WTAS: Secretary Kennedy Announces $100 Million Investment in Great American Recovery

On February 2, 2026, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced a comprehensive plan to strengthen prevention, expand treatment, and carry out the executive order President Trump signed last week to ignite the Great American Recovery. The centerpiece of this plan is a $100 million investment to solve long-standing homelessness issues, fight opioid addiction, and improve public safety by expanding treatment that emphasizes recovery and self-sufficiency.

The Safety Through Recovery, Engagement, and Evidence-based Treatment and Supports - or STREETS - Initiative will fund targeted outreach, psychiatric care, medical stabilization and crisis intervention, while connecting Americans experiencing homelessness and addiction to stable housing with a clear focus on long-term recovery and independence.

Headlines
Government Officials
Advocates & Organizations
Influencers

Headlines:

• The Daily Signal : EXCLUSIVE: How Trump Is Preventing More Children From Entering Foster Care System
• The Hill: Opinion: Our recovery agenda must start before addiction takes hold
• NewsNation: New addiction program about stabilizing Americans' lives: RFK Jr. The New York Times: H.H.S. to Expand Faith-Based Addiction Programs for Homeless
• AP: HHS unveils program to address homelessness and addiction, part of a set of new initiatives
• Washington Examiner< /a>: RFK Jr. announces $100 million investment in addiction recovery
• The Hill: Watch live: Top health officials launch initiative addressing mental health, addiction
• The Hill: RFK Jr.: 'Fragmented' addiction treatment system 'has not worked in this country'
• The Epoch Times : RFK Jr. Announces $100 Million Program Aimed at Homelessness and Addiction
• Newsmax: HHS Program to Address Homelessness, Addiction
• PB S: WATCH: RFK Jr. and others launch new addiction and homelessness initiative
• NewsD ay: HHS unveils program to address homelessness and addiction, part of a set of new initiatives
• Spectrum N ews: RFK Jr. announces mental health and addiction initiative focused on reducing costs, boosting innovation
• Becker's Behavioral He alth: HHS launches $100M homelessness, addiction treatment initiative
• The Gua rdian: RFK Jr announces $100m in grants to address homelessness and substance use
• The Dallas Express News: HHS Unveils $100 Million Pilot Program To Tackle Homelessness And Addiction
• Cathol icVote: HHS announces $100M investment aimed at homelessness, addiction recovery
• American Hospital Asso ciation: HHS announces behavioral health program to assist homeless individuals
• Fierce Healthcare: HHS plans to invest $100M to support addiction recovery and address homelessness

Government Officials:

• US Rep. Vern Buchanan via X: "Big step for prevention and recovery. @SecKennedy announces $100M for the STREETS Initiative expanding evidence-based treatment, mental health care and recovery housing. This is how we tackle addiction and restore communities."
• US Rep. Diana Harshbarger via X: "Thank you @POTUS and @SecKennedy! This investment into the Great American Recovery is vital to help fight addiction and support recovery!"
• KY State Rep. Josh Calloway via X: "Addiction is one of the greatest travesties in our society. We desperately need real solutions."

Advocates & Organizations:

• The MAHA Institute (@MAHA_Institute) via X: "Days after President Trump appointed Secretary Kennedy to take a joint leadership position of the new Great American Recovery initiative (alongside Kathryn Burgum, the Senior Advisor for Addiction Recovery), he announced a $100 million investment to "solve long-standing homelessness issues, fight opioid addiction, and improve public safety by expanding treatment that emphasizes recovery and self-sufficiency. . ."
• MAHA Action (@MAHA_Action) via X: "RFK Jr. says often we can identify children who are at risk of becoming addicts. It's critical to get them help before it's too late."
• MAHA Action (@MAHA_Action) via X: "RFK Jr. says drug addiction costs the U.S. nearly $1 trillion a year. And that doesn't even include the incalculable toll on families, the communities torn apart, and the people left broken."
• American Addiction Recovery Association (@endthewhisper) via X: "The American Addiction Recovery Association (AARA) Supports the Great American Recovery Initiative - thank you President Donald J. Trump"
• The Center for Urban Renewal and Education (@curepolicy) via X: "This is exactly why we need the Great American Recovery Initiative NOW. The old rehab model is built to profit from endless relapses-more detox cycles = more billing. RFK Jr. is right: flip it to outcome-based care where providers are held accountable for real, lasting recovery, not repeat customers. After Trump's EO last week and today's $100M push under STREETS, we're finally moving from a "sickness business" to actual healing. Accountability + incentives to prevent relapse = lives saved and families restored. Long overdue. Let's end the revolving door. #MakeAmericaHealthyAgain #GreatAmericanRecovery"
• Minda Wilson (Affordable Healthcare Advocate) via X: "A "Great American Recovery" starts with reconnection, not isolation. Secretary Kennedy's new plan is a bold shift. Investing $100M into the STREETS Initiative moves us past "one-size-fits-all" mandates and toward true, individualized recovery. It's about taking responsibility for the whole person, from detox to housing to employment. The Bottom Line: Family First: Allowing federal matching for life-saving medications (MOUD) to keep families together is the gold standard of prevention. Ending the Cycle: We can't just treat the illness and send people back to the same environment that made them sick. Real Accountability: This needs to be more than another "narrative"; it will need to be a data-driven focus on self-sufficiency. Recovery doesn't end when treatment stops; it succeeds when people return to their communities with purpose and hope. #GreatAmericanRecovery #RFKJr #HHS #AddictionRecovery #STREETSInitiative #UrgentCare #PreventionDay2026"
• Citygate Network, a Colorado-based association of 330 Christian rescue missions and ministries, President Tom DeVries via The New York Times: "The government has reached out to us and invited us into the process more than we had been previously…New ministries look at this and say, this may be able to open the door for us to serve in ways we have not been able to."
• Former US Representative Patrick Kennedy via Spectrum News: "We in this country have an acute care system that continues to treat people but never supports them in their longer-term recovery…We never take a holistic approach, and furthermore, we never connect all the different government agencies that touch someone with these. We relegate them to one system, and that's the health care system. What we've never done as a country is think about the true cost of these illnesses across the government. We only look at the cost to the medical spend alone."
• End Tribalism in Politics (@endtribalism) via X: "We can all agree that how addiction and homelessness have been handled in this country has been a complete failure. A new approach is long overdue. And while RFK Jr. may be polarizing on other issues, this feels like a topic we should all be working together on across the entire country."
• Independent Women (@IWF) via X: "@HHSGov @SecKennedy announces a bold plan to strengthen prevention, expand treatment, + ignite the Great American Recovery. "The Great American Recovery Initiative is a $100 million investment in recovery that will save lives. People struggling with mental illness, addiction, and homelessness will get treatment for medical and psychiatric illness, and families and communities will get the support they need." -Dr. Monique Yohanan"

