ROCHESTER, N.Y. — At a time when opioid use and drug overdosing continue to rise, New York is working to combat the issue.

An award of $2.14 million to build a new medically supervised withdrawal and stabilization beds at Villa of Hope was announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo Tuesday.

Approximately 1,700 people were forced to travel outside Monroe County due to a lack of impatient detox bed availability last year, according to Villa of Hope CEO, Christina Gullo. The facility currently has 25 beds that serve people ages 18 and older. This money granted will add 18 beds to a new detox program that will expand services to anyone 16 and older.

“When you’re in another county and you need to return back, in many respects I think people look at those barriers and think I’m not going to go because that takes a lot of time and a lot of logistics and I think when someone decides they’re going to go to detox the best thing that happens is it’s in their own community,” said Christina Gullo.

“We need more detox beds and it’s important to recognize the detox bed solution and not the only part of the entire solution for the addiction epidemic. While we have the addition capacity for the detox beds, we have to keep working for additional capacity elsewhere,” said Dr. Michael Mendoza, County Public Health Commissioner.

Robyn Whittaker lost her son Jordan to addiction and says one of the issues they faced was the waiting list to get into a program.

“There is a huge need for that and a huge gab from when kids are seeking help to when they actually get the help so the more beds we can get the better,” said Whittaker.

Dr. Mendoza says having the conversation and breaking down the stigmas will go a long way.

“Everybody needs to come together and the stigma needs to go away. A lot of the parents here tonight or even the kids may know they have a problem, but they don’t know how to reach out and feel like OK, they’re not going to judge me,” added Whittaker.

Villa of Hope serves more than 3,500 young people and their families a year and Gullo says this is a great next step.

“I’m relieved for this community. I just think what a loss it would be if we didn’t right for this and we didn’t get these beds. It’s a lifesaving program,” added Gullo.