Equity, Gender, Seniors, Families and Vulnerable Populations Committee - Regular Meeting

Committee on equity, gender seniors, family, and vulnerable populations. I am city councilor at large, Kristen Strezo. I'm the chair of this committee. It is Wednesday, 04/16/2025. It's 06:02 p. M. We are in the subcommittee room, and we are also having a remote participation option here. So we are virtual and in person. And pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2023, this meeting of a city council committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of those proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the city of Summerville website and local cable access government channels.

Sir, can you please call the roll? This is roll call. Councillor Davis?

Here.

Councillor Mbaugh? Councilor Schrezo? Present. With two councilors present, we have quorum. Okay. Can we the first thing on the agenda is we have to do an approval of the minutes. Is there any way we can lay it on the table and then have a vote to on with that? So that's item one two five zero seven two. Are we good? Yep. Okay. Cool. We have a really tight meeting today because we must leave by six 07:00 for the another meeting coming up. So it it will be tight. The conversation won't won't be as long as I'd love to be today, but we can always pick things up at a later time.

So we'll go right to yep. Our first our second order, 250117, that the director of Parks and Recreation discussed in the committee on equity, etcetera, the introduction of an ongoing middle school girls' intramural hockey program. Here to speak on this item, we have, some members of the community. Community. We have a mentee, and we and and and just I don't know if you'd like to speak.

We have some members. Yep. Got it. I totally respect that. We have some members to speak at the at the committee and speak as well to discuss, well, the importance of this, and I'm gonna give you the floor. Please state your name, anyone who wishes to speak. And, yes,

Hi. I'm Annette McKee. That's what shows, so thank you. Absolutely. And I'm representing a parent group that is dedicated to growing girls hockey in Summerville.

We're here to advocate for an ongoing intramural middle school girls hockey program to be established in the twenty five-twenty six school year as a crucial stepping stone to building towards a Summerville only, Summerville High School varsity girls hockey team. We're advocating for this middle school program because we feel it will open up opportunities to girls in a sport in which girls face many significant barriers. Girls face gender bias in hockey. Unlike a sport like tennis, hockey still faces the persistent misconception that hockey is a male sport. In fact, this bias is not entirely misplaced.

Consider, most girls choose to lead co ed teams by around age 13. When checking, an intentional violent collision by one player to separate another player from the puck is introduced. Checking is part of not just boys teams, but coed teams as well. So girls want to play instead with other girls on all girl teams, which from thirteen years on through the collegiate level do not allow checking. In other words, the default rules for coed hockey games are the rules of boys' games.

Somerville does not offer any girls only teams, so our girls leave for other town hockey programs or clubs. Economic barriers. Hockey is expensive. Tuition and nonprofit volunteer run town programs like Summer World Youth Hockey Association are over $1,700 and higher in surrounding towns. Club tuition is pricier and could easily double that.

Hockey requires a lot of equipment, and the equipment is expensive. Girls also face cultural barriers. Hockey has been historically associated with Northern European countries and the northern parts of North America. Not all Somerville is north Northern European. We want kids from all different backgrounds to feel like they can play hockey too.

We want players to represent all of Summerville. I also want to talk briefly about the barriers intrinsic to hockey. Ice hockey is unusual among most high school sports because it requires mastering the skills of two separate ice skating stopping, quick turns and pivots, explosiveness, agility and the stick handling, shooting, teamwork of street hockey. Because of this, unlike many other high school sports, it is not feasible to create a girls' varsity team with players who are new to ice skating and expect them to compete at the varsity level.

Okay. That's

fine. We feel that these kind of barriers diminish interest among girls and prevent them to have access. So providing this inter free intramural middle school girls hockey program opportunity that's open to every girl in Summerville, whether or not she has any hockey experience, would significantly reduce these gender, economic, cultural, and ice hockey barriers, and it would give girls who are new to hockey enough time to develop the skills needed to play at the high school level. I understand that needs drive programming, but I want to say that opportunities also drive interest and need. We're encouraged by the success of programming like the Summer Bowl Parks and Recreation Summer Girls Hockey Clinic, like the Summer Bowl girls lacrosse team, which started four years ago, and also like programs like Lowell High's girls wrestling team, which also started four years ago, four years later won the state's title.

