HHS Launches $700 Million Behavioral Health Initiative Targeting Homelessness and Addiction, Including New STREETS Grant Program
Key Insights
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced more than $700 million in new behavioral health funding, with a focus on addiction and mental illness (search) among people experiencing homelessness.
The STREETS program will award $24 million annually over four years to eight communities, providing up to $3 million each per year for comprehensive care systems.
An additional $612 million in behavioral health funding will support Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, the 988 crisis lifeline, substance abuse treatment, and mental health services.
The Department of Health and Human Services (search) is launching more than $700 million in new behavioral health funding, with a significant portion directed at addressing the intertwined crises of homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness (search). HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made the formal announcement Tuesday after meeting with Easterseals MORC (search) in Clinton Township, Michigan.
The investment, described as part of President Donald Trump's Great American Recovery Initiative, is divided across several programs. The centerpiece is the Safety Through Recovery, Engagement and Evidence-based Treatment and Support (STREETS) program, a $96 million grant initiative that will fund comprehensive local partnerships.
STREETS Program Structure and Eligibility
The STREETS program will award $24 million annually over a four-year period to eight eligible communities, with each receiving up to $3 million per year. The funding is designed to support treatment and recovery programming, housing support, street outreach, and associated spending at the level of local government, law enforcement, and the courts.
Eligible applicants include city, county, and other local governments, as well as federally recognized Indian tribes and tribal organizations. Universities, hospitals, foundations, and nonprofits are not eligible to receive the funds directly. All applicants must be able to begin services within six months of receiving funding, and the application deadline is July 17, 2026.
The grants require partnerships involving local government, health and housing providers, law enforcement, and courts to develop comprehensive care systems for people who are homeless and have substance use disorders, serious mental illnesses, or co-occurring disorders.
Broader Behavioral Health Funding
Beyond STREETS, HHS is making more than $612 million in additional behavioral health funding available. This includes $238.6 million for suicide and crisis lifelines, with $211 million directed to states and territories to expand local 988 capacity, $20 million for 988 Tribal Response Cooperative Agreements, and $7.5 million for lifeline follow-up programs.
Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) will receive $223.1 million to expand access to community-based programs specializing in mental health and substance use disorder (search) services. Some funds may be used to create new CCBHCs in underserved areas or to help states establish certification programs qualifying for Medicaid's pilot program.
An additional $80 million will support 12 programs treating addiction and addressing overdoses, including $7.6 million for adult and family treatment drug courts. Rural emergency medical services can also receive funding to assist individuals and families affected by substance use disorders and to increase prevention efforts targeting opioid- and fentanyl-related harms.
More than $70 million is allocated for mental health support, and Kennedy emphasized that people should be able to access CCBHC services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of ability to pay, with support available within 20 minutes. He also stated that mental health support via video chat should be accessible within 12 minutes.
Policy Context and Restrictions
The STREETS program follows President Trump's executive action on Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets, which authorized HHS to use its grants to fight vagrancy and address homelessness while increasing public safety. The executive order noted that the number of individuals living on the streets in the United States on a single night during the last year of the previous administration — 274,224 — was the highest ever recorded.
Notably, so-called "harm reduction" services, including safe consumption sites, are explicitly barred from receiving funding under the initiative. The July 2025 executive order directed HHS's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to "not fund programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including so-called 'harm reduction' or 'safe consumption' efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm."
The Scale of the Crisis
Homelessness has been rising in the United States, with first-time homelessness increasing by 23% since 2019, according to Department of Housing and Urban Development statistics. Illicit drug use jumped from 22.2% to 25.5% between 2021 and 2024, per the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Kennedy noted that since 2000, drug-related deaths have claimed more than a million American lives, and more than 770,000 Americans are homeless on any given night.
"Every person deserves the opportunity to reclaim their health, restore relationships and rebuild their lives," Kennedy said, describing addiction as "a disease of isolation" where "recovery means reconnecting the community to nature, to God, to your families."
Kennedy acknowledged that the $700 million alone will not solve the problem but pointed to an estimated $50 billion from opioid lawsuit settlements that will help states and tribal governments support programs over the next 20 years.