The Trump administration is going to spent more than $700 million on programs aimed at reducing drug addiction, homelessness, and mental illness, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on June 17.
The largest portion of the new funding, nearly $239 million, is going to a lifeline that people who are suicidal can call. Some $223 million is going to community behavioral health clinics. Nearly $100 million is being offered to communities that apply to the Safety Through Recovery, Engagement, and Evidence-based Treatment and Support (STREETS) Program, which provides services for homeless people who are addicted to drugs or have serious mental illness.
The other funds are going to programs targeting the prevention of, treatment for, and recovery from drugs, or programs that support mentally ill people.
“These investments will help move people from the streets into treatment and recovery, strengthen families, save lives, and make communities safer,” Kennedy said in a statement.
The funding follows an executive order from President Donald Trump that directed officials to work on shifting homeless people into institutions to help address crime and disorder in the nation’s cities, and another order that says the disease of addiction must be stopped through an emphasis on treatment.
“My Administration will drive a new national response to the disease of addiction that will create stronger coordination across government, the healthcare sector, faith communities, and the private sector in order to save lives, restore families, strengthen our communities, and build the Great American Recovery,” Trump said in the latter order.
Kennedy on Wednesday visited the Easterseals Michigan-Clinton Township Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, part of the Easterseals network of facilities that assist people with disabilities, their families and caregivers, and veterans.
“Our goal is to provide comprehensive outpatient mental health and substance use services that are person-centered, trauma-informed and evidence-based,” the clinic’s website states.
Kennedy said that homelessness is “one of the greatest problems that we have now, health problems in this country” and that it is interconnected with the crisis of drug addiction, which has caused more than 1 million deaths since 2000.
Kennedy said administration officials do not support so-called harm reduction initiatives, such as needle exchanges or “safe injection sites.” Instead, the administration is emphasizing treatment.
“Recovery works. Treatment works. Accountability works,” he said.
Kennedy did say that the withdrawal drugs Suboxone and methadone work, particularly for addicts who cannot enter treatment at certain times. They are “good bridge solutions,” he said.