist, I did HIV and Hepatitis C testing, and I also did some community health work.
How do you like what you do now, being the drop-in manager?
I love it, because I love people, as you know! Just bringing so many different people together in one space, I love that, I love the diversity of the drop-in, I love meeting new people, and helping to kind of debunk myths others might have. The drop-in center is a place where all services connect. You can come in and get referred or linked to whatever service HIPS provides or whatever service we can link you to. We have many partners in the city. So social services happen there, you can get harm reduction supplies, you can have groups, just a one-stop shop for all that is HIPS. Some people reach us through the van, and some people walk in, so we just are the main point for triage.
Being the drop-in manager, you see all different walks of life. How do you set aside your personal feelings towards a client?
One of the things that’s unique about me is I grew up with a big family, with a big extended family, just in a space where everyone was allowed to be themselves. So working at HIPS was just organic. I can definitely set aside my biases, because humans are humans, not their problems at that moment. People go through stuff. I am able to set aside my bias to look out for the people. HIPS will go to great lengths to get you the help you need. If it wasn’t for HIPS, me and my kids wouldn’t be alive, even though you spoiled them.
Like when I was pregnant, I had to take my insulin, and they would do my insulin. HIPS really saved my life. I believe in this shit.
I feel the same way. I believe in harm reduction, because you know, you can’t even get a child to do what you want them to do, so how are you going to get an adult to do what you want them to? So let’s give you the tools to help you perfect what you’re trying to do and live a better life, but as far as telling you “Leave that alone,” that’s not conducive for growth, period. In order to grow, you need to take those steps yourself, so giving people the tools to grow is what HIPS is all about. That’s what I love about harm reduction, it’s non-judgmental.
Do you believe in the decriminalization of poverty, where you feel like you can’t get well in a cell?
I feel like treatment should be offered. I do not feel that all drug addicts should be locked up. So, what I’m used to, I’m an 80s baby, so I grew up with DARE, and the egg frying saying “this is your brain on drugs.” The resources aren’t as prevalent as they were in the past. Just like sex education, drug user education should start in school, at the elementary level, and that’s because these are things that are happening. So we would fare better by getting ahead of it instead of letting it just happen.
My father was a drug addict, and my sister and I grew up in the room, so I see drugs as… It’s a problem, but it should not be criminalized because… Let’s just say, you know I’m a plussized cutie. Are you going to criminalize me because you made donuts for me to enjoy? And because I just wanted to taste a little bit? And I might have gotten addicted, I might have been having a bad day, and wanted to eat a few, and now I am eating them every day because they are so good. Would I be punished for that? Definitely not. It was out here for me to consume, so I just wanted to try it a little bit and it took over.
Doing drugs is something nobody wants to get hooked on. I have not seen a drug addict who just said, “You know what, I want to be a drug addict.” I have seen people who have said, you know what, I might have been feeling some type of way and got a little high. I might have just been with my friends and wanted to experience something different and now, boom, it’s taken over me. So I definitely don’t feel like it should be criminalized. I feel like we should find different ways to help combat drug abuse.
As far as sex work, do you think sex work should be criminalized?
Of course I don’t think sex work should be criminalized. I know there are a lot of traffickers and it really is scary. There are definitely people who prey on that environment. But for the sex workers, it shouldn’t be criminalized, because some people just like to engage in sex work. Those people should be free to do what they want when they want, it’s their bodies. I can see where some predators get in the mix. They should find better mechanisms to combat traffickers, but why would you criminalize the person who’s engaging in sex work when they want to?
Do you feel like sex is work?
I mean if you’re doing it right, it’s work! You want to keep the people coming back, whether they are paying for it or you’re just enjoying it for yourself, right? (Laughter) That’s what I love about HIPS, it’s just a bunch of us coming together with like minds. Because you know, we are HIPSters, we love sex, girl.
It’s HIPS! Do you feel like the departments of HIPS should come together more?
I think we do come together. We’re just like worker bees. We are from the same hive, and we just go out into different places to spread the common goal of harm reduction. I love the 7th and T Street project, I love the new hotspot in Southwest, I love that we’re able to be in the streets.
I feel that you should get more money and grants to do a lot in the community.
If you’re asking me if I feel like we need more money, do you really need an answer to that? Yes, we need all the money. We would expand our services and our reach. One of the things we’re working towards now is expanding our harm reduction center to possibly some type of 24/7 service center. More funding would help us offer more lunch, help with more harm reduction supplies, help with more staffing, because we do of course prioritize hiring from the community. These are things we can use more funding for to continue what we’re doing on a grander scale.
Should HIPS reach out more to Maryland and Virginia?
We do. We have connections all around the world, in fact, that want to know what HIPS does, that want to adapt some of our programs. HIPS is a big deal in the underground scene, and we’re emerging more because harm reduction is growing more. It’s not just seen as a bunch of whores and crackheads, you see that harm reduction works. “Honoring individual power and strength,” our acronym, it gives people confidence.
It started as “Helping individual prostitutes survive,” but we have evolved. That’s the blessing with HIPS. It started as just prostitutes and then, like, prostitution is an onion, right, so once you start peeling that onion you see, okay, drug users. Prostitution, a lot of times, becomes drug use. Okay, well drug use a lot of times encompasses all of the demographics. It might be the drug user who lives under the bridge, or it might be the drug user who uses in their lavish apartment. That’s the great thing about HIPS, we’re so diverse with the people that we see. A lot of affluent people, the highest of the high, and the lowest of the low, the lesser of these as the Bible would say. It’s been an awesome journey and I’m just blessed to be here and trusted.
