Sophie Sonnenfeld Photos
The Human Services Committee meeting Tuesday night.
The Board of Alders Human Services Committee voted Tuesday night to authorize the city to apply for two grants, one to tackle lead paint poisoning, the other to help ex-offenders transition to life outside prison.
The first grant is a continuation of a funding grant that awards $139,136.87 from the Connecticut Department of Public Health to help pay local health department salaries.
“The state prefers grants for salaries, not office supplies or equipment,” Acting Director of Health Roslyn Hamilton explained to the committee during the hearing, which took place at City Hall.
Roslyn Hamilton before the committee.
Hamilton said the money will help the health department in its quest to hire up to eight lead inspectors, which Hamilton said “we just don’t have the money for now.” She said these new hires would also respond to public health complaints, which is “a necessity for our city to function.” The Harp administration has promised to step up enforcement of lead paint laws in the face of a legal aid lawsuit and public criticism.
Hill Alder Evelyn Rodriguez said she is in support of the program, but the Health Department could be doing more.
“I’m a little concerned about grants in the Department of Public Health. Someone there should be focusing on getting more grants as we continue to look at areas of great need,” she said.
Hamilton said the department also have $71,000 of carryover money from the previous year’s budget. She said the department planned to hire six inspectors, but the state thinks it needs eight. So the department is now looking to hire eight with the help of the grant.
She also said they might contract the role out and bring in inspectors from other cities or eliminate some of the senior inspector qualifications and lower the starting salary by instead hiring untrained workers right out of college. It wasn’t clear how much either possibility would save.
Carlos Sosa-Lombardo before the committee.
City Community Services Administrator Dakibu Muléy and Project Fresh Start Director Carlos Sosa-Lombardo testified for the second grant, which would use federal Labor Department money to fund case management services to help incarcerated people leaving prison who suffer from substance abuse disorders.
Sosa-Lombardo said the project has helped 4,500 individuals, but with the grant, they will be able to provide 120 people with an intensive case management program.
The case management program will link former inmates to career services, substance abuse programs, and help them secure basic necessities. Sosa-Lombardo said “housing is one of the biggest hurdles for these people,” so the program has worked to establish partnerships with other local organizations.
Sosa-Lombardo said that of the 526 men released back into New Haven in 2018, 393 of them needed substance abuse treatment, and a whopping 90 percent of women released back into New Haven required substance abuse treatment. Muléy said the project will select the 120 individuals to receive help based on “who needs the treatment most, and who is most motivated to seek treatment.”
While the final amount of the grant wasn’t clear at the hearing, Fair Haven Alder Kenneth Reveiz called the presentation “really solid.”
“It’s a very ambitious and focused project, and I’m in good faith that they will figure the math out and communicate it with the committee,” Reveiz said.
The full Board of Alders will now cast a final vote on these two measures.
Besides the two grants discussed Tuesday night, the alders withdrew discussion on two additional grants whose application dates expired. They also withdrew the ‘Tobacco 21’ order of raising the minimum age for the legal sale of tobacco products from 18 to 21 as the issue has been handled by the state.
