The first sizable batch of opioid settlement funds in Pima County will go to several local organizations working on youth education, addiction recovery and post-jail transition services.
On Tuesday, county supervisors approved about $3.75 million in opioid settlement-funded grants. Last month, they approved another $1.8 million of those funds for a detox pilot program pushed for by the City of Tucson.
Local governments around the country are receiving payments as a result of several settlements with pharmaceutical companies accused of causing the opioid addiction crisis. Much of that money is going towards efforts to combat opioid addiction and its effects.
Locally, most of those funds are being distributed by a committee with representatives from Pima County, the City of Tucson, the City of South Tucson and the Town of Marana. The four jurisdictions’ combined resources will total over $100 million, with payments lasting well into the 2030s, according to the county.
“The opioid settlement funds are an opportunity for us to provide meaningful investment in substance abuse treatment in our community,” said District 5 Supervisor Andrés Cano at the board of supervisors' Tuesday meeting.
The board voted to award about $3.75 million in grants to the following organizations in a competitive bidding process:
- About $928,000 to Community Partners Integrated Healthcare to expand their rehab and transitional services.
- Over $660,000 to The Haven, a recovery center for women, to expand rehab and transitional services.
- Over $626,000 to the Pima County Department of Justice Services to open its post-jail transition center seven days a week and hire transition center staff with personal experience of addiction and the criminal justice system.
- About $600,000 to the Pima County Department of Justice Services to hire staff who will help local law enforcement offer treatment, housing and employment to drug users in trouble with the law.
- Over $930,000 divided between four organizations doing youth outreach and education around drug use: Boys to Men Tucson, American Indian Association of Tucson, Portable Practical Educational Preparation and Liberty Partnership Community Council.
All grants are for a period of one year. A youth outreach grant of about $230,000 to the University of Arizona’s Tucson Village Farm was previously announced but not voted on at Tuesday’s meeting.
In November, county supervisors also approved a $1.86 million settlement-funded grant to rehab clinic Community Bridges to operate a 15-bed detox facility in a six-month pilot program. City of Tucson officials pushed for the facility, hoping to offer it as an alternative to jail for drug users who are arrested.
Another $1.4 million were planned for a mobile clinic providing addiction-related medications. County staff said none of the proposals they received for that project satisfied its requirements, leaving the funds unused. At the board’s meeting, District 1 Supervisor Rex Scott said he wants that money to go towards qualifying, but unselected projects helping law enforcement with outreach to addicts and supporting drug offenders after release from jail.
