Syracuse officials are looking to respond to issues with addiction, mental health and homelessness through increased community awareness and programming.
In his August community briefing, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh highlighted a city concern over individuals experiencing addiction, mental health crises and homelessness. He said that it’s both a quality of life and public safety issue
“I cannot tell you how much effort, and resources and innovation we are putting into dealing with these issues, which extend far beyond the reach of law enforcement, and frankly far beyond the reach of the city,” Walsh said. “These are societal issues and are influenced by every level of government.”
He said it’s something that impacts everyone.
“Oftentimes I hear from constituents or I may see social media postings questioning what we’re doing, do we see what everyone else sees, and the answer is absolutely,” Walsh said. “We live in this community, we work in this community, we see the folks struggling on the same corners that you do and we are investing in an unprecedented number of resources.”
Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens explained that opioid settlement money is helping to fund health and crisis services across the city. Teams from the Rescue Mission, Helio Health and Onondaga County are all being supported. Owens said funding won’t stop with just the one settlement.
“This is not the end of our commitment to this, we are in line for more opioid money, we are collaborating with Onondaga County for how they are initiating the use of their funding as well, so this work is going to continue with those outreach teams,” Owens said.
Law enforcement officials are also looking to step in. Syracuse Deputy Chief of Police Mark Rusin said the department’s Friendly Faces Program and county partnerships have been taking big steps toward crisis solutions by focusing on prevention. He said law enforcement is not the first solution.
“At some point, there might have to be a law enforcement intervention,” Rusin said. “I try to create every program, and the way that we focus on this is that police intervention comes at the last case, last resort.”
The city of Syracuse received an initial settlement fund of over 1 million dollars last year.
