Jason Fazekas has actually invested the majority of his adult life on the street or behind bars. He was addicted to heroin for years and typically took to support his routine. On rainy days, he oversleeped structure stairwells to remain dry. On winter season early mornings, he got up with fingers too numb to flex.
That all altered in September when he moved into a one-bedroom apartment or condo in East Haven, Connecticut.
“I never ever understood what it resembled to have your own house, to survive on your own, up until this,” stated Fazekas, 49.
Now he participates in an everyday treatment program and virtual “Sober at Seven” conferences. He makes grilled cheese and cold-cut sandwiches; works periodic tasks, such as clearing out a truck; and remains in bed most nights by 8:30.
This easy life is “the very best thing worldwide,” stated Fazekas, who commemorated 9 months of healing in October.
That life has actually become his truth thanks to a real estate program the state of Connecticut moneyed with about $59 million in opioid settlement money, cash paid by business implicated of strongly pressing pain relievers and sustaining the opioid crisis. The real estate program supplies individuals with compound usage conditions a rental coupon, a case supervisor to assist them discover and keep their home, and cash to cover the expenses of settling in, such as a down payment or fundamental furnishings.
Nationwide, state and city governments invested more than $340 million from opioid settlements into housing-related efforts in 2025, according to an analysis by KFF Health News, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Shatterproof, a nationwide not-for-profit concentrated on dependency. Some jobs, like the one in Connecticut, are intended straight at assisting individuals most impacted by the opioid epidemic. Others do not have a clear connection to the crisis, leading to criticism by healing supporters that the cash is at threat of being misused.
Opioid settlement money, anticipated to amount to about $60 billion over almost 20 years, is thought about a once-in-a-generation chance to resolve an overdose epidemic that has actually declared more than 1 million lives because 2000. There are some costs standardsthere is a great deal of wiggle space, little oversight, and big spaces in the general public’s capability to track the cash.
To clarify where funds are streaming, KFF Health News and its partners every year submit public records demands, search federal government sites, and put together a database of expenses by state and city governments, which are then arranged into classifications such as treatment or avoidance.
The outcome is the most thorough nationwide resource of its kind: a brochure of more than 17,500 methods settlement money was utilized (or left unspent) in 2025.
Of the approximately $3.7 billion openly reported as invested or devoted in 2015, about 9% went to real estate efforts, varying from irreversible real estate like the Connecticut effort to momentary healing real estate and support in browsing complex applications and other social services.
Numerous public health scientists, healing supporters, and households impacted by dependency are thrilled about the financial investments. Real estate can support individuals’s lives enough to get them into treatment and increase their possibilities of keeping long-lasting healing.
Settlement funds likewise offer versatility at a time when the Trump administration opposes federal funds for efforts to house individuals before they’re sober– in spite of proof that such policies work
Some individuals carefully tracking settlement cash stress that the lines will be blurred in between basic homelessness efforts and those that focus particularly on individuals with compound usage conditions. As jurisdictions continue to face individuals residing on the street and public reaction over encampments, they might be lured to utilize opioid dollars to lower the presence of homelessness with little or no programmatic link to dependency.
“The most essential piece” of investing settlement dollars “is preserving that connection to opioid removal and the populations affected by opioid usage condition,” stated Dan Kellywho operated in real estate and homelessness efforts before signing up with the Michigan Association of Counties, where he guides city governments on settlement costs.
Blurred Lines in Local Spending
In Connecticut, Fazekas and other individuals need to have a validated compound usage condition to be qualified for the real estate program.
In other places, it’s less precise.
New Brunswick, New Jersey, invested $520,000 of its settlement funds on “homeless services.”
That might consist of essential services for the basic homeless population, healing supporters state. Unless the cash is targeted particularly to homeless individuals with compound usage conditions, it might do little to attend to the overdose crisis. To some, that breaches the spirit of the settlements.
J.T. Miller, a city representative, did not respond to concerns about what particular services were moneyed or how they connected to dependency. Rather, he composed that settlement cash was utilized to “support personnel and services who actively engaged with the homeless population dealing with continuous support, avoidance and drug dependency programs.” He shared a link to the city’s social work sitewhich did not point out dependency.
In a report to the statethe city composed that the cash was for “financial offsets and allotments” in its Department of Human and Community Services.
Healing supporters have actually long feared that federal governments would utilize the opioid cash to merely change basic taxpayer financing for existing services, instead of improving those services or producing brand-new ones.
In Louisville, Kentucky, more than $1 million in settlement funds went to a Goodwill program called Another Way
The program intends to decrease panhandling by collecting individuals who are on the street, taking them to work around the city– frequently getting litter for a couple of hours– and paying them $50 plus lunch. They are linked to Goodwill’s resources on real estate, task training, treatment, and more. Individuals might have compound usage conditions, they are not evaluated for them.
In 2025, Another Way had about 1,800 individuals, according to Goodwill Kentucky. Of those, about 270 got full-time work and about 240 linked to treatment, though a bigger number might have a history of dependency.
Matt Mudd, a representative for Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, stated the city has actually invested opioid settlement funds in “tested programs that reveal favorable effect and outcomes.” Another Way offers a “data-proven path to treatment, real estate, and work,” he stated.
To discuss the program’s connection to dependency, he stated, “Overdose is the primary cause of death for unhoused individuals.”
Brittany Morris is hesitant that the program is a great fit for opioid dollars.
