Sustained outreach and the development of trusted relationships with individuals have led to greater in success in moving people from substance use to treatment to more successful lives thanks to a pilot program that started in Columbia Heights.

My bill that will expand this highly-successful substance use disorder outreach pilot program is currently moving through the Council and will receive its final vote on Tuesday, May 5.

The pilot program 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. Despite subsisting on one-time funding from the Council each year, this program has shown considerable early successes, including a 51% decrease in nonfatal overdoses in the 7th and T NW area in less than a year. B26-0226 – Place-Based Substance Use Disorder Outreach Amendment Act of 2025 will make the outreach program permanent.

Watch the video above to hear from HIPS, one of the community-based organizations that worked in Ward 1 as part of the pilot program.