WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Officials with New Hanover County and the City of Wilmington met Tuesday morning to discuss the next steps in using the funds from North Carolina’s portion of the opioid settlement.
Since 2021, more than 1,700 opioid overdoses and more than 230 opioid-related deaths have occurred in New Hanover County.
Another sobering statistic, New Hanover County has more than three times the national average for opioid-related deaths.
Tuesday’s meeting looked at 5 new programs that requested funding from the opioid settlement that are designed to reduce or eliminate those numbers.
City councilman and chair of the Opioid Settlement Committee Luke Waddell said the committee will continue to get more data on the best ways to allocate funding to help as many people as possible.
“I think there could be additional programs, I think there could be a narrowing of focus on what’s working because we will have data,” Waddell said. “We’re getting the first reports this Friday from all of the original organizations who have received funding. As we get those reports, we’ll be able to kind of narrow focus or widen focus to see what’s, what’s working because we’ll actually have that data to implement funding as needed.”
One of the programs requesting funding is the Healing Place, which asked for $1.1 million per year.
The Healing Place’s executive director Brian Mingia said that will help cover the cost of 50 beds at the facility, which will meet a lot of needs.
“So its the shelter piece, its the 3 meals a day, it’s getting a connection to a primary care physicians, its clothing that people are in need of,” Mingia said. “It’s everything that is really for that individual to focus on recovery.”
If the 5 programs are allocated funding, a total of $15.1 million will be allocated through fiscal year 2027-28.
Waddell said the city council and county commissioners still need to look over the proposed requests before funding is granted.
Once these $15 million are used following fiscal year 27-28, the committee can then allocate an additional $17 million from a second opioid settlement.