The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday announced a $100 million investment to address longstanding homelessness issues, fight opioid addiction and improve public safety by expanding treatment that emphasizes recovery and self-sufficiency.
The Safety Through Recovery, Engagement and Evidence-based Treatment and Supports (STREETS) Initiative will fund targeted outreach, psychiatric care, medical stabilization and crisis intervention, while connecting Americans experiencing homelessness and addiction to stable housing, with a clear focus on long-term recovery and independence.
"Addiction begins in isolation and ends in reconnection," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said. "Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, we are bringing Americans suffering from addiction out of the shadows and back into community."
Trump signed an executive order last week to launch the Great American Recovery initiative, which the administration described as a coordinated federal effort to streamline government programs, integrate evidence-based care and improve access to treatment to the 48.4 million Americans living with substance abuse disorder. Substance use disorder, defined impairment caused by repeated use of alcohol or other drugs, among people ages 12 and older rose from 7.4% in 2019 to 16.8% in 2024, according to HHS. Nearly 8 in 10 people with a substance use disorder in 2024 did not receive treatment.
Kennedy also announced a $10 million Assisted Outpatient Treatment grant program to support adults with serious mental illness. This program is a civil court-ordered, community-based outpatient treatment program for adults with serious mental illness who are unable to engage with conventional outpatient treatment and are unlikely to be able to live safely in their community. The program is designed to work within the civil court system that supports engagement with community-based treatment as an alternative to more costly restrictive levels of care, homelessness and interactions with the criminal justice system.
The STREETS initiative and Assisted Outpatient Treatment grant announcements coincide with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrations $794 million first allocation of 2026 annual block grant awards. Of this amount, $319 million is going to support comprehensive community mental health services for adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbance, and $475 million will go to the agency's Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant program to prevent and treat substance abuse.
In addition, the agency's Administration for Children and Families added three medications used for opioid use disorder as prevention services eligible for federal funding. States and tribes now can receive a 50% federal match to provide buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone to parents when children are at imminent risk of entering foster care but can remain safely in the home or in a kinship placement with access to these treatments. All three drugs are FDA-approved, well-established, evidence-based tools that support recovery, promote family stability and reduce risk factors associated with child welfare involvement, the agency said.
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