{"id":20669,"date":"2026-02-07T18:36:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T17:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=20669"},"modified":"2026-02-17T20:13:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T19:13:48","slug":"hhs-unveils-streets-initiative-ramping-up-coerced-drug-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2026\/02\/hhs-unveils-streets-initiative-ramping-up-coerced-drug-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"HHS Unveils \u201cSTREETS\u201d Initiative, Ramping Up Coerced Drug Treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image via\u00a0Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration<\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
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by Leah Harris – filtermag.org – <\/span>February 4, 2026<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A<\/span>t a sumptuous resort just outside Washington, DC, on February 2 for\u00a0\u201cPrevention Day,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his\u00a0<\/span>Safety Through Recovery, Engagement and Evidence-based Treatment and Supports<\/span>\u00a0(STREETS) Initiative. He\u00a0<\/span>opened<\/span>\u00a0by scapegoating people who use drugs as \u201cnegative producers\u201d and \u201cdrags on the whole [health care] system.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

STREETS is\u00a0<\/span>billed<\/span>\u00a0as a $100-million investment to \u201csolve long-standing homelessness issues, fight opioid addiction and improve public safety by expanding treatment.\u201d It will be piloted in eight as-yet-unspecified cities, and is designed to operate in tandem with\u00a0<\/span>\u201cassisted outpatient treatment\u201d\u00a0<\/span>(AOT)\u2014court-ordered psychiatric probation, similar to\u00a0<\/span>probation for drug violations<\/span>. AOT saddles participants with the ever-present threat of being involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility for noncompliance, or even just a\u00a0<\/span>technical violation<\/span>. HHS will soon offer\u00a0<\/span>$10 million in AOT grants<\/span>\u00a0(though this amount has been higher in\u00a0<\/span>previous years<\/span>).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Kennedy now wants provider organizations to \u201ctake charge of an addict\u201d for a period of one to three years. Providers would receive\u00a0<\/span>bundled payments<\/span>\u00a0if they ensure that the people in their custody remain in compliance with an abstinence-only model. This will prove beneficial to providers with stake in\u00a0<\/span>urinalysis testing<\/span>\u2014possibly the most notorious\u00a0<\/span>financial scheme<\/span>\u00a0in the\u00a0<\/span>rehab industry<\/span>\u2014but is not likely to result in long-term abstinence. It also incentivizes providers to employ policies that are increasingly punitive, result in misleading data, or both.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile ICE terrorizes our families and communities, STREETS will do little to address our addictions, mental health and homelessness crises.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

STREETS furthers President Donald Trump\u2019s July 2025\u00a0<\/span>executive order<\/span>\u00a0titled \u201cEnding Crime and Disorder on America\u2019s Streets,\u201d which was widely\u00a0<\/span>condemned<\/span>\u00a0as a\u00a0<\/span>declaration of war<\/span>\u00a0on\u00a0<\/span>unhoused people<\/span>. The\u00a0<\/span>Legal Defense Fund<\/span>\u00a0likened it to a resurrection of the Black Codes preceding today\u2019s \u201cvagrancy\u201d laws.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Housing First model, which does not require abstinence as a precondition of access to permanent supportive housing, was\u00a0<\/span>created to address the failures<\/span>\u00a0of the \u201ctough on homelessness\u201d approach favored in the 1980s. Trump\u2019s HHS<\/span>\u00a0has characterized Housing First and harm reduction-based programs as \u201c<\/span>misguided<\/span>,\u201d falsely claiming that they\u2019ve been ineffective and \u201cenabled future drug use.\u201d This is reminiscent of proponents of involuntary commitment falsely contending that\u00a0<\/span>deinstitutionalization failed<\/span>, when it was never fully implemented and was arguably still\u00a0<\/span>the most successful decarceration effort\u00a0<\/span>in United States history.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile ICE terrorizes our families and communities, STREETS will do little to address our addictions, mental health and homelessness crises,\u201d former Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration official Paolo del Vecchio told\u00a0<\/span>Filter<\/span><\/i>, \u201cturning away from proven harm reduction and Housing First approaches while embracing failed practices of coercion and criminalization.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In red and blue\u00a0<\/span>jurisdictions<\/span>\u00a0alike, messaging is shifting from public health to public safety. Policymakers are expanding the reach of civil commitment laws to remove unhoused people from public view, disappeared into a vast system of coercive programs. Some fear these may include\u00a0<\/span>forced<\/span>\u00a0labor farms<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>detention camps<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Investment in faith-based treatment and \u201coutcome-oriented\u201d payment models all but guarantee increased coercion from providers.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In 2025 the White House announced its Faith Office, which supports \u201cfaith-based entities, community organizations and houses of worship\u201d in competing on \u201ca level playing field\u201d for federal grants and other funding opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFaith-based organizations play a critical role in helping people re-establish their connections to community,\u201d Kennedy, a\u00a012-step devotee, told the audience on February 2. The same day,\u00a0<\/span>Faith Center<\/span>\u00a0Director Monty Burks spoke at a separate, virtual event introducing STREETS to community stakeholders.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Several of the Prevention Day event speakers signaled the desire to phase out the health insurance industry\u2019s current fee-for-service models, in which providers are reimbursed based on quantity, and instead use \u201coutcome-oriented\u201d or \u201cvalues-based\u201d payments that incentivize based on quality\u2014and are still\u00a0<\/span>rife with inequities<\/span>. The costs and administrative burdens of both approaches could be eliminated if we ditched the predatory health insurance industry in favor of\u00a0<\/span>Medicare for All<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Investment in faith-based treatment and \u201coutcome-oriented\u201d payment models all but guarantee increased coercion from providers, potentially in\u00a0<\/span>violation of the First Amendment<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In January, a separate executive order\u00a0<\/span>establishing the \u201cGreat American Recovery Initiative\u201d<\/span>\u00a0(of which Kennedy is a co-chair) warned that most people who need treatment don\u2019t think that they do. It appears that the public is being primed for the widespread involuntary detention of unhoused people who use drugs and\/or have visible symptoms of mental illness.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe intervene early,\u201d Kennedy\u00a0<\/span>told<\/span>\u00a0Chris Cuomo of\u00a0<\/span>News Nation\u00a0<\/span><\/i>on February 3. \u201cWe catch people on the street and channel them into treatment, out of crisis through detox, treatment, outpatient and into sober housing.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Cuomo gently pushed back: \u201cYou can\u2019t make people get treatment if they don\u2019t want to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a community care program that involves the courts,\u201d Kennedy retorted. This, he said, is a more \u201cefficient, economic and humane\u201d approach to those who refuse services.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/filtermag.org\/hhs-streets-initiative-treatment-prevention-day\/amp\/<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image via\u00a0Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration by Leah Harris – filtermag.org – February 4, 2026 At a sumptuous resort just outside Washington, DC, on February 2 for\u00a0\u201cPrevention Day,\u201d\u00a0Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his\u00a0Safety Through Recovery, Engagement and Evidence-based Treatment and Supports\u00a0(STREETS) Initiative. He\u00a0opened\u00a0by scapegoating people who use drugs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,32,129,68,65,37,40,36,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-addiction","category-crime-violence-prison","category-culture","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-drugs-and-accidents","category-hiv-injecting-drug-users","category-prevention-research","category-treatment-addiction","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20669"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20704,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20669\/revisions\/20704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}