LOVELAND, Colo. — To date, Colorado is on track to receive more than $750 million in opioid settlement funds from different pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors.
The City of Loveland will receive $1.8 million after it opted into the settlement funds in 2021. The city hopes to create a street outreach program with part of the $340,000 it's already received.
"It's really not enough money to be able to do something like build housing for people to go to recover, but it is enough money to start a street outreach program," said Alison Hade, the Community Partnership Office manager for the City of Loveland.
Already, Loveland has given at least $33,000 to its police department so it could buy a TruNarc device, which helps identify and analyze suspected drugs. The rest of the money will go toward building out the street outreach program, according to Hade.
"Street outreach goes to the people who are outside. They actually find them and get them connected to the same resources that include behavioral health care, include access to housing," she said.
Loveland's program is modeled after an existing one in Fort Collins, called Outreach Fort Collins.
"We do kind of two main activities," said Andy Sprain, outreach and data manager for Outreach Fort Collins. "One is proactive street outreach, mostly for folks experiencing homelessness but also for people at risk for homelessness or experiencing various mental health crises. Then we're also an on-call team that is available for response for community concern. So merchants, residents, the police will call us for things that aren't illegal in nature, aren't an emergency, but need some specific follow up."
Outreach Fort Collins was created in 2016 with a team of three and has since grown to a team of 10, according to Sprain.
Members of the Outreach Fort Collins team work to build relationships with those experiencing homelessness as well as business owners and other entities in town.
"The police might call us for individuals that they've been called on but aren't really a legal issues or are legal in nature," Sprain said. "We'll come in and try to, again, build that service resolution rather than other law enforcement resolution. So day to day, it just really depends on what the needs are of the people we're engaging with."
Loveland officials hope to soon have the same in their community with the help of the opioid settlement funds.
"It's key for service providers working with people who are unhoused to be able to build trust with people who are living outside. That's very difficult to do if an individual doesn't access shelter. So the opportunity to meet somebody anywhere in our community is key to be able to build those relationships," Hade said.
Loveland officials don't know when the remaining portion of the $1.8 million will be distributed to the city, though it's set to happen over the next 12 to 18 years.
The city is currently in discussions with the company that will employ the street outreach team members. They anticipate finishing the contracting process by the end of this week.