None of these programs were started because it was a clamor for need. Instead, opportunity was provided, and girls took those opportunities. According to the Women's Sports Foundation, by age 14, girls are dropping out of sports at twice the rate of boys, and one key reason is the lack of access and limited opportunities. We also feel like, traditionally, boys' hockey has been well supported by the city, and we'd like to see girls' hockey supported in the same way as well. We this past couple of months, we have shared out an interest survey among middle school aged girls to gauge interest in a potential free middle school girls intramural program.

We received almost 50 responses. 60% of them expressed, yes. They would like to they would be interested in participating in the program, and about 18 responded with maybe. So how would this happen? Because we understand that there are logistical challenges to creating a program, especially like ice hockey. It's not just putting shoes on a girl and having them run out on the field. I feel like we have a number of really significant strengths in our community. One is just the parks and recreation Somerville learned to play clinic. That was a success. Most of those girls continued on to continue to learn hockey.

Seminole youth hockey itself is an enormous strength and advantage for our community. They have a collection of high quality used equipment. They have agreed to help lend out this equipment to girls in the middle school program. I've also connected with a larger community. Brookline JV Coach is willing to help any kind of coach who is would be coaching a middle school girls hockey team. There would be a large skill spread, and he has a lot of experience doing this. He's also offered to donate equipment that they can't use. Melrose, varsity coach. We're gonna we're gonna

I wanna give everyone a chance. Sure. Because Absolutely. Yes. Appreciate that. Okay. So the so what is what Annette is saying that there this has been well thought out. And and we have director here today and from from rec. And thank you so much for director for the memo. We do appreciate it.

And the the the path that it has taken to get here in committee, I did for anyone that is just jumping on board to be like, okay. Where are we? So there has been, about a year ago, the the learn to skate program for girls only, Designed for girls to learn how to skate was created by the Somerville by the women in this room wanted this program. And director of rec, you were you you helped make this possible. It was a pilot program in August.

And then we had long conversations about, well, how do we keep the momentum? And, and there was interest and, significant interest. And as far as I recall, it exceeded what, it was, expected to do. So keeping that interest in girls with hockey, one of the steps where this could be possible is an intramural team. And an intramural team would be, from what I understand, only in Summerville.

So it would be different schools can be playing a Somerville, girls doing this, and and strictly Somerville centric. There's a need for this. There's a want for this. And I also want to point out that this was very much when our mayor, Mayor Valentine, was a ward seven counselor, this is very much a priority of hers. She, for years, worked hard faculty in sports, specifically talking about the conversation of we know that plummet of girls' sports in the in pre in puberty around 12.

Girls participation in sports just it it it plummets. It doesn't exist anymore. This was hard work that that our mayor had already spent years doing. So my question is, why not? And is that goal towards equity still present? And can we make this possible in Somerville? Have Director Yerkis. I'm happy to hear your thoughts on this, but we also have Counselor Davis who wishes to speak. Councilor, do you prefer to hear from director Yerkis, or or would you prefer to speak first? But but

Thank you, madam chair. I'm happy to as at your will, I I think, you know, we have a memo from director Yerkis. If there's if there's something my my thought would be if there's something new or different than what's in that memo, then certainly, I'd be interested in hear that. If not, I've read it. And given the time crunch here, I I'd be inclined to not, you know, not hear that repeated. I understand. I'll defer if there's if there's new information or a different approach, then I'd I'd happy to to hear that first.

Absolutely. Director, is it okay if, councilor Davis chimes in? Is that okay? Sure. Sure. Sure. Okay. Thank you very much. Councilor Davis, you have the floor.

Okay. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, director Yerkis, for being here and and for, for your response. And thank you to, all of the folks in the room for your your advocacy for this. I'm in a unique situation.

You know, the the sort of the general rule is that we don't talk about our personal experiences as as, members of a of a elected body. But I think in this particular case, you know, I I can speak to, what I have seen in in in my role as a a parent of, both, male and female hockey players as a coach of of many hockey teams over the years. And and I'm I currently am am a coach of a 19 and under girls half season team in Cambridge. Both of my kids played youth hockey in Cambridge for a variety of reasons, many of which were frustrating to me because it's much closer to play at the summer rink, and I would love to have them playing for the hometown. But there's no girls program in in some of our youth youth hockey, and and that is something that is, let's say, a separate issue that I hope is also change in my understanding is that, you know, we're we're on the right path there as well, and that will certainly help help feed a a a middle school program down the road much more so than, you know, than the current situation.

