Kennedy Says HHS Is Seeking Ways to Fund Faith-Based Recovery Programs

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday that the department is looking for ways to send federal money to faith-based addiction recovery programs, using a visit to a Christian treatment center in central Iowa to describe a barrier he says still keeps ministries like it off the federal payroll.

Kennedy toured Sheepgate, a residential recovery program in Colfax, about 30 miles east of Des Moines, and spoke to reporters afterward about the Great American Recovery Initiative, the addiction and homelessness strategy President Donald Trump launched by executive order in January. The center, he said, is a model for the kind of long-term care the administration wants to encourage — a year of in-house recovery followed by reintegration into the community.

"Our plan of Great American Recovery is to reorient recovery towards value-based recovery in this country," Kennedy said. "We follow the addict comprehensively over the lifetime, from detox to rehab to housing to jobs and stability. And that's value-based care — but also to include more and more faith-based care, and that's one of the reasons we came here to Sheepgate."

A model center with no federal dollars

Sheepgate does not receive federal funding, and neither does any other Iowa facility through the administration's flagship homelessness and addiction program, Kennedy acknowledged. The center runs on private donations, which he said are becoming harder to raise.

"This program is entirely funded by private donors, and that's getting harder and harder for them to do," he said. "And we want to make sure that these kind of programs — they serve such a critical role — we want to make sure that they continue to function."

Kennedy attributed the gap to a policy he said the Biden administration adopted "to stop all assistance to faith-based recovery programs and to discourage the state from supporting them." In April 2024, nine federal departments that oversee social service grants, including drug rehabilitation funding, finalized restrictions intended to ensure grant money did not pay for "explicitly religious" activities, a change some churches and faith-based providers said made their programs ineligible for federal aid.

Kennedy said the Trump administration has reversed that stance "at the top," but that administrative obstacles remain. "We've changed that policy at the top, but there are still impediments to us getting the money to these kind of programs," he said. He did not specify which rules or grant conditions HHS is considering rewriting, and the department has not published a proposal.

Where the federal money has gone so far

The administration's main vehicle for street-level addiction and homelessness care is the Safety Through Recovery, Engagement, and Evidence-based Treatment and Support program, known as STREETS, which is administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In October, HHS named the eight communities that will share $96 million over four years, with each receiving about $3 million annually.

Detroit, which Kennedy visited on Tuesday, received a $12 million grant over four years through the Detroit Health Department, according to the Michigan Advance. The secretary told reporters there that the program would carry a "new emphasis on faith-based recovery," and the head of the local behavioral health authority, James White, said the network intended to "work with our faith-based community to ensure that these programs are being implemented appropriately."

Faith-based organizations are not new to federal substance use funding. HHS has already sent $500,000 each to Alabama, Kansas and West Virginia for faith-based youth prevention partnerships, and the agency has folded a series of grant programs under the Great American Recovery banner since the spring.

What is new is the suggestion that organizations whose programming is explicitly religious could receive direct federal support — a step that runs into both grant regulation and First Amendment case law on government funding of religious activity.

The gap between a policy shift and a grant award

Nothing Kennedy announced on Wednesday changes what providers can apply for. The secretary described an intention, not a program: no funding opportunity, eligibility change or rulemaking was released alongside his remarks, and the secretary did not identify specific regulatory text he wants changed.

For treatment providers, the practical question is whether HHS reopens grant conditions that currently require separation between federally funded services and religious instruction — the structure that has let faith-based organizations participate in federally funded programs for decades while keeping worship and evangelism outside the grant. Loosening that separation is what would let centers like Sheepgate draw on federal money directly.

Kennedy's stops in Michigan and Iowa also came during an election season in which he has been an active campaign surrogate. HHS has not said when, or whether, a formal proposal will follow. People seeking treatment for opioid or alcohol use disorder can search federally maintained directories for licensed programs, including medication-assisted treatment providers, and can reach the national helpline at 1-800-662-4357.