Opening Statement of Councilmember David Grosso

Committee Mark-Up:
Committee on Human Services
June 24, 2020

Thank you, Chairperson Nadeau. I know there have been many hours spent compiling this budget for
the Committee on Human Services and trying to find ways to fund our priorities. I applaud you and your
staff for putting this together in a very difficult budget year against the unprecedented backdrop of a
global pandemic and uprising against white supremacy.

The budgets for the agencies under this Committee’s purview are some of the most important out of
the entire budget. When dollars are in short supply, how we fund services for our most marginalized
communities and individuals tells a lot about ourselves.

Unfortunately, the human services budget as proposed by the Mayor falls short of meeting the human
needs of the catastrophe that is unfolding.

In a time of incredible need for our communities beset by disease, job losses, and centuries of racist
policies, this budget represents a slight improvement in some areas of the status quo rather than a
dramatic new equitable approach. It could go farther and be bolder and it is a shame that it does not.

On the bright side, you have managed to cobble together new funds to support permanent supportive
housing, street outreach, and important prevention programs for families and youth connected to the
child welfare system.

I am also thankful to the other committees which sent funds to support the emergency rental
assistance program or ERAP.

I am glad that the Mayor proposed an increase in funds for TANF and emergency shelter overflow at
hotels due to the expectation that more families will likely have to rely on those resource to make it
through the coming year.

On the capital side, the money for upgrading and replacing some of our shelters is important and long
overdue.

But the gaps in funding for ERAP, homeless services, and permanent housing to get people out of
shelter are severe and I hope we can tackle those at the full Council level.

I am also disappointed in the Mayor’s continued reliance on rapid rehousing as a solution to family
homelessness. I explored the ability of the Council to set some parameters around the 9 million dollar
increase in that program for the coming year, but was not successful in time for this mark-up.

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Low income families in this city were in crisis before this pandemic hit. That crisis is deepening. They
need real solutions from the government because the housing market is not meeting their needs.

We hear from the Mayor’s team that the homeless system is not the right place to provide permanent
housing and that is true to some degree. But there is no other system in place that is effectively
meeting the needs of families who can’t afford the rent.

When we paint a beautiful message that Black Lives Matter on a street in our city, we need to back it up
with actions. Our government is failing to meet the needs of Black low income families and we need to
seriously reevaluate how we are approaching this issue.

Housing, in good condition, is a basic human right which all our residents should have. I know this as a
human being, but also know this as the Chairperson of the Committee on Education.

Our inability to respond to the housing crisis directly undercuts our efforts to enure every student can
succeed in our schools.

I wish we could have done more at the Committee level to address this and hopefully we can make
progress before we pass the full budget.

Thank you to all the advocates and residents who have engaged in this budget process and pressed us
to recognize the crisis we face. Please do not let up. Keep holding our feet, and the feet of the Mayor
and her team, to the fire.

Lastly, I want to thank all of the government employees and contractors working hard to meet the
human services needs of our communities across the Department of Human Services, the Child and
Family Services Administration, the Department of Disability Services, and the Office of Disability
Rights. Your work is even more vital now than ever, and particularly for the front-line workers, the risk
of this work is real, so I express my utmost appreciation for you.

Thank you, Chairperson Nadeau. I look forward to voting for this report.

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