Kensington’s revitalization plan could be partially funded by opioid settlement funds

After initially ruling that Philadelphia should not have used opioid settlement funds to pay for a $7.5 million revitalization project in Kensington, the state commission overseeing that spending partially reversed course, finding that some projects funded under the city’s “Kensington Plan ” ”are a lawful use of money.

At its Thursday hearing, the Pennsylvania Opioid Trust Dispute Resolution Committee actually argued that two programs under the Kensington plan should not have been funded with settlement money.

A $2 million home repair program that would have given Kensington homeowners up to $5,000 to repair roofs, windows, walls and other essential parts of their home has been rejected. The second program rejected by the trust earmarked $400,000 for administrative support for small business owners in Kensington, such as accounting assistance and financial advice.

The commission voted unanimously to approve $2 million for after-school programs and security improvements at Kensington Public Schools, such as fencing upgrades; $600,000 for improvements and programs at local parks; and $1.9 million, which gave Kensington residents up to $5,000 to help pay rent, mortgages and utilities.

In total, the committee approved 68% of the funds spent on the Kensington Plan.

When the trust determines that the county is spending funds outside of the approved uses outlined in opioid settlements, it can reduce or withhold future settlement payments. Counties can appeal these decisions, as Philadelphia and several other counties have done. If the decision is upheld, municipalities will have three months to “correct irregular expenditure” before the trust reduces or withholds funds.

Philadelphia is set to receive $200 million over 18 years following a 2021 settlement between hundreds of communities and companies that manufactured, distributed and sold opioid painkillers widely blamed for fueling the ongoing addiction and overdose crisis.

Trust members did not outline their plans for future settlements to Philadelphia and did not say whether it would have to “correct erroneous expenditures” in the coming months. Thomas VanKirk, president of the trust, said the city could appeal the decision to the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.

In a statement, Deputy Mayor Dear Harris said the city was pleased with the commission’s decision and would continue to use settlement funds for “direct assistance and resources for Kensington.”

“People living in Kensington deserve to live in a clean and safe environment, a [Mayor Cherelle L.] “The Parker Administration strongly believes that using opioid settlement funds to invest in communities most impacted by the opioid crisis is consistent with the guidelines for the use of these funds,” Harris said.

Helping your Kensington neighbors

Kensington, once home to one of the nation’s largest open-air drug markets, has been devastated over the past decade by an explosion of overdose deaths. City officials cited research showing links between trauma, poor living conditions and the risk of addiction and overdose, and said Kensington’s plan aimed to alleviate that trauma by revitalizing the neighborhood.

“Kensington residents have been harmed by the opioid epidemic and prevention efforts like [the Kensington Plan] are most needed and most effective in areas like Kensington,” Keli McLoyd, director of the city’s Opioid Response Unit, said at Thursday’s meeting.

“To question it is to deny it […] “an extremely well-documented link between trauma and the risk of developing opioid use disorder.”

For example, she said, the estate-funded rent subsidy program was intended to prevent homelessness, which may lead to substance exploit disorders.

The small business initiative aimed to reduce the number of vacant lots in the area. Gina South, an emergency medicine physician at Penn Medicine, testified about recent research on how clearing apartment buildings and dealing with vacant properties can prevent overdose deaths.

Citing early findings from an unpublished study of Kensington’s previous revitalization plan, she noted that a program to remediate vacant homes in some blocks was linked to an 18% drop in fatal overdoses in the area.

“It didn’t happen by accident.”

At times, however, trust members said they found it difficult to make connections between addiction prevention and initiatives to improve housing conditions or help small businesses in the area.

VanKirk, who did not have a vote on the dispute resolution committee but spoke frequently about the project during Thursday’s hearing, said some of the problems in Kensington are long-standing and should not be solved with settlement money.

“We have all noticed and are very happy that Philadelphia is finally spending money to try to remedy this situation. But let’s be honest, this didn’t just start two, three, four years ago. The situation in Kensington has been going on for 30 years or more and allowed to fester,” he said.

Tumar Alexander, a member of the Opioid Trust who was Philadelphia’s managing director when the funds were spent and now serves as a senior advisor to the mayor, said the situation in Kensington is extremely difficult and that neighbors there have dedicated their lives to improving it.

“It didn’t happen by accident. This was something that the drug manufacturers knew what they were doing and they devastated this community,” he said.

VanKirk said he believed the funded programs were outside the scope of Schedule E, the section of the settlement that describes how the funds would be spent.

Other members of the trust said they believed some programs funded under the Kensington Plan were important, but approving them would result in too broad interpretations of Schedule E by other communities.

Deputy City Solicitor Ryan Smith responded that Kensington Plan programs are preventative measures to reduce overdoses, citing a line item in Schedule E that allows counties to fund “community-based intervention services” for people at risk for opioid use disorder.

“[Exhibit E] “It’s supposed to be liberal and if the exhibition doesn’t help prevent fatal overdoses, then I honestly don’t know what we’re doing,” he said. The most significant thing is that thanks to this spending we save lives.”

Three of the five projects included in the Kensington Plan were ultimately agreed upon by a majority of the trust’s members. Members said they were particularly surprised by the city’s evidence for improving parks and making school playgrounds safer. State Sen. Christine Tartaglione, a Democrat who represents part of Kensington, initially voted against the spending but voted to approve it in its entirety on Thursday.

The trust also voted Thursday to approve two previously rejected projects in Bucks County. Members moved to approve funding for the county’s “crisis stabilization unit” and again rejected funding for probation in county drug courts.