Philadelphia Launches First Mobile Methadone Van in Kensington

Philadelphia officials and the nonprofit provider Merakey on Friday unveiled the city's first mobile methadone van, a recreational vehicle parked in Kensington where people can walk up, get a health exam and receive their first dose of methadone in less than an hour.

The ceremonial ribbon cutting at the Kensington Wellness Support Center on East Lehigh Avenue formalized a program that has been quietly operating for nearly a year. Merakey soft-launched the van at the same location in October 2025, and between then and this past August it connected 567 people to methadone treatment, program leaders said. About 90 percent of those patients were homeless at the time of treatment. Mayor Cherelle Parker said 207 of them were stabilized and reconnected with their families, NBC10 reported.

"Treatment is not a one-size-fits-all," Josh Vigderman, senior executive director for substance use disorder services at Merakey, said at the unveiling. "This program allows us to provide more personalized care, respond to the needs of the community and connect people to the services they so desperately need and deserve."

How the van works

The white RV sits in the parking lot of the wellness center, a short walk from SEPTA's Huntingdon station on the Market-Frankford line and several bus stops. Most patients are walk-ups, said Cristina Marino, Merakey's program director.

The front of the van is fitted out as a miniature doctor's office, with an exam table and medical and harm-reduction supplies. A physician evaluates each patient's needs and writes the methadone order; the patient then moves to a dispensing room at the back, where a nurse measures out the liquid medication through a partitioned window. The unit has security cameras and officers on site.

Intake is thorough but fast by design, Marino said, because people with opioid use disorder can go into withdrawal quickly — especially those using a street supply that increasingly combines fentanyl with medetomidine, a powerful veterinary sedative.

"A lot of them are sick," Marino said. "So, we're getting them on the methadone quickly. We're not having them sit for hours and things that a lot of people will associate with methadone intake."

Stabilization first, long-term care later

While the medication is being started, a team of clinicians, counselors and peer recovery specialists works on everything else: housing, hygiene, shelter placement and light wound care. After roughly two weeks of consistent visits, staff begin transitioning patients into long-term outpatient programs and brick-and-mortar methadone clinics — but only when patients show they are ready, Marino said.

"If a person is medicating consistently, their head starts to clear a little, right? And they start to use less. It's just what naturally starts to happen," she said. "I think this pathway is super important for high-risk patients when they're not ready to be overwhelmed with treatment or therapy."

Methadone is the most tightly regulated of the medications for opioid use disorder because it is a Schedule II controlled substance, and patients have traditionally had to travel daily to a licensed clinic for a single dose — a barrier for people living far from treatment or without stable transportation.

A model regulators opened up in 2021

The van exists because the Drug Enforcement Administration rewrote its rules in 2021 to let licensed providers dispense methadone from mobile units at remote locations, lifting a moratorium that had been in place since 2007. Merakey's program is among the first in Pennsylvania to operate under the updated rules; two other mobile programs serve Allegheny County and a group of six rural counties in the central part of the state. Similar vans have rolled out this year in Connecticut, where the state funded its first units with opioid settlement money, and researchers have documented early success with a long-running mobile unit in Rhode Island.

Startup funding for the Philadelphia van came from the city's share of the national opioid settlements with drug distributors and manufacturers.

Latika Davis-Jones, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, called the launch "an important step forward, not only for Pennsylvania, but for the entire treatment system," saying mobile delivery reduces barriers and brings care closer to people with opioid use disorder.

The van is stationed in Kensington to meet the neighborhood's concentrated demand, but Vigderman said the unit is meant to serve the entire city and may add locations. "I really believe that these mobile services we do are necessary in the continuum of Philadelphia's treatment system," he said.

People seeking treatment for opioid addiction can locate providers at FindTreatment.gov, and anyone in crisis can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.