WASHINGTON, D.C.—A bill heard by the D.C. Council’s Health Committee today would expand a highly-successful substance use disorder outreach pilot program in the District.
The pilot, which targets hotspots in wards 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8, contracts with community-based organizations, whose outreach workers build trusted relationships with people who are using drugs in public spaces and get them into treatment.
Councilmember Brianne K. Nadeau, D-Ward 1, who serves on the Health Committee, introduced B26-0226 – Place-Based Substance Use Disorder Outreach Amendment Act of 2025 to make the outreach program permanent. Director Barbara J. Bazron, head of the Department of Behavioral Health, spoke in favor of the legislation at the hearing.
“Despite subsisting on one-time funding from the Council each year, this program has shown considerable early successes,” Nadeau said in her remarks before the Committee. “For example, a 51% decrease in nonfatal overdoses in the 500 block of T Street NW in less than a year.”
Sustained outreach and the development of trusted relationships with individuals has led to greater in success in moving people from substance use to treatment to more successful lives, Nadeau said. It also leads to better community outcomes in the neighborhoods that are targeted for outreach.
The pilot was the outgrowth of the successful “community navigators” program Nadeau funded in Columbia Heights several years ago.
If passed and funded, the legislation would establish a permanent program in the Department of Behavioral Health to administer grants to community programs to provide the services on a permanent basis or to stand up a program within the agency. DBH would identify hotspots based on criteria in the legislation.
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