Alliance Alert: The Alliance for Rights and Recovery is deeply alarmed by reports of the abrupt and widespread cancellation of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grants across the country. These sudden terminations threaten critical mental health, substance use, overdose prevention, and homelessness services that communities rely on every day. As the article details, these grants support front-line providers delivering lifesaving services, including peer support, naloxone distribution, crisis response, and recovery services. Pulling this funding without warning risks immediate service disruptions, program closures, and devastating consequences for people already facing immense barriers to support.
We are actively gathering more information from providers and partners to better understand the scope and impact of these cancellations, particularly in New York. If your organization has been affected by these SAMHSA funding cuts, we urge you to reach out to us directly (Lukes@rightsandrecovery.org). Hearing from providers on the ground is critical to ensuring elected officials have an accurate picture of how these decisions are impacting services, staff, and the people we support across the state. This information will help inform advocacy with congressional leaders and state officials as we push to stop these cuts and hold the federal administration accountable.
We will continue working closely with national advocates and policymakers to demand that the federal government follow through on awarded contracts and protect the funding that underpins our mental health and substance use safety net. These programs save lives, stabilize communities, and are essential to public health and recovery. We will continue to keep our members informed and share opportunities for advocacy as this situation develops.
Trump Administration Sends Letter Wiping Out Addiction, Mental Health Grants
By Brian Mann | NPR | January 14, 2026
The Trump administration sent shockwaves through the U.S. mental health and drug addiction system late Tuesday, sending hundreds of termination letters, effective immediately, for federal grants supporting health services.
Three sources said they believe total cuts to nonprofit groups, many providing street-level care to people experiencing addiction, homelessness and mental illness, could reach roughly $2 billion. NPR wasn’t able to independently confirm the scale of the grant cancellation. The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) didn’t respond to a request for clarification.
“We are definitely looking at severe loss of front-line capacity,” said Andrew Kessler, head of Slingshot Solutions, a consultancy firm that works with mental health and addiction groups nationwide. “[Programs] may have to shut their doors tomorrow.”
Kessler said he has reviewed numerous grant termination letters from “Salt Lake City to El Paso to Detroit, all over the country.”
Ryan Hampton, the founder of Mobilize Recovery, a national advocacy nonprofit for people in and seeking recovery, told NPR his group lost roughly $500k “overnight.”
“Waking up to nearly $2 billion in grant cancellations means front-line providers are forced to cease overdose prevention, naloxone distribution, and peer recovery services immediately, leaving our communities defenseless against a raging crisis,” Hampton said. “This cruelty will be measured in lives lost, as recovery centers shutter and the safety net we built is slashed overnight. We are witnessing the dismantling of our recovery infrastructure in real-time, and the administration will have blood on its hands for every preventable death that follows.”
Copies of the letter sent to two different organizations and reviewed by NPR signal that SAMHSA officials no longer believe the defunded programs align with the Trump administration’s priorities.
The letter points to efforts to reshape the national health system in part by restructuring SAMHSA’s grant program, which “includes terminating some of its … awards.”
According to the letter, grants are terminated as of yesterday, Jan.13, adding that “costs resulting from financial obligations incurred after termination are not allowable.”
The National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors sent a letter to members saying it believes “over 2,000 grants [nationwide] with a total of more than $2 billion” are affected. The group said it’s still working to understand the “full scope” of the cuts.
This move comes on top of deep Medicaid cuts, passed last year by the Republican-controlled Congress, which affect numerous mental health and addiction care providers.
Kessler told NPR he’s hearing alarm from care providers nationwide that the safety net for people experiencing an addiction or mental health crisis could unravel.
“In the short term, there’s going to be severe damage. We’re going to have to scramble,” he said.
Regina LaBelle, a Georgetown University professor who served as acting head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy during the Biden administration, said the SAMHSA grants pay for life saving services.
“From first responders to drug courts, continued federal funding quite literally save lives,” LaBelle said. “The overdose epidemic has been declared a public health emergency and overdose deaths are decreasing. This is no time to pull critical funding.”
Requests for comment from SAMHSA and the Department of Health and Human Services were not immediately returned.
This is a developing story.
Trump administration letter wipes out addiction, mental health grants : NPR