Huntington mayor Steve Williams sat down with Mountain State Spotlight for an interview regarding the opioid crisis.
Williams, now in his third-term, is running as the Democratic candidate for West Virginia governor.
Below are some of his responses regarding policy to address the epidemic. It has been edited for length and clarity.
What did you do as Mayor of Huntington for the opioid epidemic that you would implement on the state level if elected governor?
Williams: Well, interestingly, they’ve already started the Office of Drug Control Policy. That was us. So I recently looked through some data you’re able to go through on the dashboard of the Office of Drug Control Policy. Data is critical, and if it’s old, then you’re trying to put out fires that may have been put out or maybe got worse.
Here’s the one concern that I have, is that fatal opioid overdoses, the state, doesn’t have any data beyond ‘21. I’d want to be looking at saying, ‘why is it that we’re not receiving the data?’ One of the first things I learned when we started working to fight the opioid epidemic is that if you don’t have real time data, it’s like you’re up to bat and you’re swinging at a ball that was thrown two innings ago. You’re never going to win that way.
Coming in as the governor, I’d be saying, “let me see your data and how you’re actually calculating it.” Why is it that we are only measuring overdoses, and we’re not getting what actually caused the deaths?
I want to do this with Dr Lloyd, who has just been the Director of the Office of Drug Control Policy – the man they say is the real deal. I think he brings to us what we need.
Then, I want to have conversations with county commissioners all across the state, because the Legislature, excuse the expression, did a chicken shit piece of legislation saying that county commissions make the decisions as to what the health department will do.
The harm reduction program, here. We have three members of the county commission. We have a mayor. None of us have medical degrees. None of us are scientists. But they’re saying, put it in the hands of the county commission to be able to say whether it will continue on or not. That is politicizing addiction. We need to make sure that we’re taking full advantage of science and let science dictate to us what we should and should not do.
Would you try to place that responsibility in the hands of the Department of Health?
I think each county should have the right to be able to make their own decisions. Again, you’ve got a mayor who respects highly local decision making.
The harm reduction program is more to help prevent the spreading of disease, and secondarily, give those individuals who are fighting addiction an opportunity to connect with individuals, and then we can have the opportunity to be able to encourage them to move towards treatment.
Not only in the city of Huntington, but statewide, there’s been some backlash against treatment centers, with some blaming the expansion of these programs on driving homelessness and crime. As Governor, how would you balance that backlash with the need to keep these programs available for people?
I want to distinguish between those recovery houses that are providing assistance to individuals and not becoming a flop house, just throwing mattresses down, and then just gathering money, and then when the first mistake that somebody makes or doesn’t follow the rules, they kicked them out the back door. That’s just a money grab.
What I really think we have to have is certification of treatment centers and recovery centers. I think they can be helpful if they’re showing that they actually have an evidence-based treatment program. The only way a new recovery house comes into Huntington is that they have several hoops that they have to jump through. First, they have to make sure their facility meets all codes.
There have been some that say, “We don’t have to do that.” And I said, “I don’t have to give you a license to do business.”
Either do it, or if you try to open one up without a certificate of occupancy and without a business license, with my signature on both of them, you can’t do business in Huntington. Go somewhere else.
But the problem is that only the population centers, the Huntingtons, the Parkersburgs, the Charlestons, the Morgantowns, Wheelings, Beckleys, and Bluefields are centrally located all over the state.
These folks sometimes tend to think that because they’ve been through what they have been through, that we’ll turn our head. I think we have to have unbelievably strong oversight at the state level.
I did what we could. We actually sued to prevent the Department of Corrections just sending individuals to anywhere, just so that they could get them out.
As we regulate hospitals, we need to regulate these as well. It’s almost like we have a certificate of need, much like the hospitals.
I imagine you had pushback the entire time. Where do you think people are at with it today?
People now are aware of what we have done. Now it’s evolved into the level of homelessness that we have. There’s still a big stigma with individuals who are fighting addiction. The one thing I’ve seen is those who have worked their way through treatment and have found recovery are heroes within our community. It’s amazing the things that they do, because all they want to do is help others. They’re not the ones that are trying to make the big bucks on it. I’d like to drop kick their butts into the Ohio River and wherever they land is fine by me. But the others who are truly helping individuals, God bless them all.
You’ve called Huntington the “City of Solutions.” We can take a drive over to the city mission and find throngs of people congregated on the sidewalks. What do you have to say to that?
A mayor’s work is never done.
I’m still the mayor. If I have a gift, I can bring disparate groups together and find a way to work together. I’m trying to bring some groups together, because there are some who are working well together, and then there’s some that aren’t playing in the same sandbox. I’ve got to hit the right tone with them to be able to say there’s more to be done. And I’ve got some members of council who are really concerned about this. We’ve got to have new facilities. That’s why we’re building the low barrier shelter, designing it so people stay in this area.
We need a campus where we’re providing — not out of the way — but a campus where those who were receiving assistance aren’t just sitting on the stoop of another business’s front door.
We need funds to get proper staffing for Harmony House and at the City Mission.
Homelessness isn’t eight to four. People need services in the evening, on the weekends, early in the morning. And there are some things that we’re talking about helping fund a location where that campus can be, where you can provide the continuum of care.
Let’s start putting a plan together, and then it’s something that we can hand off to the new mayor. I’ve been around long enough to know that once the new mayor is elected, everybody starts looking at them. But there’s still some things that I can do to help make sure that we start bringing folks together and whoever the new mayor is, let’s package it so that she or he would be able to go on and move forward. So as I said, the mayor’s work is never done.