Kennedy Announces $100M Federal Plan to Link Homeless Americans to Addiction Treatment

On February 2, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the most significant federal addiction policy action of the new administration — a $100 million initiative that will fund outreach, psychiatric care, and housing for Americans experiencing homelessness and addiction. The program, called the STREETS Initiative, is the operational arm of President Trump's Great American Recovery executive order signed the week prior.

The money will flow to targeted street outreach teams, medical stabilization services, and crisis intervention programs. The stated goal is to move people from the streets directly into treatment with a path toward stable housing and, ultimately, employment. Kennedy framed the announcement in explicitly recovery-oriented terms, distancing the administration from the approach that defined the previous years of federal addiction policy.

What STREETS Changes — and What It Rejects

The announcement was notable not only for the funding but for what Kennedy said about it. He described Biden-era harm reduction strategies — including housing-first models and syringe service programs — as "non-effective interventions" that "enabled future drug use." That framing puts the administration in direct conflict with the consensus of most addiction medicine researchers and with programs that states like New York have invested heavily in expanding.

For New York, which runs one of the country's largest harm reduction infrastructure systems — including the nation's first legally sanctioned overdose prevention centers — the federal shift in rhetoric creates tension even if the funding itself is new money rather than a cut to existing programs. OASAS has not yet commented on how the STREETS Initiative will interact with the state's existing network.

What It Means for New York

Kennedy also announced a companion $10 million awareness campaign alongside the STREETS funding. Both programs will be administered through SAMHSA, which is simultaneously managing a period of staffing uncertainty following administration-directed restructuring.

New York will be among the states competing for STREETS grants, given the scale of its street outreach systems in New York City and other urban centers. Whether the funding requirements will align with how the state currently runs those programs — or require modifications that conflict with established practice — will depend on the final grant guidelines, which had not been released as of this writing.