Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Invests $12 Million to Expand Peer-led Substance-use Recovery Services Across New York City
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good morning, everyone. It is a true pleasure to be here at Phoenix House celebrating your 59th anniversary. This is the oldest opioid recovery center in New York City, and it's a privilege to be joined by those who know the cost of the opioid crisis all too well. Those who have dedicated their lives to helping others overcome addiction. And I want to first acknowledge our hosts at Phoenix House and our president and CEO, Ann-Marie Foster, who is here with us. I want to thank our electeds who I'm standing alongside. We have the elected representing this district, Council Member Chi Ossé. Thank you for having us here. And my former Council member and partner in this work, Council Member Tiffany Cabán. And I want to also acknowledge Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin, who leads our DOHMH, as well as peer recovery coach for Phoenix House, Shabazz Wilson, who is standing alongside us and is an example of just how critical this work is. Now in 1967, six former heroin addicts met in the detoxification unit at Beth Israel Medical Center. Even though they were substance-free, there was no clear path forward beyond the hospital doors. No community there to catch them if they fell. So, with the support of Dr. Mitchell Rosenthal, the then deputy commissioner of New York City's Addiction Services Agency, they decided to build it themselves. Phoenix House was born in a brownstone on West 85th Street. It was built around an idea that might feel straightforward today but was revolutionary at the time. No one recovers alone. But as Phoenix House grew its capacity to support New Yorkers over the decades, the number of New Yorkers in need of help grew too. Because in 1996, Purdue Pharma brought OxyContin to market. While OxyContin and other opioids have reaped tens of billions of dollars in financial rewards for corporate giants like Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Mallinckrodt, McKesson, McKinsey and more, they have plunged countless New Yorkers deep into the depths of addiction. There are times when corporate greed is subtle, where the ripple effects of an all-consuming profit motive are not immediately apparent. That is not the case with the opioid epidemic. There is no denying the staggering human cost of Big Pharma's greed [and] the toll it has taken on our city. In 2022, it was estimated we lost a New Yorker every three hours to an overdose. We feel the effects of this crisis in families, missing parents and children, or when we see someone struggling with addiction on the subway or on a park bench. Too many of our neighbors, especially in neighborhoods like Morrisania, Tottenville and East Harlem, have known the struggle of addiction. Too few have had access to substance abuse treatment and resources. But those who have suffered have not done so in silence. They have organized. They have called for change. When Attorney General Tish James secured $3 billion in a landmark settlement win against the pharmaceutical giants who created this crisis in 2019, returning the resources extracted by corporate greed back to those who needed it the most, it was in no small part thanks to New Yorkers who stood up to injustice. Thanks to those resources, thanks to our on-point overdose prevention centers, and thanks to the continued work of organizations like Phoenix House, slowly things began to improve. In 2024, overdose deaths across the five boroughs dropped by 29 percent, the first substantial decrease in nearly a decade. That percentage is not abstract. It translates to 864 more New Yorkers who are still with us today. Provisional data from 2025 shows that that downward trend has continued. This momentum is too valuable to squander. So, as we look to the future, we are building on what we know works, what we know saves lives. Today, I am proud to stand here alongside partners in government to announce that we are investing $12 million of the settlement fund secured by AG James to support community-based organizations like Phoenix House. This money will be allocated to seven nonprofits across the five boroughs: Phoenix House, Pillars, Fortune Society, Samaritan Daytop Village, Odyssey House, Exponents and Community Health Action of Staten Island — to expand outreach and grow peer-to-peer specialist programs. Peer specialists offer something no other provider can, the credibility of a shared experience and evidence that recovery is possible. And they provide New Yorkers in the midst of recovery with the structure, the stability [and] the purpose that helps them maintain their progress. Jean Scott, a former Phoenix House member and employee, is proof of how this model works. Born and raised here in Brooklyn, she fell into heroin addiction and a cycle of arrests before arriving at Phoenix House — jaded and skeptical. In her words, her fellow members would say, “Good morning.” And she'd say, “What's so good about it?” But the peer-to-peer model worked. She slowly learned to trust those who shared her struggle. And she began to glimpse a different path for herself. She recovered, then spent the next four decades working at Phoenix House, facilitating prison treatment programs across the country. We want to see more stories like Jean's. That is why we have set a goal of reducing overdose deaths across the city by 25 percent within the next four years. Today's investment will help us get there, and it will build on the work City Hall has already done to address this crisis over the past four months. Since January, we have extended hours and expanded health services at OnPoint Overdose Prevention Centers [and] expanded the Health Department's nonfatal overdose