PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Ann-Marie Foster, President and CEO of Phoenix House
2:09:18
ยท
5 min
Ann-Marie Foster, President and CEO of Phoenix House, testified about the lack of opioid settlement funds reaching community-based organizations (CBOs) like Phoenix House. She highlighted the critical need for these funds to support addiction treatment and recovery services, emphasizing the importance of capital investment, addressing service fragmentation, and targeting resources to high-need communities.
- Foster stressed the need for innovation in addressing the opioid crisis, including partnerships with law enforcement and comprehensive support services beyond just providing Narcan kits.
- She called for a public awareness campaign to educate people about the opioid crisis and its impact on communities.
- Foster invited council members to visit Phoenix House to see firsthand where settlement funds should be allocated.
Ann-Marie Foster
2:09:18
Oh, hi.
2:09:18
Good afternoon to our city council members.
2:09:21
Honorable Linda Lee, honorable Mercedes Narcisse, and, Schulman is is no longer with us.
2:09:28
I am very happy to be here to be able to testify.
2:09:30
My name is Anne Marie Foster.
2:09:32
I'm the President and CEO of Phoenix House.
2:09:34
I will not read my testimony as you suggested.
2:09:37
You have it on the record.
2:09:39
I do want to, point out just a few highlights and happy to answer any questions.
2:09:43
1st and foremost, let me tell you a little bit about Phoenix House.
2:09:46
We've been around since 1967.
2:09:49
We help individuals recover and lead healthy and productive lives.
2:09:53
We offer short term and long term residential treatment, intensive outpatient, general outpatient, and we also work with individuals with co occurring disorders.
2:10:03
We have various programs for both adults and adolescents throughout New York as well out in Suffolk County and Long Island.
2:10:10
And we also provide educational and sober recreational support for both the individual, their family members, and significant others.
2:10:18
I'm here today to testify, and this was very important to me, since New York City received opioid settlement dollars, we have not received $1.
2:10:27
And I am happy to I can say, I sit on several, committees that represent organizations throughout the city, as well as the state, and it varies.
2:10:39
And many individuals in our position as CBOs have not received any funding, from the opioid settlement dollars.
2:10:47
It was quite interesting to hear the testimonies of our colleagues.
2:10:50
I will say there are conversations.
2:10:52
We have been working towards it, but the dollars have not flowed to the organizations that need it.
2:10:57
And so just a couple of highlights I'd like to bring to the attention of of the committee.
2:11:02
1st, you know, access to these dollars, despite the significant amount of funds that are available, community based organizations like Phoenix South consider face considerable barriers in accessing these resources.
2:11:15
We are on the front lines of the addiction and recovery, movement, and we urgently need these funds to be able to do the work that we do.
2:11:23
Number 2, the need for capital investment.
2:11:25
There is a critical need for capital dollars, and there is nothing in these dollars that prevents us from using it for capital.
2:11:32
And to improve our facilities and our services, each one of us, if we have a loved one that is suffering with addiction, we should be able to send them to any of our organizations and not have to seek to go outside of the city.
2:11:44
Investment in physical and operational infrastructure is essential to increase our capacity to serve those in need, particularly as we try to combat this crisis.
2:11:53
The fragmentation in services.
2:11:55
The current system faces significant fragmentation, particularly in supporting public hospitals and long term treatment programs.
2:12:04
We must address this and these dollars should be able to help us to seamlessly address this, care for individuals that struggle with addiction.
2:12:12
I am a former member of New York City Health and Hospital for 26 years.
2:12:16
And so our city hospitals are the safety net for our system, system, but our community based organizations is what's going to sustain these individuals.
2:12:24
We've done very little to, we've we've done some work to try to save people's lives, but we have done very little in helping them to recover and sustain their lives.
2:12:35
The disparities in our communities, we know the statistics and it's been said already.
2:12:40
I would just like to add one other neighborhood, Central Harlem.
2:12:43
Out of OCME, that data is clear.
2:12:45
It is the Bronx, Central Harlem, and Staten Island, and our resources need to be targeted to those communities.
2:12:53
There's also a need for a public awareness campaign.
2:12:56
We've talked about it.
2:12:57
The public is confused with the legalization of substances with shops everywhere in our neighborhood.
2:13:02
People don't know what to do, what's right, what the fentanyl crisis, does it actually affect our community?
2:13:08
Is that someone else's illness?
2:13:10
We need to have a comprehensive public service campaign to raise awareness and consciousness about the opioid crisis within the city.
2:13:17
We should utilize our settlement funds for this purpose.
2:13:20
And there's also a lack of innovation in response to this crisis.
2:13:26
We can't use the same old playbook.
2:13:28
We have to be creative.
2:13:29
We have to innovate.
2:13:30
One thing that Phoenix House, we sit on a lot of committees that deal with our law enforcement, working with our DEA, and our partners at OCME.
2:13:38
And law enforcement is very clear.
2:13:40
We are not going to law enforcement our way out of this crisis.
2:13:43
When they remove what they call bad actors, someone else is there to replace.
2:13:47
What's missing is the community based organizations and partnerships that you see at this table here to go into these communities to be able to offer someone, not only just NARCAN kids, that's a band aid on the situation.
2:13:59
It's the additional resources that are needed to help people find jobs, to work with them in terms of vocational, to tie them to primary care services, to help them enrich their lives.
2:14:10
Phoenix House takes pride in being able to provide what's called sober recreational activities.
2:14:15
We provide acting classes on-site.
2:14:18
That is tied to their trauma and to be able to speak about it.
2:14:21
When you come into a treatment program, not only you're just going to counseling and individual services, but you're doing sober recreational.
2:14:28
And so I invite any member of this committee and the council to come and visit us at Phoenix House.
2:14:33
Talk to the individuals that are there in treatment, and you can see where the money should be going.
2:14:37
Thank you.