In the past year, the initial winnings from Baltimore’s legal fight against opioid manufacturers and distributors — more than $180 million so far — have started to flow into city coffers, while leaders have drafted plans and assembled boards in the name of community engagement and transparency.

But only $2 million is slated to be available to community organizations interested in applying for grants this upcoming year, a detail some local advocates were dismayed to recently discover in the mayor‘s proposed budget.

The windfall of cash from the city‘s yearslong lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies gave frontline workers in the overdose crisis, like red Nesbitt, hope that things would change.

In recent years, Baltimore had become the overdose capital of the U.S., with a drug fatality rate nearly double that of any large city, reporting by The Baltimore Banner and The New York Times revealed last year. While the death toll shot up, top city officials became preoccupied with other crises and many efforts to fight overdoses stalled, reporters found.

“I thought maybe my organization could hire more people, my colleagues would get raises and there would be more Narcan for clients and food to hand out,” said Nesbitt, a therapist who treats people with substance use disorder in Baltimore. “There was real hope, for a little bit, that we could keep making good strides and really get some justice for the folks of Baltimore who have been really screwed over by the city, and the state and corporations.”

But seeing the numbers in the city‘s budget document brought a sinking feeling to Nesbitt’s stomach: “It was really devastating.”

The city’s $4.6 billion preliminary budget, which can still be amended as it is considered by the City Council in the weeks to come, appropriates a total of $36.7 million from the Opioid Restitution Fund, which is meant to be spent over the next 15 years on overdose prevention, addiction treatment and offering safer options for people who use drugs.

Of that amount, more than $17 million is earmarked for city agencies whose programs touch upon the crisis, including the health and fire departments and the Mayor‘s Office of Homeless Services. Another $17.4 million will go to community organizations named in settlement agreements last year, leaving only $2 million to be awarded competitively to other community organizations.

Nesbitt and about a half dozen others who work with people experiencing drug addiction attended a city budget town hall Tuesday night with questions and concerns.

Candy Kerr with the Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition told Mayor Brandon Scott and other officials in attendance that she understands they need to weigh the needs of city agencies, but that more funding should be available to community organizations.

“As people that are on the ground doing the work, I wanted to make sure that we could have money to do the work,” Kerr said later in an interview, adding, “This is a lot of money and there are a lot of opportunities to do things, I think specifically in Baltimore City, that can be revolutionary for the rest of the country.”

Scott said this week he had a “great conversation” with the advocates who attended his town hall meeting, and said he is open to discussing how much money from the fund will be set aside for community organizations. However, the coming fiscal year is unique, he argued, because so much money will already go to community groups via the agreements built into the settlements.

That doesn’t mean, Scott cautioned, that the city’s Opioid Restitution Advisory Board, a 20-member group chosen to make recommendations on how the city should spend opioid restitution funds, will have more control of funds in the following year.

Board members were surprised to discover last week they would have input on only $2 million — 5% — of the money the city is looking to spend next year, Mobtown Redux, a newsletter that focuses on Baltimore’s drug addiction crisis, first reported.

The group, which Scott said in February would play a “critical” role in shaping the way the city uses money, is still “advisory,” he said this week.

“This isn’t just we have a board, and the board says where the money goes,” he said. When plans for the funds were announced in December, officials said the advisory board would make spending recommendations to an “Overdose Cabinet,” which would then review the recommendations before the mayor made a final decision.

Scott said a request for proposals will be issued by the city’s Office of Recovery Programs and applicants will be carefully vetted.

“We’re taking the advice of the board and the board members and all these other folks about where they think money should go and balancing that with the realities of the world and whether we can support organizations,” he said.

More details on how city agencies intend to use their portion of the funds is expected in the coming weeks as the City Council begins a series of hearings on Scott’s proposed budget.

Budget documents indicate the health department plans to establish a new division of overdose prevention and hire 25 new employees, an expense that could commit future years’ opioid settlement funds. Other proposals include expanding the services of a special fire department first responder team that connects overdose survivors with resources and funding city shelters.

Council President Zeke Cohen said he is looking forward to a “robust conversation” on the budget, and said he is open to hearing recommendations on adjustments.

“I’m always going to listen to advocates, the restitution board, anyone who has thoughts on the city’s budget,” he said.

The 15-member council is required to pass a budget shortly before the new fiscal year starts on July 1, and the group has the authority to make amendments to the spending plan. Scott’s budget plan faces other challenges this year, including a $85 million structural deficit and an anticipated shortfall in income tax revenue as a result of federal workforce reductions.

Last fall, the city won $668.5 million through a lawsuit filed in 2018 against opioid manufacturers and distributors, which said the companies played a role in creating the opioid epidemic in Baltimore by inundating pharmacies with addictive pain pills. The city argued the companies should pay an additional $5 billion to help tackle the crisis. A judge is expected to make a decision in the coming month.