CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio — A decision Pickaway County commissioners made six years ago to steer opioid settlement money back into local communities is now paying utility bills and backup generators at a Circleville recovery home that houses women working to overcome addiction — and, for some, to reunite with the children they lost custody of along the way.
Ladonya Brady of The Covering, a residential recovery program operating in Pickaway County, told Circleville’s Finance Committee on Sept. 1 that women in the program receive food, clothing, shelter, transportation and support as they rebuild their lives. For some mothers, the organization said, that road eventually leads to getting their children back.
The organization put it to the committee this way: “We help them learn how to be a mom. We help them learn how to be family and to take care of their kids.”
The Covering, which is operated by the nonprofit Central Ohio Living Free, is asking Circleville to commit $25,000 from the city’s opioid settlement fund — $15,000 for backup generators and installation and another $10,000 toward utility costs at its Pickaway County homes. The request must still move through the city’s full legislative process before any money is released.
The dollars would come out of Opioid Settlement Fund 254, which Circleville City Council created in 2022 to hold the city’s share of opioid settlement proceeds for uses tied to addressing damage caused by the epidemic, according to city records.
That fund exists because of choices county officials made years earlier. In February 2020, Pickaway County commissioners weighed whether to support Ohio’s newly formed OneOhio approach to opioid litigation rather than pursue the county’s own lawsuit against drug manufacturers and distributors. According to commissioners’ minutes, the board believed a statewide settlement was preferable and likely inevitable, and was wary that individual litigation would send a substantial share of any recovery to contingency-fee law firms rather than back to affected communities. Then-Commissioner Brian Stewart, now a state representative, made the motion to support the OneOhio approach; Commissioner Jay Wippel seconded it.
A year later, when a national settlement involving drug distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen came together, Commissioners Gary Scherer and Harold Henson moved the county’s participation forward and authorized Wippel to execute the settlement agreement on the county’s behalf.
Under Ohio’s settlement framework, 55% of the state’s opioid settlement proceeds are managed by the OneOhio Recovery Foundation for regional treatment and prevention funding, 30% go directly to Ohio’s cities, villages, townships and counties, and 15% go to the state, according to the governor’s office. Ohio has received more than $223 million so far from national opioid settlements and the bankruptcy of drugmaker Mallinckrodt, with more than $800 million expected through 2034.
The Covering describes its mission as helping redeem women’s lives in a Christian home setting while rebuilding family, and it runs a 12-month residential program for women. The organization recently expanded its capacity by purchasing an additional home, according to its own fundraising materials.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Pickaway County Commissioners.
