Official opioid settlement funds announced for area agencies
May 9—More than $140,000 is officially on the way to various community agencies to help battle the opioid crisis.
The City of St. Joseph is contributing $96,335.29 and Buchanan County is contributing $47,706.71, bringing a total of $144,042 to community agencies.
Kendra Bundy, the assistant health director of the city, also serves on the Opioid Settlement Funds Review Board.
Bundy said the first year of funding will run from May 1, 2024, until June 30, 2025.
"In this first year, because we wanted to get those dollars out into the community and our award period was a little earlier, we will award 14 months of funding," Bundy said.
Going forward, the funding period will be 12 months at a time starting July 1 through June 30. This will align with how the funding is distributed throughout the year.
"(The) funding has not just been given to the city and county as a solid lump sum that has actually been paid out over time. We want to ensure that the funding is in our bank accounts and that we can award that steadily. We're aligning it more with the settlement awards than so much with the fiscal year of the city," Bundy said.
Bundy said there has been a decrease in opioid deaths in the Buchanan County area. In 2022, there were 42 deaths. In 2023, that number was down to 28.
One of the agencies in town that will receive the funding is Community Missions, which will use the money to hire an after-care specialist to the staff. The group will receive the highest amount of funding with $52,500, according to city documents.
Rachael Bittiker, Community Missions director, said the process is underway to fill the spot of the after-care specialist.
"We're starting interviews next week for individuals," Bittiker said.
She said it isn't an easy task to find someone to fill the role, but it is necessary in order to battle the opioid crisis. The main goal is to help homeless people find housing and maintain it.
"It's going to be a it's going to be a challenge to find someone that really encompasses everything that's needed. Someone that's very empathetic, sympathetic, but also kind of a tough love situation to. Accountability is a big deal," Bittiker said. "Making sure that the individual is held accountable, and they're educated enough to understand warning signs if there's a slip up in the addiction piece or something like that and then can really lead them to the resources that they need to."
Listed are the final numbers for the remaining opioid settlement funds according to city documents:
Buchanan Country EMS $15,166.67
Buchanan County Sheriff's Office (Drug Strike Force) $7,450
Mission House $1,150
New Seasons St. Joe Metro Treatment Center $5,833.33
St. Joseph Museums $3,500
The Samaritan Center $47,833.33
Youth Alliance $10,608.67
The first round of funding for the settlement began on May 1, 2024, and will be available each year until 2039. Each year, the city will review applications put together by local agencies to distribute funding.
Bundy said each year, the funding will go to agencies in the community that will provide the best uses for treatment, prevention and education when it comes to substance abuse.
"(The partnership) between the City of Saint Joseph and Buchanan County that stated that we would, work together and use that funding as a pooled process so that we would have the biggest impact again in our community," Bundy said. "We knew the total amount to be funded and we just average that out so that we would have kind of steady funding for all the years to come. That's where we landed at about $157,000 a year and that's combined city and county funding."
The funding from the city was approved on April 29 by the St. Joseph City Council.
More information on the first round of opioid settlement funding can be found on the city website.
Riley Funk can be reached at riley.funk@newspressnow.com.
