By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Buchanan County officials are seeing a growing number of homeless people throughout the county.
Buchanan County Presiding Commissioner Lee Sawyer says there's no sure-fire way to solve the problem
"It's a difficult situation and I think these things kind of tend to go into long term cycles," Sawyer tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "But, certainly a lot of what seems to be done is not working great."
Sawyer says while part of the problem is due to mental health, another cause of the problem is the opioid crisis in Buchanan County
"It's the root of a lot of crime, it's the root of a lot of homelessness, it's the root of a lot of financial disaster for people," Sawyer explains. "It's a very difficult thing."
Sawyer says both the homeless and opioid problem in Buchanan County are ongoing issues that are becoming more difficult to solve.
Sawyer says some relief could come from funds the county will receive as part of an opioid settlement.
Sawyer says city and county officials will get together once that money is received to find the best way to use that money to help with the opioid situation.
"And that's really complicated," Sawyer points out. "But there are people that are doing good work, we just want to try to not be to fragmented, you know there's a lot of groups with really good intentions that are doing good things, but how can we take that money and really try to hit as much of a bullseye on various aspects of that as we possibly can."
Sawyer says he hopes that money will be seen in the near future and it will need to be used towards things such as opioid rehabilitation and prevention.
Sawyer says it's a hard situation to solve with the growing number of deaths in the county, many of them due to fentanyl.
"Young people or people unaware that they're getting something like that and the lethalness of fentanyl and those kinds of things, it's scary," Sawyer says. ."You know you worry about people that kind of unknowingly do something maybe they shouldn't even be doing but still they're not expecting anything like that."
Sawyer says it's an ongoing effort working with medical and law officials to try to curb the problem. He says funds were expected earlier this year, but officials are still waiting for them to become available