H.H.S. to expand faith-based addiction programs for homeless

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, that the federal government will expand funding for faith-based addiction treatment as a response to mounting public drug use and homelessness in American cities. Mr. Kennedy, who credits 12-step programs with helping him end a 14-year heroin addiction as a young man, said a fragmented health care system had encouraged people with mental illness and addiction to "cycle endlessly between sidewalks, emergency room visits, jails and mental hospitals and shelters." He asserted that "substance abuse drives homelessness" and called addiction "a chronic disease...

above all, it’s spiritual disease." As part of the push, he said the federal government will open funding opportunities, including state opioid response grants, to faith-based organizations. He also announced a new funding stream to increase access to medications to treat opioid use disorder, allowing states or tribes to tap federal child protection funds to pay for addicted parents to receive medications such as buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone.

Yngvild Olsen, until recently the director of substance use treatment at SAMHSA, said the change "has the potential to save lives" by expanding access to the medications. At an event marking "Prevention Day," Mr.

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