The “Columbus Way” is notorious for co-opting the ideas of grassroots activists for its own gain. Just ask former mayoral candidate Joe Motil, and it has happened again. This time to the “Saint of Sullivant Avenue,” the moniker the Free Press gave to Esther Flores who has worked tirelessly to help Hilltop and Franklinton “street sisters and brothers” in their struggle with addiction to illicit street drugs.
Flores, a registered nurse, runs the 1DivineLine2Health “harm reduction” drop-in at 2424 Sullivant Avenue. She’s been helping the addicted and all the challenges they bring, such as human trafficking, violence, homelessness, and disease, since 2015. She had the courage to be a Sullivant Avenue harm reduction pioneer and has risked everything to help thousands, many of whom are women and their children.
Flores sees everyone through loving eyes, and her activism has inspired others to start their own drop-ins which have opened close to 1DivineLine2Health. One of the newer drop-ins is Sanctuary Night, which opened in 2022 at 1195 Sullivant Avenue and currently has around 17 employees. Flores runs 1DivineLine2Health mostly on her own.
Any effort to help those battling addiction is commendable, but to say that Sanctuary Night’s drop-in over its two-and-half years has had a rough go of things would be an understatement. There have been over 200 calls to the Columbus police and Emergency Management Services (EMS) about women being physically and sexually assaulted outside the property. There have been 14 documented overdoses and several fatalities onsite. This year a woman died outside a trap house located a few feet away from the center. Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein, state-level office holders, and Sanctuary Night funders have videos and hundreds of photos of illegal activities. This has been ongoing for three years.
Nevertheless, Sanctuary Night – with its leadership well-connected to Columbus powerbrokers and beyond – won a $300,000 grant in opioid settlement money for 2024 by the OneOhio Recovery Foundation. Initiated by Governor DeWine and Attorney General David Yost, OneOhio is tasked with distributing the $500 million in settlements Ohio received from pharmaceutical manufacturers and opioid distributors, such as Cardinal Health of Dublin.
Sanctuary Night’s executive director and founder, Hannah Estabrook, also a Vineyard church pastor, is best friends with Attorney General Yost’s daughter. Yost, as we all know, is far-right MAGA, and many of Sanctuary Night’s board members are also connected to Vineyard, which skews evangelical.
Because 1DivineLine2Health was the pioneer, one would assume Flores too would receive funding from OneOhio. But she has not received “a penny,” Flores told the Free Press. And to be clear, Flores would never bring this to our attention. We had to ask, because she is beyond humble and scoffs at any “woe is me” sympathy.
However, those who live near Sanctuary Night have had enough of the police calls, the trash, the drama, and are speaking out. Rebecca Hunley was born at Mount Carmel West, was raised not far from Sanctuary Night, and moved back to the neighborhood 12 years ago. She’s the current chair of the Franklinton Area Neighbors Civic Association, that she founded, and like Flores she is focused on improving the quality of life for everyone in the area. Hunley has done a deep dive into Sanctuary Night’s funding, which she says has received over $2 million in public and private money over its existence.
“In the name of harm reduction, it [Sanctuary Night] is not. Many Sanctuary Night funders are completely unaware that what they are funding is actually doing deep and unretractable damage not just to the women they reportedly serve, but to the entire West Side,” said Hunley. “Other harm reduction organizations – that have not even received one-tenth of the funding squandered on Sanctuary Night through political connections – have been doing effective work on the West Side for years.”
The Free Press reached out to Hannah Estabrook, who was recently named a keynote speaker at the upcoming Women’s Fund of Central Ohio event at Palace Theater, but we never heard back. This being the same woman who told an audience of concerned neighbors and City officials (including one member of City Council) that “we let the women store their drugs in a locker and drug paraphernalia because when you are on the street you have no other place to put your stuff.”
“My mind boggled,” said Hunley who was in attendance that night. “I was like ‘What?!’”
After that night, Hannah Estabrook’s husband, a Franklin County employee, took to social media condemning those speaking out against Sanctuary Night. His posts were laughable: “Just wanted everyone to be aware that there is a small group of privileged, white gentrifiers who are working overtime to try shut down Sanctuary Night,” he wrote. The Estabrooks own a home in Franklinton, by the way.
But it’s not just neighbors who are speaking out. City officials have also been moved to action. Following Hannah Estabrook’s admission her clients were storing drugs on the premises, City Attorney Klein sent a letter to Estabrook, an enforceable court order actually, demanding Sanctuary Night end any drug activity at the premises or face litigation. Sanctuary Night on social media promised to make changes.
Esther Flores has envisioned 1DivineLine2Health drop-ins not just on Sullivant, but in east, west and north Columbus, as well. She has received funding from grantors and the Free Press has seen people press $20 bills into her hands. This is grassroots in action, but you only must drive up and down Sullivant to witness that Flores could use more help.
But “more help” is instead being given to Sanctuary Night, which is about to have a much bigger footprint in Franklinton. Ohio Congressman Mike Carey, who won the gerrymandered House District 15 in 2021, that includes Franklinton, recently requested $700,000 of federal money to help Sanctuary Night purchase an 11,000-square foot vacant warehouse behind their drop-in at 368 W. Park Avenue. Carey’s request states: “Operating space will include offices, group therapy/conference room, clinical assessment space, respite area, bathrooms, clothing/supply storage, and staff breakroom.”
Hunley says her neighborhood – where homeowners have fought the good fight in a losing battle to better their community – says any Sanctuary Night expansion simply means there will be more babysitting.
“The entire West Side is sick of the kind of cash that is rolling into that place. We are also sick of having to be hypervigilant babysitters for free to see what next poor decision, bad practices and fresh hell will be unleashed from Sanctuary nightmare,” she said.
