Where to Find Substance Abuse Resources in Milwaukee

By Edgar Mendez

This story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find other stories reporting on fifteen city neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Visit milwaukeenns.org.

As drug overdose deaths decline in Milwaukee County, those who provide on-the-ground services say better collaborations and efforts funded from an opioid settlement are the reason

“It shows that the collaborations, the pop-ups, all the work everyone is doing in the community is working,” said Tahira Malik, founder and chief operations officer at Samad’s House, a sober living home for women.

Drug overdose deaths dropped 30% in Milwaukee County from 2023 to 2024.

According to data provided by Karen Domagalski, operations manager for the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office, fatal drug overdoses decreased from 668 in 2023 to 466 in 2024.

It’s the second straight year that overdoses have decreased in the county, part of a national trend that is reversing years of soaring numbers of drug overdose deaths.

South Side hit hard

In terms of where overdoses are occurring in Milwaukee County, two ZIP code areas, both on the South Side, have been hit hardest.

ZIP code 53215, which includes the Lincoln Village and Polonia neighborhoods, experienced 40 drug overdose deaths, while 53204, which encompasses Walker’s Point and Clarke Square, among other neighborhoods, experienced 35 deaths.

Rafael Mercado, founder of Team HAVOC, a grassroots organization that provides Narcan, fentanyl testing strips and other resources to residents, said there’s still a shortage of sober living facilities.

He said drug use is rampant along corridors of West Greenfield Avenue, West National Avenue and West Lincoln Avenue, all on the South Side.

“Whatever they’re mixing the drugs with is creating a craving for more, especially for people who smoke drugs,” Mercado said. “It is creating overdose deaths in high numbers.”

Several North Side neighborhoods experienced more than 25 drug overdose deaths including the 53206 (29), 53208 (30), 53209 (25) and 53210 (27) ZIP codes.

Additional resources funded by opioid settlement

Malik’s group is part of a collective that has been going out each Monday for three years to overdose hot spots to provide Narcan, a drug used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, as well as fentanyl testing strips, self-care items, food and other resources to residents.

Several of those efforts are supported through funds provided through an opioid settlement that resulted from a lawsuit filed against pharmaceutical companies accused of fueling the opioid epidemic.

Milwaukee County expects to receive $102 million of the $780 million total that will come to the state through 2038, according to a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum, a nonpartisan independent research organization.

The report detailed how opioid settlement funds have been distributed so far in the state. It found that the largest amount of funds spent in Milwaukee County supported capital projects, including $4.91 million to Meta House to increase residential and treatment services there.

An estimated $4.8 million in grants were provided to community-based organizations to provide prevention, treatment and harm reduction services to historically underserved residents and other high-risk groups.

Overdose Dashboard

Settlement funds also supported the county’s work to set up data systems and other monitoring tools that support overdose prevention efforts. One of those tools was a new Overdose Dashboard that was launched on Feb. 18 by Milwaukee County and the Office of Emergency Management.

“We must prioritize evidence-based, data-driven decisions to develop effective harm reduction programs and services,” said Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley in a statement. “The Overdose Dashboard is a testament to the importance of collaboration in combating the overdose epidemic and driving meaningful change.”

The dashboard contains demographic data on fatal and nonfatal overdoses, including which drugs were involved, and information on naloxone, often referred to as Narcan, distribution.

Crowley said the dashboard was built using funds from the opioid settlement and is another example of how Milwaukee County is using data analytics to inform efforts of those working to slow the drug overdose epidemic and help drive policy decisions.

Malik said the collective her organization is part of, which includes Street Angels, Community Medical Services, Vivent Health, Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee Health Department and the Milwaukee Fire Department, among others, uses county data to help identify neighborhoods to target.

With the new and more advanced dashboard, she believes they can reach even more individuals who are at the highest risk of overdosing.

“Breaking down the data even further by gender and age allows us to know where we should be and who we should be talking to,” Malik said.

Disparities remain

Some groups continue to be hit hard by the overdose epidemic. NNS and Wisconsin Watch reported recently that older Black men, particularly those born from 1951 to 1970, have been most affected by the drug crisis in recent years.

That report was part of a partnership between the The New York Times, The Baltimore Banner, Big Local News and nine other newsrooms across the country that examined this as part of a national pattern.

Men from that generation accounted for 17.5% of all drug overdose deaths in Milwaukee County in 2024. That’s up from 16.2% in 2023 and 14.1% the previous year, medical examiner data shows.

Most of the older Black men who died in Milwaukee County in 2024 of overdoses had previously been incarcerated in Wisconsin state prisons, where long waiting lists for treatment continue to persist, and most died from combinations of fentanyl and cocaine, NNS found.

African Americans in general have experienced the highest rates of nonfatal and fatal overdoses in Milwaukee County over the past several years.

According to the dashboard, 76 of every 100,000 African Americans in Milwaukee County died of drug overdoses, while 947 of 100,000 experienced nonfatal overdoses in 2024. 

In comparison, whites in the county experienced 382 nonfatal overdoses per 100,000 people and 42 fatal overdoses. The rate for Hispanics was 386 and 34, per 100,000.

The dashboard also showed that the number of overdose deaths involving cocaine in 2024 was higher than the number of deaths that involved fentanyl (295 vs. 290) It’s the first time that cocaine was involved in more deaths than fentanyl in Milwaukee County since 2016, when the drug was newer to the market.

Malik said one reason for that shift is that, in addition to fentanyl, cocaine is being cut with other opioids that also can cause overdoses.

“We talk to people to make sure that they understand the stimulants that they do purchase may have other drugs cut into them,” she said.

Work must continue

Mercado said many will continue to use drugs because it’s an escape from reality. Those who want help, he said, have trouble finding it because of limited sober living facilities.

“The demand will always be there so we need our politicians to do more to create treatment centers or provide funding to expand existing treatment centers and place them in our inner cities,” he said.

As for Malik, she’s optimistic that targeted education and other harm reduction efforts by grassroots and other organizations will continue to drive down deaths. But she also knows that much work remains.

“The momentum we’re seeing does put wind beneath our backs,” Malik said. “But we’re going to continue the work and continue to get out there until we get the number of overdoses to zero.”

Where to find substance use resources in Milwaukee

https://milwaukeenns.org/2022/04/21/where-to-find-substance-abuse-resources-in-milwaukee/