But as far as the response from the administration, you know, I, you know, respect and appreciate the response. To me, it it really falls it's really an empty response. I just you know, I I don't it's not satisfying to me to sit to hear, well, we did a few other things. We didn't get a lot of people there, and so therefore, we shouldn't try a different Right. I I think it's it's my experience with girls from Summerville playing hockey is that there are lots of kids who who probably would be interested in this.

I've coached girls from Summerville on on the Cambridge team. I've coached girls from Somerville on on multiple Cambridge Youth teams over the years. You know, many of them play youth in in Charlestown or Medford or Woburn or you know, Woburn has a fantastic combined program with Medford and Burlington, I think, MassBay Warriors. You know, these are these are are outside of the cities, but, you know, youth programs that have really committed and dedicated themselves to to developing, you know, female athletes and hockey players. And it's awesome.

You know, having coached both coed and all girl teams, I can tell you that girls hockey is one of the greatest sports that exists because, a, and I'm biased. I got my gear right here. I'm going to play a game tonight in my old farts league. Hockey is such a unique sport for many of the reasons that miss McKee described. And and female athletes, as compared to the to to the COVID situations, it's such a different environment.

It's so with obvious exceptions, there's always gonna be a few, but it is so supportive. It's so, you know, focused on on on the team, on the unit, on lifting each other up. The environment in in a girls team is is so different and so incredible. And and I can just I see the growth in these kids because even the team I teach is I coach is essentially the the Cambridge high school team before the season starts. But because some of them play other sports, we're always filling in.

So I'm coaching sometimes middle school kids that are coming up and learning from the older girls and and just to see the way they're welcome, to see the way that they develop. I've coached long enough. I've seen some of them from seventh grade up to now gonna be seniors next year, and it's amazing. It's it's truly incredible, and this is true of lots of sports, of course. It's one of the magic things that sports can do for kids. But there's such an opportunity here in Summerville. Women's hockey overall is is having an incredible moment. We are in the second season of a the first true, fully professional, fully, financially supported women's hockey league. The the the Boston team is quite good. They went to the finals last year.

Hopefully, they'll have a good playoff run this year, but there's also some of the best colleges in the in the country, female, you know, women's college teams in the country right here in Boston. You know, if we if we provide an opportunity for kids to to try and pursue this thing that they've seen, they've heard about, they're going to be seen more seen more of as the as the women's professional league, you know, grows, if if they're talking about expansion, you know, if you can see it, you can do it. Right? And they're seeing it now, and I think it would be such a a missed opportunity for us to not give them this opportunity to then go do it, to try it out. I have no doubt that we would have we would have lots of interest.

And and the one one last thing I'll say is, you know, I've heard a couple of concepts of how this program could be structured. I think I'd caution about getting too set it's gonna depend. We're gonna see what what we have for numbers. We're gonna see what we have for skill levels. You know? We'll but that's the beauty of hockey. Even a large program like, you know, my experiences in Cambridge, they don't know exactly how many teams they're gonna have and how it's gonna work until we, you know, we get everyone in there. So but that's okay. Like, that's how youth sports works. Right?

But there's a lot of different ways this can work, and and and I think if we have the will and and I really look to the mayor's office. Right? I I you know, my experience in this city is is that not not just this administration, just generally the way our city government works, the commitment has to come from the mayor. If the mayor is on board with this, it'll happen. And so I'm I'm asking the mayor to commit to this because it would be an incredibly great opportunity for girls to experience, a a new athletic activity, new for some and and can, you know, continue those who who have already picked up the game at a younger age. Please, please, please, please, let's commit to this.

Thank you. And and might I might I thank you, councilor Davis. And might I add to this, we have a director Singh from the mayor's office here. Sorry to I'm I'm looking at you. I'm trying to make sure that we're having this this this this meeting on time.

But I I so thank you for being here today. And I I do wanna emphasize that I was I was in the women's commission. I was the chair of the women's commission, and I was working side by side with your boss, the mayor of Somerville, who was a ward seven counselor, and we were trying to crack this nut of how we get more girls in sports in that pivotal time where where where we see lots of boys participation in sports, and we couldn't figure out how to entice more girls to do more sports in this time period because we don't segregate herself with steam building and just we couldn't crack it. This is how, by the blessing, she was able to become mayor, and she's serving in this role. So we are highly emphasizing how important that is.

