Dear Friend,

I want to take this opportunity to talk about something difficult that many of our families in New Mexico struggle with but don’t always talk about — and that is addiction. 

Across New Mexico, countless families are struggling with addiction, from alcohol addiction to the opioid epidemic. Like many New Mexicans, this crisis has touched down close to home, and I know first-hand the pain of losing a loved one to alcoholism and fentanyl. That’s why the work to address addiction and our state’s behavioral health crisis is personal for me and why I am working every day in Congress to bring resources home to New Mexico to invest in our communities and their well-being.

This year, I partnered with Senator Heinrich to secure over $4 million in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill to construct New Mexico’s first medical sobering center in Albuquerque. This investment is part of a wider $28 million we secured for community projects in our district last Congress, including millions for behavioral health programs, Veterans transitional housing, and to support families and young people experiencing homelessness.

Last week, I joined Senator Heinrich and the City of Albuquerque to see these federal dollars get put into action with the construction of the Sobering Center’s future brick-and-mortar site. I am proud that the federal funding we secured is helping to construct a facility that will provide a safe place for community members struggling with addiction to access treatment, housing, and wrap-around services to support their needs and get back on their feet. You can learn more about the rest of the 14 projects we secured funding for in December here, and the projects we passed last March here.

 

‘This sobering center will literally save lives’: Rep. Stansbury recalls relative in visit to future medical facility

As we know, our challenges in New Mexico and across the country with addiction extend far beyond this project, and we need the resources to meet the needs of our communities. Last year, New Mexico received over $52 million in federal Health and Human Services funding for projects designed to address mental health and substance use. To give you a better sense of how this reaches our communities, one of these grants includes $1.5 million to support a program that specifically addresses the needs of our rural communities.

We must make meaningful investments in our communities to tackle the biggest challenges we’re facing. In Washington, I’m fighting for holistic solutions that address our public safety and behavioral health needs as we bring federal dollars home to support communities struggling with substance abuse and addiction.

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As always, if I can be of any assistance to you or your family, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or my staff at (505) 346-6781. If you’d like to keep up to date on what I am working on in Washington on behalf of New Mexico’s First Congressional District and our communities, you can subscribe to our newsletter here, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Sincerely,



Melanie A. Stansbury
Member of Congress