Monday’s announcements at a SAMHSA “Prevention Day” event placed new federal resources for addiction and mental health alongside policy changes meant to shift who can receive grants and how states can use federal health money. Kennedy, speaking as President Donald Trump’s administration moves forward with what Trump called the “Great American Recovery Initiative,” said HHS will devote $100 million toward a pilot program addressing homelessness and substance abuse in eight cities.
Kennedy said the Department of Health and Human Services would also broaden eligibility for addiction-related grants to faith-based organizations. He additionally said HHS would expand states’ ability to use federal health funding for substance abuse treatment in certain situations involving children.
The new initiatives, Kennedy said, build on an executive order Trump signed last week related to addiction. Nixon, an HHS spokesperson, described the department’s posture as focused on reform and on the responsible use of federal resources, saying the agency is “focused on reform and ensuring that federal resources are used effectively, responsibly, and in ways that deliver real results for those struggling and their families.”
“As part of the Great American Recovery announced just last week, HHS is moving forward with new funding, expanded flexibilities, and targeted actions that strengthen the mental health and substance use treatment system and provide greater support for providers on the ground,” Nixon said.
Kennedy said SAMHSA’s new pilot program will be called STREETS, short for Safety Through Recovery, Engagement and Evidence-Based Treatment and Supports. He said the program, first directed at eight communities, will build integrated care systems for people experiencing homelessness, substance abuse and mental health challenges, and help them find housing and employment.
While many advocates support efforts to integrate services for people who face overlapping needs, Regina LaBelle, director of the Center on Addiction and Public Policy at Georgetown Law’s O’Neill Institute, said the impact will depend on implementation. “The devil’s in the details,” LaBelle said, describing concerns about which cities receive funding, how the program is carried out, and questions about how it is paid for—along with whether it could draw resources away from existing efforts that have lowered overdose death rates.
The announcement came as providers and advocates said they have struggled to plan amid uncertainty and abrupt changes in federal grant funding affecting substance-abuse and mental-health programs. Over the past year, about a third of SAMHSA’s roughly 900 employees have been laid off, according to the Associated Press report. The agency and organizations it serves were also described as reeling from a reversal last month that briefly eliminated and then restored $2 billion in grant funding for substance abuse and mental health programs.
Later Monday, Kennedy also appeared at an event focused on substance abuse and mental health: the launch of Action for Progress by Patrick Kennedy, who said he is now a partner at the national health consultancy Healthsperien. The Associated Press report said the two are cousins from a prominent political family who had different sides in the 2024 presidential race but found common ground on an issue both described as personal.
“When we go into recovery rooms we don’t think of ourselves as Democrats and Republicans,” the former Rhode Island congressman Patrick Kennedy said in a phone interview Monday. “I’ve grown up with my cousin, I know him, and I have an opportunity to share with him all that I’ve learned over the years in policymaking on mental health and addiction — and he’s welcomed it.”