Seven neighborhood organizations throughout the 5 boroughs providing dependancy restoration companies will obtain $12 million to fund rehab applications led by individuals who have handled substance abuse firsthand, Mayor Zohran Mamdani introduced Thursday.
The cash comes from a $7.4 billion settlement secured by Lawyer Normal Letitia James earlier this 12 months in a swimsuit in opposition to opioid producers Purdue Pharma and the Sackler household, which Mamdani blamed for fueling the dependancy disaster in New York Metropolis.
“There are times when corporate greed is subtle, where the ripple effects of an all-consuming profit motive are not immediately apparent,” Mamdani mentioned whereas asserting the funding on Could 7 at Phoenix Home, one of many seven organizations receiving funds. “That is not the case with the opioid epidemic. There is no denying the staggering human cost of big pharma’s greed or the toll it has taken on our city.”
Officers touted Mamdani’s funding of the funds immediately into neighborhood organizations as a transparent instance of what town seems like below democratic socialism.
“This is our city under democratic socialism, and it’s working,” mentioned Brooklyn Council Member Chi Ossé, who represents the district Phoenix Home falls in. “We have communities that have been waiting decades for their government to show up, and today we are showing right here in Brooklyn with $12 million going right back into our communities.”
Council Member Chi Osse speaks in assist of Mamdani’s funding in peer-to-peer dependancy restoration companies.
Investing in applications that join these fighting dependancy with each medical companies and assist from friends who’ve gone via the restoration course of has been proven to be one of the efficient paths to serving to folks out of dependancy, Mamdani mentioned.
“Peer specialists offer something no other provider can provide: the credibility of a shared experience and evidence that recovery is possible,” Mamdani mentioned. “They provide New Yorkers in the midst of recovery with the structure, the stability and the purpose that helps them maintain their progress.”
Pillars, Fortune Society, Samaritan Daytop Village, Odyssey Home, Exponents, and Group Well being Motion of Staten Island are the opposite teams receiving funds alongside Phoenix Home.
Overdose deaths from opioids and different medicine have begun reducing in New York Metropolis over the previous few years, however stay a degree of ache within the metropolis. In 2022, it was estimated that one New Yorker died from an overdose each three hours.
Nevertheless, in 2024, overdose deaths throughout the 5 boroughs dropped by 29%, which interprets to 864 fewer New Yorkers dying a 12 months, the primary substantial lower in almost a decade. Provisional knowledge signifies the downward pattern has continued via 2025, Mamdani mentioned, and pointed to the rise of peer-led applications as a motive for the lower.
“This momentum is too valuable to squander,” the mayor mentioned. “So, as we look to the future, we are building on what we know works, what we know saves lives.”
Queens Council Member Tiffany Cabán, who chairs the Metropolis Council’s psychological well being and substance use committee, mentioned Thursday she thought the mayor’s resolution to allocate funds to hurt discount and community-led applications was the suitable one within the metropolis’s efforts to assist.
“Substance abuse is a symptom of when our society comes up short for people, and … when our government comes up short for people, yet for decades, this country has dealt with it through policing and punishment with devastating consequences for our communities,” Cabán mentioned. “This historic investment can be part of the path to ensuring that not one more person dies of an avoidable death from substance use.”