This is the work that she has done and the cornerstones she has built and has now made it to this level. It is completely in her hands. When we are asking, when she commit to making this possible for us, We have to move on to our our crossing guards conversation. But before we do, it's it would not be fair. Director, you're you're welcome to speak if you wish. Want to hear from you. We got the memo, so we know what it says on it. And for anyone in the public, you can look it up. It's attached to this agenda item. But, director, you have the floor to speak if if you have anything to add or or to anything to that.

Just very quickly, as a season ticket holder of the fleet, I can agree that women's hockey is on an upward swing locally. But I would also like to mention as a commitment to the equity, diversity, and inclusion in our department, We are committed to inclusionary activities. Since I've been the director, we have implemented the registration on my rec for translation, for the technology piece. We have opened up registration early for those that have obstacles to technology funding, and just want to make sure that you all are aware that we do try very hard to make sure that everything that we do is inclusionary. We've increased girls activities since I've been here, the, girls and sports day and the list that is on that memo.

But we've also included or increased other programming as well or program offerings for teens, for seniors, for differently abled, for the unhoused. So as a department, that we are committed to equity and inclusion for all ages and all genders and all abilities and all vulnerable citizens. We can't be everything for everybody, but we try very hard to make sure that everything that we do is very inclusionary. And I just wanna make sure that you all are aware that we do we hear you, and we do try very hard to make sure that everything that we everything that we program for is thought out, well planned, sustainable, and can grow from from what we start. So, anyway, thank you for for inviting me here to speak.

Director, thank you very much. Thank you for your your comments and for the memo. Director Singh, if if you wish to speak, you're wrong. You don't have to, of course, if you don't want to. But if you'd like to say something, you're welcome to before we move on to agenda items. Happy to. If you Sure.

Thank you. Through the chair, if I could just briefly add, first, please note that the mayor and and the person director, we remain committed to advancing equity in all our programming. We also remain committed to working with families and advocates who've been pushing this forward. So I can't commit to the fact that director Yerkes and the and the mayor were committed to continuing to have conversation with you and working with you to figure out solutions to to the barriers that we're currently facing. Thank you, Jer.

Thank Thank you you very much. Thanks. Thank you for that. We're gonna keep this in committee, and we'll move on from from to our next agenda. And thank you so much for being here, and we'll discuss this because we have other on the items to discuss at another meeting. We'll we'll check. Thank you. So the next agenda item, we have two we're going to take together. Yeah. You took no.

It's 625. I wanna take these items together because they are related. We have order 250463 that the director of human resources, director of parking, director of mobility, and chief of police respond to the recent incidents of four children being hit by cars in the past few months in advance of school. Mhmm. Order 250464.

The chief of police report on the current number of regularly staffed crossing guards throughout the city and the total number of crossing guard positions currently available. These are my items. I put them in because, yes, it was astonishing to hear that we have had, we have three confirmed. I I heard four, but we there was confusion as to where the fourth one was. But there were so so in the past couple of months, there have been children hit on right there at Highland And Vinyl, right in front of the high school, where there are two signs that say do not turn left, yet cars consistently, car after car after car after car still turn left, which they are turning left into a crosswalk and teenagers, etcetera.

That was where one child or teen was hit or no other age, but someone was hit on Medford Street behind the high school. And then also we know that a child was hit at near the on Elm Street, I believe, right near the Kennedy School. From what I heard, it started from the mother. The child was very shaken up about it and reasonably so. So this leads into the the order talking about crossing guards and the fact that we have a massive shortage of crossing guards.

We have had a massive shortage shortage of crossing guards for years. Aside from the fact that I have been told and we've been told that this is a regional problem or that we can't find staff or we can't find people to be hired for crossing guards. And I I I'm just giving updated information of things that I've heard in response to this that that that we can't find people that can come from seven, I'm sorry, 07:45 or whatever the time is until the beginning of the day and then come back at the end of the day for, that period of time or the pay is is low. I wanna give props to the city. We did increase the pay for the crossing guards, and and that was, I I don't know whether that that would that help with the pruning.

But I do know that this is one of a few obstacles to safe streets. I am aware that we have safe street plans, and we have roadways, and we have lots of talk about design implementation. That's awesome. However, how can that prevent a child from dying tomorrow morning? That is what I'm asking.

I am asking for short term. What are the short term solutions? Not the long term street design of all that stuff, which is fabulous and we all want. What are we doing this month, April 2025, to fix a problem of the shortage of crossing guards? So has anyone from the city is there a memo to to about the number of crossing guard positions currently available? Do we know if we have anyone to speak on that? Or who I see we have okay. Sergeant McCary. Welcome. And can you please stay you're you're on mute.

