Mayor Mamdani announces $12M for addiction services on Staten Island, across NYC
As published in the Staten Island Advance, May 9 2026
Link to article.
Mayor Mamdani announces $12M for addiction services on Staten Island, across NYC
By Maura Grunlund, Staten Island Advance
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a $12 million investment for people suffering from addiction on Staten Island and throughout New York City.
Recipients of the funds will include recovery centers and peer-led outreach programs. Organizations receiving funding include Community Health Action of Staten Island, Exponents, Fortune Society, Odyssey House, Phoenix House, Let’s Talk Safety and Samaritan Daytop Village.
“Every New Yorker deserves access to care, dignity and support, no matter where they are in their recovery journey,” Mamdani said. “This $12 million investment will help connect New Yorkers to life-saving services while creating hundreds of good-paying jobs rooted in lived experience and community trust.”
The money is part of the opioid settlement funds that the city is funneling to community-based prevention, treatment, harm reduction and recovery programs.
The latest funding distribution is expected to create 500 new positions citywide for peer specialists — people in recovery from substance use disorder who help others with the same struggles.
Peer specialists use their lived experience and professional training to help people access recovery resources, develop coping skills and navigate moments of crisis. The funding also will support outreach vans, peer certification training and scholarships, and expand enrollment in recovery services.
“Community Health Action is grateful to the Department of Health and the Mayor’s office for making it possible for Staten Islanders in recovery to find reliable and meaningful work through these programs,” Ericker Onaga, Executive Director of Community Health Action of Staten Island, said in a statement. “Peers combine training with their own lived experiences to help people who are seeking change.”
“Community-based organizations like ours are uniquely positioned to fill public health and safety gaps while also meeting the needs of an emerging peer workforce. The city’s investment will improve engagement in care and support long-term stability,” Onaga continued.
The announcement builds on the city’s broader HealthyNYC initiative to reduce overdose deaths by 25% by 2030 and increase life expectancy for New Yorkers.
The average number of years a person can expect to live declined from 82.6 years in 2019 to 78 years in 2020, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Accidental overdoses reached historically high levels during the COVID years on Staten Island and citywide. By 2024, accidental overdoses on the borough had dropped by nearly 50%.
The latest provisional statistics available citywide show 1,393 fatal overdoses for January through September of 2025. Statistics for Staten Island are not available to the public.
