The Trump administration on Wednesday announced $700 million in “new funding” for mental health and addiction programs, with a focus on combating homelessness caused by severe, untreated mental illness.
But behavioral health experts quickly cast doubt on that claim, identifying the $700 million as not new money but a long-awaited release of existing grants that Congress had previously approved and that the federal government already planned to spend.
Many of the funding notices posted this week by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration were actually months late, worrying state behavioral health officials and local addiction treatment and mental health organizations that rely on federal funding.
Still, in an announcement in Clinton, Michigan, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the funding letter a unique accomplishment of the Trump administration.
“Through more than $700 million in new investments, we are advancing President Trump’s Great American Recovery Initiative and tackling the addiction and serious mental illness that fuels homelessness across the country,” he said in a statement.
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SAMHSA’s funding announcement lists a number of programs that have existed for many years and were previously offered as funding opportunities under the Biden administration. Expand access to drug courts that provide treatment as an alternative to incarceration. and to mobilize communities to “increase access to long-term recovery supports for people with substance use disorders.”
Addiction researchers said they were relieved to see the funding notice posted. But Andrew Kessler, a behavioral health advocate and political consultant, said President Kennedy’s hope that the funding could help develop innovative new approaches ignores decades of experience in the field. He also pointed out that most Americans affected by addiction are not homeless.
“The treatment and recovery community has a good understanding of what works. Our evidence base is broad,” he said. “Our biggest challenges remain understaffing, inadequate reimbursement, and a lack of sufficient resources to address the challenges we face.”
The Trump administration announced $96 million in funding for a new initiative known as Safety Through Recovery, Engagement, and Evidence-based treatment and Support (STREETS) to target drug use and severe mental illness among the homeless.
“STREETS is dedicated to helping people living with addiction and severe mental illness get off the streets, receive treatment, and find recovery and stability,” Kennedy said.
Experts told STAT that STREETS funding also appears to be drawn from other existing programs and is not “new funding” as the administration claims. SAMHSA, the agency tasked with overseeing most substance use and mental health policies and grants within HHS, has not received increased funding in years.
President Kennedy spoke at the announcement along with Kathryn Burgum, co-chair of the Great American Recovery Initiative, and said the Trump administration values collaboration with faith-based organizations. Notably, however, the STREETS funding announcement states that only cities, counties, and Native American tribal organizations are eligible for funding, meaning religious organizations cannot apply directly.
President Kennedy also used the opportunity to renew his administration’s attack on harm reduction, a strategy aimed at reducing death and illness among drug users without requiring immediate smoking cessation. While many such strategies, such as syringe exchange and the use of fentanyl test strips, are widely acknowledged to be effective, others, such as supervised ingestion, remain highly controversial.
But the health secretary acknowledged that, broadly speaking, the money is unlikely to significantly change the public health situation.
“We have a huge drug problem here in our country,” he said. “$700 million won’t solve that problem. But the good news is that about $50 billion has been set aside during states’ lawsuits against opioid companies, and that money will be available to states over the next 20 years.”
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