NORTHAMPTON — Homelessness and substance abuse are often two sides of the same coin — and a grant distribution of $150,000, matched by three municipalities, signals a focused effort to combat both in 14 Hampshire County communities.

Tapestry Health, which focuses on substance abuse prevention, as well as Craig’s Doors, a homeless support nonprofit in Amherst, have together received the grant through the Mosaic Opioid Recovery Partnership, which has awarded funding in 75 municipalities in the state. The money is coupled with $150,000 more in contributions by Amherst, Northampton and Easthampton, which all gave $50,000 for the fight against the impacts of the opioid epidemic.

The two Hampshire Country organizations have already had a partnership with a common goal, but the new funding solidifies that shared mission.

“Craig’s Doors just has so much knowledge and expertise when it comes to supporting people facing housing insecurity,” said Liz Whynott, who has worked with Tapestry since 2008 as the director of harm reduction. “And Tapestry has a lot of expertise providing services to people who are actively using drugs and not ready to stop using. So the idea is to bring our agencies closer together to provide more comprehensive care.”

Tim McCarthy, executive director of Craig’s Doors, gave a shout-out to Tapestry, saying the partnership will prove to be “evolutionary.”

The funds will support a new staff member at each organization, as well as enhance programming.

“It’s bringing together Hampshire County towns in kind of a new way,” said Whynott. “It’s an intentional grant to collaborate across town borders.”

The two organizations will be expanding their outreach in 14 communities thanks to the funding: Amherst, Chester, Chesterfield, Cummington, Easthampton, Granby, Hadley, Hatfield, Huntington, Middlefield, Northampton, Plainfield, Southampton and Worthington.

A new van purchased with the influx of funding will replace a van broke down last year, said Maya Elsner, director of advancement at Craig’s Doors, allowing the agency to expand its efforts in “towns that are more rural.”

Remaining funding at Craig’s Doors will be used to provide hotel vouchers, which McCarthy said has been an extremely affective way to cut down on exposure deaths, which result from unhoused people sleeping in the elements during the worst months of winter.

“It’s been two years since there has been an exposure death in Hampshire County,” he said.

Much of Tapestry’ outreach is through a secondary education course in which clients share educational materials and resources with people they know. Whynott described it as “a way for drug users to bring those they know that are suffering to a facility.”

This, she said, both, “educates people who are accessing our services while also paying them, and honors their time, expertise, and allows for more resources to go to very underfunded towns.” Outreach also includes distributing the overdose reversal treatment naloxone, the generic name for what is commonly known as Narcan.

According to Whynott, the greatest strengths of the two organizations lies in their ability to reduce stigma while focusing on harm reduction, as opposed to mandating people become entirely sober.

“We’ve specialized for years helping people to decrease risk of overdose, as well as disease transmission from needles,” said Whynott. “And so our history is really like reaching a population that’s not quite met by others. Craig’s Doors has a very similar philosophy, and when they started they were the only shelter in Hampshire County that allowed people to be open about their substance use, as [access to] their facilities was based on behavior,” said Whynott.

As for McCarthy, he gave glimpses into how Craig’s Doors “stretches every dollar we spend.” An example of this is that staffers handle their administrative duties from their cars, since their former administration building, a stationary trailer, has been revamped into a resource center, with a shower and a place for clients to keep warm.

The influx of funding comes at a time when, “Hampshire County, just like the rest of the country, unfortunately, has seen an increase in a lot of people needing services,” Whynott noted.

A massive increase in the availability of synthetic opioids beginning around 2016, most notably fentanyl, led to a spike in overdoses around the country. According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 9 million Americans age 12 and older abused opioids in the past year, and more than 5.5 million live with opioid use disorder. More than 100,000 people have been dying annually from drug overdoses, with 75% of those deaths involving opioids, including fentanyl.

The Easthampton, Northampton and Amherst municipal funding is made possible through Opioid Settlement Abatement Funds.

Mosaic Opioid Recovery Partnership, which issued the grant, is funded by the state Department of Public Health and the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services.

Samuel Gelinas can be reachd at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.