Another Way “assists individuals that are on the streets,” stated Morris, who operates at Vocal-KYa not-for-profit that supporters for policies resolving the overdose crisis and hardship. “But do I seem like it’s associated to the opioid crisis? That’s essentially indicating every homeless individual is an addict hooked on heroin.”
A Complex Connection
Many individuals presume homelessness and dependency go together.
Research study recommends more subtlety.
A big research study on this subject was released in 2015, based upon information from California, which represents about a quarter of the country’s homeless population. It discovered that less than half (37%) of homeless individuals utilized illegal compounds frequently in the previous 6 months. And 25% had actually never ever utilized drugs.
“Most individuals who are homeless do not have a dependency. And the majority of people who have dependencies are not homeless,” stated Margot Kushela co-author of the research study and the director of the University of California-San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative
While the 2 concerns relate, the connection is not as typical or simple as individuals envision, she stated.
The research study discovered that 23% of individuals started routinely utilizing illegal drugs just after ending up being homeless. Dependency didn’t land them on the street, however the injury of living there can press individuals to self-medicate, Kushel stated. Some might utilize stimulants to remain awake at night to prevent being attacked.
The intricacy of this relationship implies putting settlement cash towards basic homelessness services might not attend to the dependency crisis.
Mankind and Survival
That’s why some individuals with direct dependency experience wish to see the funds circulation to programs like the one that assisted Dominic Sitz.
After years on the streets of Louisville, Sitz got housed in 2022.
Arthur Street Hotel, a transitional real estate effort that focused on assisting individuals with mental disorder and compound utilize conditions, assisted him along the method.
“It made me feel human once again,” Sitz stated of real estate.
For the very first 48 hours in his location, he locked his apartment or condo door and slept on the tile flooring. No food. No furnishings. Simply a sense of security.
The Arthur Street Hotel had a yearly budget plan of about $3.5 million and needed a great deal of personnel and extensive case management, stated Susan Buchino, executive director of CARE, the not-for-profit that ran the center. Her group typically invested weeks making individuals’s trust before they ‘d be prepared to come within.
Over its period, the program housed more than 400 individuals. It closed in July due to an absence of financing.
Sitz, now 4 years into healing, wants opioid settlement funds went to efforts like that, rather of Another Way.
It’s not that the Goodwill program does refrain from doing great. It can put cash in individuals’s pockets and possibly move them towards a much better life. It likewise isn’t particularly intended at assisting individuals with dependency.
Another downside: It in some cases asks individuals to do work that is distressing or hazardous, regional healing supporters state.
The program in some cases appoints homeless individuals to clean up street encampments. Individuals might understand individuals who reside in the encampments or experience them in the future, Sitz stated.
Individuals do it to” have cash simply to endure,” he stated. “you got to go right back to the individuals whose things you simply tossed away, and that’s a harmful scenario.”
Sharon Allgeiersenior supervisor of homeless efforts at Goodwill Kentucky, who produced Another Way, stated she’s never ever come across such an issue.
“They’re pleased to do the work,” she stated. “Maybe since they understand they’re going to get paid and they’re going to get fed lunch.”
Danny Walker, who took part in Another Way previously this year, stated cops had actually cleared individuals out of the encampments before he and other individuals showed up, so he wasn’t worried.
He credits the program with assisting him land his present part-time tasks at a Goodwill thrift shop and Dairy Queen. He’s likewise gotten housed and is reconnecting with his grandkids after years of compound usage and living on the street.
“I can look myself in the mirror and I can state, ‘Hey bud, you’re doing all right,'” Walker stated.
Living Better
Real estate programs like the one in Connecticut are pricey, homelessness and dependency professionals state they’re more most likely to make a damage in the opioid crisis long term. Research study likewise recommends they conserve cash gradually by minimizing health care, judicial, and well-being expenses.
The effort that assisted Fazekas is moneyed for 4 years at $14.25 million a year to support approximately 500 individuals. The cash goes to rental coupons; case supervisors and peer assistance professionals, who go to individuals in your home a minimum of as soon as a month; and an assistance fund for application costs, down payment, furnishings, or energies. An extra $400,000 a year is set aside to the University of Connecticut to assess the program.
Since mid-September, about 170 individuals had actually moved into real estate and about 180 individuals were looking for a location, according to the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.
Fazekas stated he wants to remain in his house permanently.
“When I was homeless and utilizing drugs, I didn’t like myself. I didn’t care how my day went,” he stated. This program “makes me desire to live much better.”
One little example that feels huge to him: When Fazekas was on the street, he hardly ever saw his brother or sisters and just called if he required something.
Now, they visit his location, and he calls them simply “to inform them I like them.”
Check out the method behind this task and download the information
KFF Health News’ Rachel Spears; Shatterproof’s Kristen Pendergrass, Kelly Collins, and Mary Coyne; and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Abigail Winiker, Benjamin Eidman, Olivia Allran, Katibeth Blalock, Isha Desai, Saathvika Diviti, Joseph Olasupo, Veronica Steck, Amy Lund Stone, Erin Wang, and Lillian Williams added to the database included in this post.
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has actually taken a leading function in offering assistance to state and city governments on using opioid settlement funds. Professors from the school worked together with other specialists in the field to develop concepts for utilizing the cashwhich have actually been backed by over 60 companies.
Unbreakable is a nationwide not-for-profit that addresses compound usage condition through unique efforts, consisting of promoting for state and federal policies, ending dependency preconception, and informing neighborhoods about the treatment system.
Shatterproof is partnering with some states on jobs moneyed by opioid settlements. KFF Health News, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Shatterproof group that dealt with this report are not associated with those efforts.
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