response program, and we have supported harm reduction, recovery and treatment services on Staten Island. This work is just beginning. Those in this room know better than anyone that recovery is not a linear process. Yet we are committed to being a partner in that process for all who call this city home and to providing that partnership without pain and without stigma. Because when corporate greed shatters lives [and] when profits plunge people into despair, we will not hesitate to use the full force of government to both hold responsible those accountable and to invest in those who endured such pain. Phoenix House was named after the Phoenix, which was reborn from the ashes. Fifty-nine years later, the commitment upon which it was built — that every New Yorker who needs a second chance deserves one — remains our commitment today. And I will say that as someone who, as an assembly member, was able to see up close and directly the work of this organization in our shared district, it is such a pleasure to return here today as the mayor to speak about the importance of this work and to urge all of us to work to support those who need our help and to deliver a city where every person is treated with dignity and with compassion. Thank you very much. And now, I'm going to pass it over to our DOHMH commissioner, Dr. Alister Martin. Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: One more time for Mayor Zohran Mamdani. So, my name is Alister Martin, and I'm the Health commissioner, and I will be your MC for today's run of show. Huge thank you to all of you for joining us today, and thank you to Phoenix House for hosting us. I also want to do a quick shout-out and thank you to the organizations that do this work every single day. Many of you are here today in this building. We've got Community Health Action of Staten Island, we've got Exponents, Fortune Society, Odyssey House, Let's Talk Safety and then Samaritan Daytop Village. Look, as the mayor said, the peer model for treating substance use disorder was born right here. Nearly 60 years ago, six New Yorkers in throes of heroin addiction moved into a brownstone together to support each other through their sobriety. Those six people laid the groundwork not just for Phoenix House but for an entire nationwide movement on peer recovery. This model honors the fact that people in recovery have a story to tell that no one else can. And what those six New Yorkers knew in that brownstone, I had to learn from myself as an ER physician just about ten years ago. Ten years ago, my team and I were running a hospital-wide program to get emergency room physicians an extra certification so they could provide treatment to folks with addiction. But there was one thing standing in our way. The training took a whole lot of paperwork and a whole lot of time. It added eight extra hours on top of a busy doctor's schedule. We couldn't mandate the training, and we didn't have any money to pay people to do the work, but we needed to show physicians why they should do it anyway. There was one thing that worked. We found people our ER doctors had treated before. Our frequent flyers. People whose substance use disorders had landed them in our care in the ER night after night after night, and when they stopped coming to our ERs, it was easy to assume that they had succumbed to their disease. They had died. But what we found instead was that many of them were still alive. They were in long-term recovery. So, we invited them back to the ER to tell their stories. One of those people walked in wearing a light blue suit and a tie. He started off by telling us this was the second most important speech he was giving this week. The most important had been the one he gave two days before, asking his girlfriend to marry him. He was back in college. He was planning a wedding. He was building a future with the people he loved. He told us that it was only possible because of the love and support he got from his family and because a doctor took the extra time to be there when he was finally ready to start his own journey of recovery. Hearing from him and other patients of ours is what convinced my colleagues to spend the time to sit through that eight-hour training so that they could give their next patient the opportunity to take their first steps on their own roads to recovery. Because of stories like his, 95 percent of our hospital's ER physicians ended up getting certified to treat substance use disorder in the ER. These stories have a special kind of power. The people who have been through it themselves tell stories that no one else can. It's what moved providers to action, and it's what moves people struggling with substance use disorder, too. That's why today's $12 million investment will go towards a peer workforce development program, including internships, scholarships and direct hiring opportunities. Over the next four years, this money will go towards helping deploy 500 more peers in communities just like this one. It's 500 people ready to retrace their own steps on the road to recovery and bring someone back with them. It's 500 people who might one day walk into a room wearing a suit. We are proud to make this investment and proud to stand with organizations doing this work every single day. We also know that none of it happens alone, and I'm grateful to my colleagues all across the city who are helping to do this work every single day. I am now honored to be able to invite Chair Cabán to give some remarks, who is one of those people fighting every single day right here.