City launches $1 million opioid support grants program

The City of St. Petersburg has unveiled a new $1 million grant program aimed at combating the ongoing opioid epidemic. 

The Opioid Support Grants Program received the green light from City Council last week. Funded by the city’s portion of a national opioid settlement, the program will provide funding to eligible nonprofit organizations working to address and mitigate the effects of the opioid crisis in St. Pete.

The Opioid Support Grants Program will offer two tiers of funding: small grants of up to $25,000 and larger grants of up to $100,000. Jess Riedel, Senior Programs Analyst for the City of St. Petersburg, said this approach will allow the city to take a “well-rounded, holistic approach” to grantmaking.

“This allows us to support a variety of organization sizes and capacities, as well as a variety of project sizes and scopes,” Riedel explained. “We’re not just funding the large organizations doing the large projects, but [we’ll have] the ability to support organizations that are doing work on maybe a comparatively smaller scale, but it’s still a much-needed resource or service.”

Despite the extensive efforts made at the national, state and local levels, the opioid epidemic continues to ravage communities across the United States, and Pinellas County is no exception. The county has consistently ranked among the highest in Florida for opioid overdose deaths. 

According to the Pinellas County Health Department, Pinellas Emergency Departments encountered more than 11,000 suspected overdoses in 2020, representing a nearly 52% increase from the year before. Other data shows more than one person dies every 14 hours from an opioid-related overdose in Pinellas County. Much of this loss is concentrated in St. Petersburg, which remains one of the hardest-hit areas in the county.

“Even one overdose death is one too many,” Riedel said. “It’s a reminder that this doesn’t just impact the people who are struggling with addiction; it also impacts their loved ones, their neighbors, their coworkers, the service providers who do this work every single day, the first responders and law enforcement that are responding to calls for help. This touches all of us in the community.”

The new Opioid Support Grants Program will prioritize proposals that focus on three key areas: respite housing, harm reduction and peer support. Riedel said these focus areas came from feedback from community stakeholders and were underscored by an analysis from the Pinellas County Opioid Abatement Funding Advisory Board.

Respite housing is typically more involved than a traditional group home or shelter. After an addiction treatment program, respite housing provides those recovering a safe, supervised, temporary shelter – a stepping stone for those leaving the hospital or rehab to live independently.

“There are options out there, but some of them don’t allow people who are receiving medication-assisted treatment, like methadone or suboxone, to live there,” said Riedel. “We think that there’s a need for this type of resource, but set up in a way that allows individuals to make treatment choices in partnership with their doctor for their own individual needs.”

Respite housing, like the “safe havens” offered by Boley Centers, is one of the focus areas of the City of St. Petersburg’s new Opioid Support Grants Program. According to Boley Centers’ website, its safe havens “provide individuals who have been homeless, have a mental illness and often a co-occurring substance abuse disorder as well, with a safe place to live.” Photo: Boley Centers.

Funding is also earmarked for peer support and harm reduction, an evidence-based approach that advocates for engaging with people who use drugs and equipping them with life-saving tools to prevent overdose and infectious disease transmission. 

Organizations that practice harm reduction incorporate strategies to “meet people where they are,” helping those facing addiction to eventually stop using drugs on their own terms. Harm reduction is a key pillar in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Overdose Prevention Strategy.

“That could include increasing Narcan, the overdose reversal drug, distribution, getting testing strips out there so people can test if their supply is laced with fentanyl before using the drug,” Riedel explained. “I’ve even seen some organizations across the country piloting harm reduction vending machines, where these types of items are available to those that need them. Harm reduction is huge, because the whole point is to prevent deaths.”

The city is seeking “new and innovative” proposals from nonprofits. Applicants will need to demonstrate how they’ve assessed community needs, identified target populations and how their proposal will meet those needs. 

“That is a core element of this program. We don’t want to just use these grant funds to pay for services that are already being paid for,” Riedel emphasized. “We want to use these dollars to really identify and fill resource and service gaps that exist in the community. We really want it to be driven by data and also informed by those who are ‘boots on the ground,’ doing this work every day.”

The Opioid Support Grants Program is funded through settlement money from lawsuits against prescription opiate manufacturers, distributors and retailers. St. Petersburg is set to receive approximately $6 million in Opioid Settlement Funds over 18 years.

“As more dollars come in, we’ll decide what to do with them, and we’ll continue to use data and resident input as driving forces in our decision-making,” Riedel said. “We’re really addressing the emerging needs, because we know this world changes all the time.”

Grant details, eligibility criteria and the application can be found at stpete.org/OSG. Applications are being accepted through Oct. 20 at 11:59 p.m.

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