Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) announced Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, a new $700,000 round of Boston overdose response grants for six community organizations, along with an expansion of the PAATHS care-coordination program, according to the City of Boston.
Who Gets the Boston Overdose Response Grants
According to the city’s announcement, the grants will support overdose prevention programming through mid-2028 at six organizations, chosen after review by a community committee, the city and BPHC:
- Boston HEAT
- Bowdoin Street Health Center
- Casa Esperanza
- Community Caring Clinic
- North Suffolk Community Services
- Upham’s Community Care
The city said the funding comes from major litigation in which pharmaceutical companies paid settlements over their role in the opioid epidemic, which the city said killed nearly 3,000 people in Boston from 2015 to 2024.
For context, the city’s July 8 announcement described $600,000 in new funding for the program and said the request for proposals had recently opened; the procurement listing shows proposals were accepted from June 30 to Aug. 25. The Sept. 29 release refers to $700,000 and does not explain the difference from the earlier figure.
PAATHS Care Coordination and Outreach Changes
BPHC said its PAATHS program (Providing Access to Addictions Treatment, Hope and Support) is launching PAATHS Care Coordination, building on a six-month pilot. According to the city, staff will stay connected with clients after treatment referrals as they move between providers and levels of care, helping with barriers such as transportation, language access and housing instability.
The release also said BPHC’s Recovery Services Bureau Street Outreach team, known as the “Red Shirts,” expanded its hours earlier this year and now operates 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weeknights and 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends. The city also described the Mass and Cass Table, a case-conferencing group co-chaired by BPHC and the Boston Police Department’s Citywide Hub program, which it said has facilitated 90 connections to care over the past year.
What City Officials and Grantees Said
Wu said in the release that “everyone on the path to recovery should be able to easily access the resources, guidance and support they need to build a healthy life.” Public Health Commissioner Dr. Bisola Ojikutu said the city is “strengthening our neighborhood networks of care.”
Samantha Taylor, executive director of Bowdoin Street Health Center, said “this funding will help connect more people we serve to care when they need it most.”
Overdose Data and Earlier Grant Results
The city said its programs and investments have contributed to a 29% drop in deadly overdoses in 2025 compared with the previous year, and that 2025 saw the fewest deadly overdoses in Boston in a decade. It said the first round of grants, awarded in 2024 to five organizations, connected nearly 2,000 people to treatment and other services, trained 760 people in overdose prevention and distributed 5,100 doses of naloxone. Those figures are the city’s own; we have not independently verified them.
How to Reach PAATHS
The city said residents can contact PAATHS at 1-855-494-4057 or 3-1-1, and can walk in at 774 Albany St. during business hours. For other recent city funding programs, see our coverage of the Boston Housing Accelerator Fund and earlier city funding for immigrant services.