Baltimore leaders gave themselves high marks on their response to several mass overdose incidents in the city this summer and are now drafting a plan for responding to future incidents.

Members of the Baltimore City Council, however, encouraged city employees to think more broadly about their approach, asking them to take adjacent challenges like vacant housing in the city’s most overdose-prone areas into consideration as they attempt to combat the crisis.

The back-and-forth was part of a discussion Wednesday before the Baltimore City Council’s Public Health and Environment Committee, which is probing the overdose events.

Thirty-five people were treated following a July 10 mass overdose in Penn North, including seven who required ventilators. A second incident just eight days later in the same neighborhood sickened an additional seven people, five of which went to the hospital. On Oct. 8, there were 11 more overdoses reported, with seven hospitalizations.

In the wake of the first incident, which prompted responses from city officials, community groups and volunteers, city officials conducted a meeting to quickly identify strengths and weaknesses in their response, explained Michelle Taylor, Baltimore’s health commissioner.

Officials gave themselves positive ratings on the speed of their mobilization, the effectiveness of their distribution of overdose-reversal drug naloxone, their resource coordination with the state and other agencies, and their ongoing commitment to recovery efforts, Taylor said.

Assessing weaknesses, the group found a mass-overdose response protocol should be put in place.

A draft of the plan has since been developed. No timetable has been announced for its completion, but officials are weighing command structure and who should be automatically notified when a mass overdose happens.

“There is still a lot of work ahead of us,” said Letitia Dzirasa, Baltimore’s deputy mayor of equity, health and human services. “I have no doubt there were lives absolutely saved because people were there at Penn and North on July 10 and have been there since.”

Council members in attendance asked how health officials are involving other city agencies in the plan, in particular the Department of Housing and Community Development.

“Things like this are happening in areas that have been disinvested and where there are several vacant properties,” said Councilwoman Odette Ramos.

Dzirasa said the areas targeted for vacant reduction significantly overlap with areas where overdoses are prevalent. Ramos disagreed.

“I think we have to make the case for better alignment for where the vacant strategy needs to be targeted,” she said.

Councilman James Torrence, who represents a portion of Penn North, said the abundance of resources in the area has helped to build trust.

“They know our community workers well and they also respect them because they do not judge them,” he said of residents.

Still, Torrence pushed officials to go further and better coordinate with housing officials to tackle broader problems in the community.

“We have that trust. We have that opportunity,” he said. “I think we need to go deeper with the response.”

Council members in attendance pushed back when the discussion turned to more police involvement. Councilman Mark Parker questioned what police were doing to hold drug manufacturers and distributors accountable.

“When I think about accountability from public safety, it’s less the people in the neighborhood and more the systems and organizations that are responsible for production and creation of materials impacting our neighbors in that way,” Parker said.

“We’re not going to police our way out of this,” Torrence responded.

Councilwoman Phylicia Porter said she would prefer to explore legislation that provides accountability for health care providers that fail to properly care for those in the throes of addiction.

“We can lean into our way of working together to provide those quality care metrics, to provide those zoning mechanisms whereby we are ... providing cover for the good actors and limiting those bad actors from flourishing in the community,” she said.