20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY MAY 29-JUNE 4, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com The Action Support Network (ASN), a harm reduction mobile service, joins these outreach efforts, providing clean paraphernalia—such as pipes, needles and wound treatment kits—to help reduce the spread of disease and infection. “We provide medical care, we provide a doctor. We give them necessities—hygiene products, dog food, cat food. We offer donated clothes. Sometimes we have food items, sometimes butane,” says Hector Perez, a peer support specialist. “We just do whatever the homeless community needs to help them feel a little more comfortable in their situation.” At El Estero Park, as the sun reflects off the lake midmorning on a bright, warm Wednesday, a patient approaches Close, explaining he’s unable to retrieve his prescription. Without hesitation, Perez hops into the truck and drives to pick it up at the pharmacy. He understands the stakes all too well. Perez, recovering from methamphetamine and heroin addiction himself, once lived on the streets of Chinatown and cycled in and out of jail. He met Close while he was incarcerated and he participated in a medication-assisted treatment program. “She was the doctor who came in every week and provided us with medication for substance use,” Perez recalls. “I built that relationship with her for about a year-and-a-half until I was released in May 2023.” Now clean for two years, Perez shares his lived experience with people who are still struggling. “I give them hope and inspiration that it is possible to change,” he says. He often tells clients: “If I can do it, you can too.” Perez now coordinates with patients preparing to be released from the jail, helping them transition directly during that vulnerable moment into rehab programs. This vital service provides an effective example of helping at all points in recovery. Being released from Above: Each Wednesday, CCODP’s mobile clinic sets up at Window on the Bay in Monterey, where Dr. Reb Close meets with patients to check in and monitor their well-being. “I will reach out to the people that the rest of our society has in many ways considered kind of hopeless,” Close says. “I’ll meet you in the riverbed, I’ll sit down in the dirt with you. Let’s figure out what we can do to help you feel better, that’s what matters to me.” Far left: Aidan Pettit-Miller hands out Narcan in Chinatown. Left: The Action Support Network offers harm reduction services including needle exchange.
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