Fayette, Greene and Washington county groups awarded funds to fight opioid addiction
The housing group Connect, Inc., and the Fayette County Community Action Agency have been awarded federal grant dollars to provide housing support and case management services for individuals suffering from opioid addiction.
The grants were announced Wednesday by the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf. Fourteen other agencies in a mix of rural and urban counties received a total of $15 million being given by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and administered through Pennsylvania’s departments of Drug and Alcohol Programs and Human Services.
“It’s federal dollars, with states deciding how to spend it,” said Tara Breitsprecher, deputy secretary of policy and planning for the Wolf administration. She told reporters in a late-morning conference call Wednesday that the the commonwealth has flexibility in how the funds are used.聽
Connect, Inc., which has services in Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties, offers assistance to families and individuals who are either homeless or in a situation where the stability of their housing is precarious. The Fayette County Community Action Agency covers a variety of social services.
Money from the program could help pay the rent on a temporary basis聽 for individuals being treated for opioid addiction, Breitsprecher explained, and cover other kinds of housing. Experts in treating addiction say that unmet basic needs, such as a lack of secure housing, hinders the path to recovery and self-sufficiency for addicts.
Teresa Miller, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, said in a news release that “the conditions in which a person lives play a substantial role in a person’s health. When a person experiences homelessness in addition to a substance use disorder, the lack of a secure home is often a barrier to staying engaged with treatment and recovery, if they are able to access treatment at all. These programs will soon assist people with housing access and stability and will help more people stay engaged in treatment and reach recovery.”
Pennsylvania has received almost $56 million from the Substance Abuse and Health Services Administration to combat opioid addiction in the state, and programs bolstering law enforcement, expanding services to pregnant women and helping addicted veterans are also set to benefit from the grant.聽