PUBLIC RECORD — HEALTH & ACCOUNTABILITY
Rockland will receive opioid-settlement money through 2038. What has it actually built so far?
A settlement is not a service. The public record becomes meaningful when residents can separate money promised from money received, money spent, and help that exists today.
Rockland County says it began receiving payments from national opioid settlements in 2022 and expects intermittent payments through 2038. The schedules and permitted uses vary by settlement, but the County says the money can broadly support substance-use treatment, recovery, prevention, training, coordination, planning, and research. Read Rockland’s settlement-funds dashboard ↗
What the County’s posted ledger shows
Those numbers require a large warning label. The County says the direct-fund expenditure total reflects payments only through the first quarter of 2025. The OASAS expenditure total reflects payments through the second quarter of 2025. Both notes say additional 2025 payments were pending. The figures are therefore a dated public snapshot—not a current cumulative audit and not proof that the balance is sitting unused.
One planned service is now publicly listed as live
The settlement dashboard describes a 24-hour behavioral-health access line developed through an award to Samaritan Daytop Village. That page originally projected an early-2026 launch. Rockland’s current Mental Health page now lists the Behavioral Health Helpline and Mobile Response Team at 845-517-0400, available around the clock by phone or in person for children and adults. See the current County service listing ↗
The existence of a phone number does not answer every accountability question. The public pages do not show call volume, response times, successful connections to care, languages routinely available, or how often mobile response is deployed. Those are outcome questions for a later reported piece.
Recovery housing exists; other projects remain plans
The County says settlement funding supported two Oxford Houses in Rockland beginning in 2024. It describes them as peer-run, drug-free recovery homes. The dashboard does not publish their current capacity, openings, resident outcomes, or whether two houses meet the level of need.
The same dashboard says the County was preparing a request for proposals for as many as four vending machines stocked with naloxone, fentanyl and xylazine test strips, and other harm-reduction supplies. The page does not establish that those machines have been installed. Until locations or an operating announcement are posted, they belong in the “planned” column—not the “available now” column.
How residents can keep following the money
Rockland says it will hold a public opioid-settlement meeting each May and invites residents to subscribe for announcements or submit feedback through the dashboard. New York’s Office of Addiction Services and Supports also maintains a statewide settlement-fund tracker, which reported more than $454 million made available across initiatives as of October 20, 2025. Open the State tracker ↗
This article reports what the County’s public pages establish—and what they do not. It does not measure service quality, utilization, current housing availability, or treatment outcomes. The Rockland Edit will treat new spending figures, contracts, locations, and performance measures as updates to the public record.
Sources: Rockland County Department of Mental Health; New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports; New York State Office of the Attorney General. Public pages checked August 25, 2026.