Wake County seeks public input on $67.7 million opioid settlement funds

Wake County leaders gathered at the McKimmon Center at NC State University on June 24 to ask residents how the county should spend $67.7 million in opioid settlement money over 18 years. Alyssa Kitlas, the opioid settlement program manager, said 169 people died in 2024.

Wake County has already started putting settlement dollars to work through a community planning process and an Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee made up of key community partners. The county’s goal is lasting addiction-care infrastructure, not disconnected, temporary programs that disappear before the need does.

The county’s priorities include naloxone access, treatment and recovery support, recovery housing, early intervention and services that reduce barriers to behavioral health care. Support for people in the Wake County Detention Center is part of the settlement strategy, along with broader efforts to move people from crisis response into treatment and recovery.

SouthLight Mobile is funded through Wake County opioid settlement dollars, and the state’s first Mobile Opioid Treatment Program launched in Raleigh in August 2025. A new recovery café and hub is part of the growing local network of services.

The Wake County Board of Commissioners approved the fiscal 2025 opioid settlement funding plan on April 15, 2024, after a community meeting in March 2024 drew more than 150 people in person and virtually. Wake County later announced more than $8 million in additional settlement funds on Aug. 20, 2025.

That money has already supported naloxone training and distribution. Since July 1, 2024, county staff have trained more than 345 people to administer naloxone and distributed more than 1,000 naloxone kits. Wake County’s settlement allocation is listed at $67,736,628 through 2038, part of North Carolina’s broader settlement framework that sends 85 percent of most funds to local governments and 15 percent to the state.