Madeleine
Hordinski

Heroin has plagued Cincinnati for a long time, and the summer of 2019 was no exception. Overdoses kept a consistent grip in several neighborhoods, and certain areas in and around Cincinnati were hit harder than others. This photo essay examines the communities and people in cincinnati whose lives have been permanently altered by this epidemic. Here, two women sit on a stoop on east McMicken Avenue in Over-the-Rhine, smoking crack cocaine, on Thursday, July 11, 2019. One says she plans to inject heroin later. She's been using the drug for 20 years. Made in 2019 for The Cincinnati Enquirer.

The Cincinnati area had 24 overdose calls and seven hospitalizations in 24 hours on July 26, 2019. The volume of 911 dispatches for overdoses has increased monthly since the beginning of the year. In July, there were 430 dispatches, according to a recent report from the health department and the heroin coalition. Overdose hospital visits in Hamilton County followed the same pattern, though July experienced a slight drop.

Kristie Combs strokes her daughter's hair as she sits on the porch of a home in Norwood on Wednesday, June 19, 2019. Combs is a resident of Bellevue, Kentucky, but she babysits in Norwood, a neighborhood consistently hit with overdoses this summer. She said she has lost probably five members to heroin addiction, and that it often leaves grandparents raising their grandchildren when parents have drug-related issues or lose custody.

A woman who wishes to remain anonymous pours crack from a small pipe onto her hand on East McMicken Street in Over The Rhine before she smokes it. She says she used heroin a couple years ago, but no longer uses. Instead, she smokes crack.

A boy rides his tricycle in Norwood on Wednesday, June 19, 2019. Norwood is a neighborhood hard-hit by overdoses this summer, according to daily overdose reports from Hamilton County Public Health and the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition. Kristie Combs, who babysits the boy, said she has lost family and friends to heroin overdose.

A mural depicts an angel on East McMicken Avenue in Over-the-Rhine on Thursday, July 11, 2019.