The Connecticut Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee is directing $58.6 million in funding toward a new housing initiative supporting people who face opioid use disorder and are experiencing homelessness.
In a meeting Tuesday, the committee voted to approve the funding, which will be distributed over the next four years for what’s known as the Housing as Recovery initiative. It’s by far the biggest investment OSAC has made since first convening in March 2023.
At a cost of $14.25 million a year, the initiative will help as many as 500 people annually. That includes vouchers through the state’s Rental Assistance Program and $9,500 per person to cover the cost of trauma-informed case management services, which include treatment programs, budgeting guidance and training for tenants to be successful, from managing responsibilities like security deposits and utilities to understanding their legal rights. Each client will also have $5,000 set aside to ensure they have basic necessities like furniture and utilities. Finally, the committee allocated $400,000 per year for program evaluation.
“This is a really exciting project, it really has implications for helping so many people,” said Nancy Navarretta, OSAC’s co-chair, during the committee’s Tuesday meeting.
The initiative passed with unanimous support from the OSAC’s 53 members.
The size of Tuesday’s funding approval was notable given frustration expressed by advocates as recently as December, when only $21 million in requests had been approved nearly two years after the committee first convened.
Connecticut has a lot of money to spend on this life or death issue. The state has so far received more than $158 million in settlement funds paid by pharmacies and opioid manufacturers following litigation. The state expects to receive $600 million over an 18-year period — and likely more once additional lawsuits are settled. OSAC is tasked with spending that money.
The committee’s decision this week to invest deeply in housing comes during a time when homelessness is on the rise. From 2023 to 2024, Connecticut’s homeless population increased by about 13%. Recent data from providers shows more than 5,000 people are experiencing homelessness.
Homelessness and behavioral health issues including addiction are deeply intertwined. Addiction can cause people to lose their housing, and often worsens when they become homeless.
The committee heard a presentation on the issue in November, its last meeting before Tuesday’s vote.
Alice Minervino, director of housing and homelessness services for the state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, told the committee stable housing has improved the odds of recovery for people with addictions. She said people experiencing homelessness sometimes use drugs to cope with mental or physical health conditions related to their lack of housing. The department has some existing programs to house people with addiction, but this program would expand those services.
“They have to find a place to go,” Minervino said during the November presentation. “They can spend a lot of time on their feet walking around. There’s also an increased chance of being victimized, being in fights or being attacked, and this increases people’s medical issues, which increases their pain, and if they have a mental health condition, that can increase. So people use substances to try and mitigate those conditions.”
Dr. Gail D’Onofrio, a professor of medicine core addiction at Yale University, said during the meeting that it’s hard to find shelter beds for people with active addictions, particularly opioids.
Most Connecticut shelters don’t have sobriety requirements, but also don’t have the staff to handle people who aren’t following shelter rules because of their addiction, Kara Capone, chief executive at Community Housing Advocates in Hartford, said in an interview.
Service providers have said for years that they’re underfunded, which leaves staff salaries low and makes it hard to recruit and retain employees. “The issue is if somebody is not being cooperative or being combative because of intoxication, then that shelter can’t keep them housed,” Capone said. “It’s a risk to the health and safety of others.”
About a decade ago, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development adopted a policy called rapid rehousing to address homelessness. The concept calls for getting people housed as quickly as possible before addressing underlying issues such as addiction. Connecticut service providers have embraced this housing first approach, Capone said.
OSAC passed two other recommendations on Tuesday, including the expansion of harm reduction centers at a cost of $7 million over a three year period, and a safe use hotline for $1.5 million for three years.
This type of hotline, which would be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, seeks to prevent overdoses by giving people who are using opioids a person to talk to on the phone while they’re administering the drug, so emergency services can be alerted if they overdose. People using alone were identified as having an especially high risk of death in a recent report produced for the OSAC by Yale researchers. People experiencing homelessness are also overrepresented in overdose deaths, according to the report.