PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — City officials have announced plans to invest funds from national opioid settlements into city- and community-led programs over the next two years.
Philadelphia will receive about $200 million over the course of 18 years, and it plans to invest initial payments into a variety of crisis response strategies.
“In the face of this evolving crisis, we are committed to prevention, treatment and healing, and achieving long-term change,” said Mayor Jim Kenney.
The city will get $20 million this year with $3.5 million going to the Overdose Prevention and Community Healing Fund, which provides grants for community organizations that focus on overdose prevention, recovery, and healing.
“We are proud to announce the $7.5 million investment in the Kensington Health, [Wellness and Healing] Corridors’ master planning efforts being led by New Kensington CDC and Impact Services,” Kenney said.
The city will also use settlement money for a mobile methadone unit, mobile wound care programs, alternatives for incarceration, outreach and engagement, and housing opportunities for people experiencing homelessness.
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Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole said with fentanyl contaminating the drug supply, anyone who takes street drugs is at risk, and they are determined to reverse these trends.
“That includes a citywide overdose fatality review to better understand the circumstances that lead to these deaths, as well as outreach in neighborhoods where fewer resources are available to prevent overdoses,” said Dr. Bettigole.
NKCDC Executive Director Bill McKinney said this funding is sorely needed.
“While I have been a part of small wins, I have failed Kensington on a daily basis,” said McKinney. “We've all failed because we have not achieved the goal of ending the suffering in Kensington.”
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State Sen. Christine Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, said it’s time to see positive results in this effort.
“There's too many times that we're pouring money into organizations and to problems and it doesn't get fixed,” Tartaglione said.
“We want provable outcomes, and this opioid settlement money is going to give us the opportunity to give the neighbors relief.”
Patrice Rogers, who runs homeless outreach group Stop the Risk, hopes the funds will actually be used to make an impact. She has spent years working toward a better Kensington.
“I did it because I care. I did it because I was tired of my son having to walk the streets and jump over needles and stuff like that,” Rogers said. “This doesn't happen anywhere else. It is unfair, it’s unruly and it’s cruel.”
In 2021, Philadelphia recorded 1,276 unintentional overdose deaths, the highest one-year total in the city’s history.
The city encourages everyone to have the lifesaving overdose reversal treatment Naloxone on hand, which can be ordered free of charge on the NEXT Distro website.