The city’s public health and SUDHI (Substance Use Disorder and Homelessness Initiatives) offices plan on using about $150,000 in opioid settlement money in FY25 on several opioid abatement programs.
At Monday night’s city council meeting, representatives from the office updated the council on past, current, and future funding for opioid initiatives funded through the settlement money. As of Sept. 30 of this year, public health director Lauren Buck said the city has received $670,000 in settlement funds. In FY24, the city spent approximately $97,000 in settlement funds, primarily on Naloxone boxes throughout the city. Naloxone can be used to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses.
Taking in the past and current fiscal year, Buck said the city currently has $427,000 left in the opioid settlement funds and can expect approximately $1.5 million over the next decade-plus in additional funds. Since rolling out the Naloxone boxes in May , SUDHI program manager Carrieann Salemme said 620 doses of Naloxone have been taken from the boxes. The most used boxes include those near the Dunkin Donuts on Shirley Avenue and Joe’s Market near the Northgate plaza. “We do weekly check-ins on the boxes every Monday and restock them,” said Salemme.
“We haven’t had any issues with vandalism or theft, and we have two anecdotal reports of in-the-moment use of the boxes to reverse an overdose.” Ward 2 Councillor Ira Novoselsky said he has heard some concerns from residents and businesses in the Shirley Avenue area about people congregating near the boxes. Salemme noted that the boxes are a way for people to avoid the stigma of taking the Naloxone, and noted that there are boxes in all locations throughout the city that get a decent amount of use. Councillor-at-Large Anthony Zambuto said he was thrilled when he first heard the city was going to be installing the Naloxone boxes.
“The purpose of this is to have people get the (Naloxone) without the stigma,” he said. In the current fiscal year, the $150,000 in settlement funds will be used for a combination of mobile outreach, business outreach, and for a warming center during the winter months at 437 Revere St. For both outreach efforts, the city is putting out requests for proposals for contractors to do the outreach. The city has run warming shelters for the past two winters, but Buck said there have been issues about where they can be located. Councillor-at-Large Marc Silvestri raised some concerns about the possibility that the opioid settlement funds were supplanting funds for current or past services the city already provided. Salemme noted that the business outreach has never been done on a formal basis, but that outreach workers might visit a business if an overdose was reported there as part of post-overdose outreach.
“It seems like a few things are ideas that we have already presented,” said Silvestri. “It probably seems like I’m giving you a hard time, but the reason I am is because there have already been cities in Massachusetts that have had to pay back their funds, and I don’t want to see us walk down that path. The only reason I am bringing attention to this is not only do you have to pay back the money that has been spent and used, you have to give back future monies.” Ward 5 Councillor Angela Guarino-Sawaya said she had some concerns about the location of the warming shelter in her ward and would like to sit down with the public health and SUDHI office for a longer conversation about it.
