Quick Take
As opioid settlement funds began rolling into counties across the country, Santa Cruz is readying to spend its allotment. In a matter of weeks, the county and Community Foundation Santa Cruz County will begin seeking proposals for projects from community-based organizations working to fight the ongoing opioid crisis.
By early May, community-based organizations working to combat the opioid crisis will begin pitching projects as part of the process to spend tens of millions in opioid settlement funds that will flow into Santa Cruz County incrementally over the next 18 years.
The opioid crisis has been devastating the county for the past few years, driven mostly by the synthetic opioid fentanyl. Between 2020 and 2022, the county recorded rises in overdoses almost every month. Last fall, Deputy Health Officer Dr. David Ghilarducci said that county opioid-related overdose deaths have steadily increased quarter over quarter since 2022. Last May, the county recorded 101 total overdoses, more than any single month in 2022.
In 2018, the crisis prompted the county to join many other jurisdictions across the United States in a lawsuit against opioid distributors, manufacturers and pharmacies for their roles in the ongoing scourge. Those companies reached nationwide settlements in 2021 and 2022.
Santa Cruz County is set to receive about $26 million over the next 18 years as a part of that settlement, which came out to about $50 billion nationwide. So far, the county has received about $3.2 million. Of that, 33% will go toward community-based organizations and contractors for treatment expansion and to support new practices. Another 25% will go to the county’s public health department to increase services to prevent people from falling into addiction, while 25% will go toward county capital projects — long-term, large-scale projects that often involve building or maintaining infrastructure and upgrading or replacing facilities. The final 17% will go toward data collection, grant management and other administrative costs.
The City of Santa Cruz has received more than $231,000 so far, and is set to receive more than $1.6 million more through 2038. City spokesperson Erika Smart said those funds will go toward a mobile crisis response team — a group of behavioral health professionals who can provide care to those experiencing severe behavioral health crises.
The data on how much money from the nationwide settlement is flowing into local coffers comes from KFF Health News.
In March, the county board of supervisors approved a two-year pilot project spending plan for $900,000 of those dollars. The county has partnered with Community Foundation Santa Cruz County to administer the process.
“It creates such a unique opportunity to address an important issue with dollars generated from profits that created this issue,” said Community Foundation CEO Susan True. “A lifespan of 18 years allows us to put this pilot funding mechanism out and see how successful it is, and how we can build on it for the future.”
True said the foundation is hoping to distribute requests for proposals in May, opening the door for local organizations to apply for the funds. The state has identified six “high-impact areas” that serve as spending priorities. Those include: building more substance use disorder facilities, supporting vulnerable populations, and increasing youth prevention programs. True said the Community Foundation will not weigh any one priority more than others, but will select programs it believes will produce the strongest results.
“We’re going to be very focused on which applications seem like they really address one of those high-impact areas with a solid set of expected outcomes,” she said. “What are the outcomes that people expect to achieve? Will they really make a difference in this crisis?”
Casey Swank, director of Substance Use Disorder Services at the county health services agency, said the six areas identified by the state offered a good balance between being specific to substance use disorders and reflecting the local community’s needs: “They’re also broad enough that people have a lot of flexibility and the ability to be creative.”
True said that, along with outcomes, officials will be paying close attention to factors like whom a proposed program would serve, and the organization’s experience in the prevention, treatment and recovery, and harm reduction sectors. Swank said the agencies are shooting to award program proposals by the beginning of the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. That way, awardees can plan to implement their proposed programs later this year.
Swank added that the agencies have already given Janus of Santa Cruz an allotment of the settlement funds for a number of uses, including medication assisted treatment for opioid use disorder, which involves administering methadone, a synthetic opioid agonist, in combination with counseling and other behavioral therapies. Money will also go toward expanding access to residential substance use disorder treatment, and a recovery residences service — essentially a sober living environment with mandatory substance use disorder treatment. Janus is the only organization that provides these services locally.
Jen Hastings, lead physician for SafeRx Santa Cruz County, said the local substance use safety coalition is eagerly awaiting the requests for proposals — and offered some big issues that could use more attention. That includes increasing distribution events for the opioid overdose-reversal medication Narcan and introducing more educational resources and addressing the stigma of addiction, particularly for youth.
“We’ve felt that youth was an area that has been a gap,” said Hastings, adding that SafeRx’s partnership with the county office of education has allowed the coalition to reach more young people. “And I still think that youth is an important focus, figuring out how to reach them without resorting to scare tactics.”
And even if a program can’t address everything an organization would like to, True said that there will be more opportunities down the road.
“The county’s intention [with the pilot] is to try to learn from it and build on everything that we’ve learned,” she said. “So if it’s 100% successful, I imagine it’s 100% repeatable.”
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