Vermont health officials urge focusing opioid settlement funds on long‑term recovery housing and operations

Veil Livingston, an advisor in the commissioner’s office at the Vermont Department of Health, told the House Human Services committee the department’s report (sent Jan. 15) recommends prioritizing long‑term projects funded from the opioid special fund, with a particular emphasis on recovery housing and ongoing operational support.

Livingston said the department is asking for a few technical corrections to H.660: two reversions (money to return to the OSAC fund), a $444,000 reversion from a medication‑dosing unit no longer required by corrections, and a change to statute removing the explicit naming of the Howard Center so funds for a dosing unit in Chittenden County can be assigned to an available provider in the county. “Howard Center is not interested in providing that service,” Livingston said, and the department proposed amending the language to read simply “Chittenden County.”

The department emphasized uncertainty in long‑term receipts to the settlement fund — companies may pay in advance or litigation may change inflows — and recommended focusing one‑time settlement dollars on projects that can be sustained over time rather than adding many new short‑term items that could erode future capacity. Livingston summarized: funding should favor projects that have started up, show impact, and are viable for ongoing support.

On specific budget lines, Livingston said outreach and engagement staff are critical and that ongoing staffing costs would total about $1.9 million per year. The department proposed roughly $1.4 million for recovery‑residence operations and said it will coordinate with Rural Health Transformation (RHT) funding; she noted RHT cannot be used for capital investments, which is one reason OSAC funds may remain useful for certain purposes.

Livingston told the committee that syringe services and the overdose prevention center have carryforward dollars and do not need OSAC funding this year. She also said peer recovery services embedded in the Department of Corrections are similar to the committee’s recommendations and that the Department for Children and Families is requesting $250,000 this year for emergency shelter substance‑use supports (the legislature appropriated $800,000 for that work last year).

Committee members pressed the department on communication with the Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee (OSAC). Livingston said the administration offered to present its recommendations to OSAC but the advisory committee declined the presentation to avoid biasing its independent recommendations; the department said it would nonetheless provide its public letter to OSAC upon request.

On grant administration, Livingston acknowledged systemic delays in issuing grants and said the Division of Substance Use will issue guidance and grantee instructions in March; grantees must supply required documentation before July 1, and new appropriations passed late in session are unlikely to start on July 1.

The committee did not take a vote; members said the department’s recommendations and the OSAC letter would inform markup and further deliberations next week.