Medical Professionals:

• T. Wolf (@twolfrecovery), Director of City Partnerships at Sunflower Sober in San Francisco via X: Drug prevention: Evidence based. 12 step recovery: Evidence based. Its a new day in drug policy. "At HHS, we are changing the course… we're using evidence and not ideology."
• T. Wolf (@twolfrecovery), Director of City Partnerships at Sunflower Sober in San Francisco via X: "Faith based organizations who use a continuum of care model instead of a radical harm reduction model have new life in the drug treatment space. Finally!"
• Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati), ophthalmologist and research scientist via X: "GOD BLESS @SecKennedy @RobertKennedyJr @HHSGov for rolling out a COMPASSIONATE, effective, EVIDENCE-BASED replacement for the ridiculous, failed "Harm Reduction" disaster that kills addicts by encouraging drug use & doing NOTHING to help. The "harm reduction" policies of @GavinNewsom in SF & California and of @MayorOfLA @KarenBassLA & her soon-to-be-challenger/clone @LindseyPHorvath @LindseyForLA have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans who needed a plan to RECOVER & become SELF SUFFICIENT, not crammed into a motel room for life. Looking forward to the day when we treat Americans suffering with substance abuse issues with DIGNITY instead of using them for photo ops & taxpayer $ to milk for fake "housing" programs."

Influencers & Media:

• Real America's Voice (@RealAmVoice) via X: "@SecKennedy says faith-based recovery works because it reconnects people to community-and to something higher than themselves & points to AA's origin: the "daily reprieve" comes by renewing it through service to others."
• PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) via X: "Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that his department will devote $100 million toward a pilot program addressing homelessness and substance abuse in eight cities, building on an executive order President Trump signed last week related to addiction."
• The National Desk (@TND) via X: "Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke Monday on a new initiative to address mental health and addiction. Kennedy said in five years, he hopes that there are "a series of models around the country and in states and cities of things that works so that we know how to do them." Noting that a part of the plan is to pay rehab centers for successful patient outcomes only. "You're responsible for that individual so if he shows up on your doorstep again you're going to lose money," Kennedy said highlighting the "economic incentive" for rehab centers."
• Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) via X: "JUST IN: Health Sec. Bobby Kennedy is moving to NUKE the rehab industrial complex by ensuring rehab facilities don't keep getting paid more and more for FAILING their patients "The system is designed to KEEP YOU SICK." GOOD! "Move to outcome-based services where people have an incentive to make sure you DON'T relapse.""
• Kayleigh McEnany via Fox News: "The Make America Healthy Again team is unveiling a new initiative for RFK Jr. alongside Dr. Oz and other cabinet officials will announce Action for Progress. It's eight bipartisan effort aimed at tackling the nation's growing mental health and addiction crises."
• Gabrielle Etzel (Healthcare reporter for the Washington Examiner) via X: "HHS announces $100 million in a new SAMHSA program to combat homelessness and opioid recovery. It's in connection with Pres. Trump's Great American Recovery Initiative. The approach: early intervention and sustained care to reintegrate into communities"
• The HighWire (@HighWireTalk) via X: "HHS: $100 million to ignite the "Great American Recovery," help for addiction and homelessness. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced today that there will be a $100 million investment to tackle the root causes of addiction, homelessness, and the opioid crisis. This is the centerpiece of President Trump's Great American Recovery Initiative."
• Jason Jones (Newsmax border correspondent) via Newsmax: "The United States has been dealing with the worst overdose death crisis in American history. Sean, you and I have talked about this extensively. It's not a perception. It's not a feeling. The data validates it. When you look at addiction in this country, it's estimated now by the United States government that 20% - can you believe that? - up to 20% of our country's addicted to some form of narcotic. Now look, the Great American Recovery Initiative, President Trump has now had it. He's taken this on domestically. And this is the missing piece. You know, he's done great work with Mexico, going after the labs, holding the cartels accountable. Now, what are we going to do here locally? This is what this initiative is about, bringing in all of these secretaries under his command to figure out a new initiative and a new path moving forward."
• Brandon Straka (@BrandonStraka) via X "Sec. Bobby Kennedy says the addiction system profits from relapse, pushing outcome-based treatment to end the cycle."
• Sarah Reynolds (@sarah__reynolds) via X: "You can't make someone drink or use, and you can't keep someone from drinking or using. But you sure as heck can make sure that the rehab centers aren't keeping people on a rehab carousel because they have the financial incentive to do a subpar job-kudos, @SecKennedy"