In the alleys of Carrollton Ridge in Southwest Baltimore, two men carefully stepped around signs of hard life on the streets: a firepit, a soiled mattress and discarded clothing. They stopped to pick up used syringes and greet people huddled near the abandoned rowhomes nearby.

“What’s up, Champ? The van’s out there,” said Bakari Atiba, director of community engagement with Charm City Care Connection, an East Baltimore-based nonprofit that serves people who use illegal drugs.

Over the next hour, dozens came up to the organization’s van and walked away with clean needles, toothpaste, condoms, bandages, pads, the overdose-reversal medication Narcan and test strips for detecting the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.

This spring, Charm City Care Connection became the first community organization to receive money from a 2018 Baltimore lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors that went to trial in September. The litigation has so far resulted in $668.5 million in settlements and jury awards.

The windfall has been heralded by city leaders as potentially transformative for Baltimore, which has in recent years experienced the worst overdose crisis of any major American city.

The city has earmarked a portion of its settlements for 22 organizations, including $5 million for Charm City Care Connection. With the money, the long-running nonprofit plans to buy a second van and hire employees to reach more people in overdose hot spots, according to Executive Director Anne Langley.

Atiba, a 47-year-old Baltimore native, has been leading efforts by the group to expand outreach to Baltimore’s west side, which has some of the highest fatal overdose rates in the city.

Citing the urgency of the crisis, city officials encouraged the nonprofit to move quickly to expand to West Baltimore, Langley said. But the first deposit from the city took 10 months to reach the organization’s bank account.

It takes time to get something off the ground, but “the longer you wait, the more lives are lost in the process,” she said.

So far, no other community organizations have received opioid restitution funding. The city’s goal is to approve the majority of grant agreements by July 1, Jonas Poggi, a spokesperson for Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, said in an email.

The city has been working with each organization to decide how to spend grants “in alignment with the city’s strategy and best practices,” he said.

“This is a new process that the city is developing, and we appreciate the patience and partnership of our community organizations,” Poggi added.

While awaiting funding, Charm City Care Connection began stopping at Carrollton Ridge in addition to its East Baltimore routes, setting up on the corner of Monroe and Ramsay streets almost every Tuesday morning, according to Atiba.

It stretched the organization’s limited resources, but the need in the area was immediately noticeable, he said. Employees collected hundreds of syringes every time, and passersby stopped to thank them for their work.

With funding now in hand, Charm City Care Connection plans to add more West Baltimore stops.

The nonprofit also coordinates schedules with a mobile clinic that helps treat opioid addiction so clients don’t have to walk far to access a range of health services.

Langley said community organizations and government agencies can accomplish more when they work together, but conversations have remained fragmented at a time when collaboration would make the most of the city’s windfall.

Poggi with Scott’s office said the city established a new Office of Overdose Response to improve coordination, along with networking and educational sessions for organizations receiving new city funding.

One recent Tuesday morning, 54-year-old Troy Alexander reflected on his own struggles with addiction as he handed out supplies from the back of Charm City Care Connection’s van.

He said he began sniffing heroin as a teenager and spent three decades on the streets of West Baltimore before he entered recovery six years ago. He eventually found full-time work at Charm City Care Connection.

“I wish they had something like that when I was out here,” he said.