Champaign County has directed over $700,000 in funds over the past two years from national opioid settlements to housing, health and safety supplies, medical equipment and improved access to medical care.
A national settlement of $21 billion was reached with several major pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors and retail pharmacy chains that were found to have contributed to the opioid crisis. Beginning in 2023, Illinois has received more than $530 million in settlement funds so far, which has been distributed in part to Champaign County.
The settlement money is to be used exclusively to combat the opioid crisis through prevention, treatment, recovery and safety initiatives.
The county’s Opioid Settlement Task Force decides on how the funds are allocated, Jennifer Locke, the task force chair, said in an interview with CU-CitizenAccess. She said another $18,000 has been requested for emergency medical equipment but is not yet approved.
The task force reports to the Champaign County Board. The group includes Locke, Vice Chair Ed Sexton and members Daniel Wiggs, Emily Rodriguez, Aaron Esry, John Farney and Brett Peugh.
The task force is responsible for reviewing funding proposals, ensuring expenditures align with state guidelines and documenting how the county addresses the opioid crisis locally.
“When we got this money, we decided it shouldn’t be a ‘whole board’ thing because it’s going to be a big, daunting task,” Locke said. “So we made it a task force.”
County spent $730,000 in allocations on variety of programs
Records from the task force show Champaign County has spent $730,489 on initiatives since it began receiving settlement allocations in 2023, ranging from harm reduction supplies like syringes and naloxone to equipment upgrades for the coroner’s office.
The largest share, $580,000, went to C-U at Home in 2025, a local nonprofit providing shelter and transitional housing for people who are homeless. Locke said the funding will reserve 10 spaces for Champaign County residents who are homeless and opioid users.
The task force has also allocated funds for gaps in treatment and prevention programs. It directed $7,500 to Rosecrance in 2024 for a sign-on bonus program aimed at retaining staff who provide medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. Another $60,424 went to the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District in 2023 for harm reduction programs that supply clean syringes, distribute naloxone and provide community outreach.
The Champaign County Coroner’s Office received $79,244 in 2025 to purchase a Randox Multistat Analyzer device, which improves and speeds up the office’s ability to detect opioids in toxicology testing and track overdose-related deaths more accurately.
The Probation Department, which oversees treatment and rehabilitation for individuals in the justice system, was granted $2,000 in 2024 to support transportation for individuals entering inpatient treatment programs in an effort to remove access barriers for those seeking recovery.
One funding request remains pending: $18,000 to the Broadlands-Longview Fire Protection District for medical equipment, specifically a LUCAS machine to aid in strenuous CPR applications as residents experiencing heart failure in this area typically see longer emergency medical response times. The task force is expected to revisit the proposal at its next meeting.
“[Before the settlement] we had some medication assisted treatment in our community, but not enough,” Locke said. “Not even enough for the people in drug court, and that’s only the people that are already involved in the criminal justice system.”
She said a goal of the task force was to help get treatment to those who have been “dancing through the raindrops” and have not been criminally involved yet.
The county task force expects continued settlement disbursements through 2038, totaling nearly $2.7 million over the next 13 years. The following figures represent projected allocations and are subject to change as additional settlements are finalized.
Effects across state and nation
Champaign County’s efforts represent one local example of how national opioid settlement dollars are being used to address the epidemic. The funding originates from a series of multistate settlements between governments and several major pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies accused of contributing to the opioid crisis.
The executive summary of national opioid settlements states that, overall, the pharmaceutical companies will pay up to $21 billion over 18 years, and Johnson & Johnson will pay up to an additional $5 billion over no more than nine years.
Illinois is projected to receive over $1.3 billion in opioid settlement payments by 2038.
Under the Illinois Opioid Allocation Agreement, settlement money is divided among the state’s remediation fund, the state and local governments. The agreement assigns 55% of the money to the Illinois Opioid Remediation Fund, 20% to the state and 25% directly to counties and eligible municipalities.
A separate agreement with Chicago redirects part of the state’s share to the city for abatement purposes, which raises the effective local share to roughly 33%.
The Illinois Office of Opioid Settlement Administration oversees the state’s remediation fund and requests quarterly expenditure reports from local governments. As of October 2025, Champaign County’s reports have not been posted to the state’s dashboard for its 2024-2025 fiscal year.
The state agreement lists 12 approved categories for how local governments may spend the funds:
“It’s sad that we got this money, but now it’s our duty to put it back out responsibly,” Locke said.
Meeting minutes and agendas for the next Opioid Settlement Task Force are posted on the county website.