US Announces $96m Programme to Expand Treatment for Homeless Americans

The US Department of Health and Human Services has selected eight communities to receive a combined 96 million US dollars over four years under a new programme aimed at expanding treatment and recovery services for people experiencing homelessness alongside serious mental illness, substance use disorders or both.

Each community will receive 3 million US dollars annually for four years through the Safety Through Recovery, Engagement, and Evidence-based Treatment and Support (STREETS) programme, administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The selected communities are in Ohio, Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas, West Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and Louisiana. They include the Cherokee Nation, the cities of Detroit, Houston and Huntington, Miami-Dade County, Robeson County and Tangipahoa Parish, as well as the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board for Montgomery County in Ohio.

The programme is built around the Trump administration's “Treatment First” approach, which makes treatment the entry point for people living on the streets and links it with housing, recovery support and other community services.

Rather than requiring people in crisis to navigate separate health, housing and social-service systems, STREETS will fund coordinated local networks involving government agencies, healthcare and behavioural health providers, housing organisations, law enforcement, courts, first responders and community groups.

The initiative places particular emphasis on street-based outreach and sustained engagement, with the stated aim of keeping people connected to treatment and recovery while reducing repeated homelessness and reliance on crisis services.

“STREETS takes treatment directly to Americans living on our streets and connects them to the care and support they need to recover,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in announcing the programme in Houston.

The programme forms part of the administration's wider approach to homelessness, addiction and mental illness, including an executive order on addressing crime and disorder on US streets and the “Great American Recovery” initiative led by Kennedy and White House Senior Advisor for Addiction Recovery Kathryn Burgum.

Burgum said the programme was intended to connect the administration's treatment-first approach with longer-term recovery support, housing and efforts to improve self-sufficiency.

SAMHSA Chief of Staff Timothy W. Westlake said the programme was intended to reorganise local services around recovery rather than requiring people experiencing homelessness and mental illness or addiction to navigate fragmented systems themselves.

STREETS will bring together local governments, healthcare and behavioural health providers, housing partners, law enforcement, courts, first responders and community organisations to establish coordinated systems of care. The administration says the approach is intended to improve sustained engagement with treatment and recovery while reducing repeated homelessness and involvement with crisis services.

Source: FSX Business News