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, we are reaching the end of the state and city budget processes. There is progress towards closing our historic budget gap. I think the Assembly speaker today said that — he said, “I think we're getting closer to getting the city to zero.” And he was speaking about that in terms of a budget deficit. And frankly, I'm grateful to Governor Hochul, to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, to State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, for their continued partnership in this. And I'm feeling hopeful about the direction of those negotiations. And as the governor said, yes, I spoke with the governor yesterday. I have been in regular contact with the governor. I was also in regular contact with the Assembly speaker, the State Senate majority leader. And those were productive conversations.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source The reason that we focus so much on getting that deficit number down to zero is, if we are to get there, then it means we do not have to raise property taxes. We do not have to make cuts. We do not have to rate our reserves. And that's why their partnership in getting that number down to zero is so critical. Because it allows the city to finally be back on firm financial footing, something we haven't been on for quite some time.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think a lot of those conversations are ongoing. And we've said time and again that we're confident in that tax's ability to raise half a billion dollars a year, which will be critical in putting the city back on that firm financial footing. And I would say that even since the announcement of the extension, we've seen progress in our conversations with our partners in Albany. And we're hopeful of that continued progress. While we know that there's still some work to be done in the final stages of the state budget, we will be putting forward our executive budget on Tuesday.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think that a lot of these conversations are ongoing. What I will say is that I've been very clear to our partners in Albany, the importance of continuing mayoral control and having that be something that we resolve so that we can make it very clear as to what our vision is for our school system and our ability to implement that same vision. I think we always have to wait until the final budget agreement to see everything that is actually included within it. But we've been very clear that it is a part of our agenda in working with Albany.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Well, at the city level, we saw that the legislation as it was originally introduced versus the legislation as it was finally passed had a number of changes, many of which addressed the constitutional concerns that have been put forward. And we saw that legislation as addressing those issues. That's with regards to the city legislation. I think we'll wait to see the details of any state agreement.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, I think that the conversation as a whole is still ongoing. What I will say is that on February 17, when we put forward our preliminary budget, we said that we had been able to reduce that deficit to $5.4 billion. And we've seen progress since the 17 of February, including this pied-� -terre tax, which would raise $500 million annually for the city specifically. And the additional conversations, they continue with the governor. We've been clear that this is a structural crisis. This is not a crisis that is born of one-time spending that happened this year. It's one that was inherited of continued spending from years prior, spending that recurs. And what we've said is that for a structural crisis, you need a structural solution. And a solution that is structural can either be that of raising revenue that recurs or that of cost shifts that recur. And so, we've seen, you know, prior to the preliminary budget announcement, the governor's announcement of $1.5 billion in recurring assistance and cost shifts. We've continued to put forward a number of different options of how we would get to zero.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think we've seen progress in the conversations since then. I would say that the final portion of that debate, that budget negotiation is still ongoing, so it's a little bit premature to say.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think that any New Yorker raising their voice for a fairer tax system where the wealthiest New Yorkers, the most profitable corporations, pay a little bit more so that everyone can afford to live here is doing a service to our democracy. And I will say that it is — the governor put forward a proposal that we very much support, that a vast majority of New Yorkers support, that would tax the secondary homes of nonresident New Yorkers that are worth more than $5 million. And that pied-� -terre proposal is, at its core, a tax on the wealthiest New Yorkers and one that is also critical to helping to resolve the city's budget deficit. And I think that we are seeing that there are still a few more things to be discussed and agreed to in that state budget negotiation, but we are hopeful as to the direction of that conversation and the progress that we've been seeing over the last few days and weeks.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think we will see in Albany, in these final days of a budget negotiation, there is still a lot that becomes clear hour by hour, day after day. And we already know more now than we did prior to the previous executive budget deadline. And we are confident that as we put forward our budget, it will be one that both accurately and responsibly makes clear the city's bill of fiscal health and also charts out a course to address what is the largest fiscal deficit the city has seen since the Great Recession and, frankly, dwarfs even that.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Invests $12 Million to Expand Peer-led Substance-use Recovery Services Across New York City.