He's unmuted. No? Hi.

How are you, madam clerk?

Yeah. There he is. Hi.

Thanks for inviting me for today. I'll be speaking on on this matter for the department. So we currently, we have 35. We're funded for 57 positions. 58 if you include the supervisor position that just recently got put out.

Currently, have 35 crossing guards on the roster, of which 31 are active. There are four that are out for various reasons, injuries, medical conditions, and so forth. The human resources at city hall has actually done a excellent job this winter of getting us 10 viable candidates that are in the process of being outfitted with uniforms, in the early stages of training, that we hope to have on the street at their own locations in about two to four weeks. Most of that is, having their uniforms come in, which would bring us up to, 45. That still leaves us, 12 short of our goal of 57 locations.

We're also working with the administrators up at the high school, to push out the word to high school students to try to cross at crosswalks. I'm aware of the locations you have note that you have noted, the Highland And Vinyl specifically in the no left turn. We've deployed some of our traffic officers, even our traffic lieutenant was up there a few days reminding the parents of that no left turn. And I'm told by the school administrators that they're also putting that out to their staff and home to students' parents, you know, to abide by that no left turn. We will continue to be putting officers up there, rotating the mornings on various days so that we don't have any particular pattern to discourage that left hand turn at Highland and Vinyl.

I we have had discussions with Mobility about some long term plans. But I know that, know, miss Chair, you you were interested in what we're gonna do now. So, you know, that deployment of officers on various days at that location, We also have upcoming grant work that we can dedicate some of those funds, to pedestrian safety at, various positions along that stretch of island. And we will continue to work with HR to attract new candidates for filling those 12 additional positions. And, you know, we've done things such as offer split shifts where if someone is just interested in the morning, you know, we're willing to take them.

If they're interested in just the afternoons or just certain days a week, we're willing to take them. We've, you know, really opened up to a lot of flexibility when it comes to, you know, who we're going to accept. It is a problem regionally. The way this only pays about eleven hours a week, and it's split, you know, between the mornings and the afternoons, It really limits your pool of of applicants that are interested. And once again, I do praise HR with, you know, doing the best the best that they can, you know, bring us candidates.

We had open interviews a couple weeks ago. You know, they've also, you know, forwarded us some applicants that didn't necessarily apply for this position, you know, for us to give them a call just to see if they'd be interested until something else came up in the city. Thank you, miss Chair. I

Thank you. That's that's really help helpful, sergeant. I I do appreciate it. Is every, new crossing guard, allowed to have split ships at this point or or future recruits? Because I know that there are some crossing guards that have been in the same position. They like what they do. They're they're happy where they are at the end. But any new recruits, is everybody or is there a certain number of allocated split shift, positions available?

At at the moment where we're at such a a low number Yeah. We will do anything to put a body at a corner, even even if it's one day a week. Obviously, you know, you know, we haven't said no to anybody at this point. I mean, if we get closer to that 57 number, you know, then then we'll have to start thinking of, you know, a slightly more in-depth selection process. But and we're being still 12 bodies away from that, I wouldn't turn anybody away.

Okay. And with the supervisor position number lucky number 58 Yep. Did you say that that you are in the process of hiring them, or you just put out a a hiring the the

job search? Have So been several interviews that have gone on so far, and that's at the point we're at the interview stage right now.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. And, yes, also here thank you very much, Sergeant. Also here to speak, we have director Brad Rossen of Mobility, the director Brad Rossen of Mobility. So, yes, you're we'd be happy to help him. Welcome to speaking to you, Rich. Sure. Thanks so much. And and I'll be brief.

I know that you're trying to manage a whole bunch of different items tonight in a short window. I want to thank you for continuing to spotlight these issues. And I appreciate your framing about the short term versus medium term versus long term. You and I have been working on these issues together for a long time. Counselor Davis and I and our teams have been working on these issues for a long, long time.

I think it is important that this conversation does reflect some of the medium and long term progress and solutions as well. So it is just worth noting quickly, Chair, that last year, there were approximately 30 pedestrian crashes reported in the city of Somerville. A mere five or six years ago in 2019, there were more than 50 reported. And part of the reason that we think that these trend lines are moving in the right direction is because of this city's commitment to physical traffic calming, which, as you noted, Chair, takes a little longer to plan and deploy. And yet we have achieved massive scaling.

And back in 2019, we built fewer than 10 traffic calming features, meaning raised crosswalks, curb extensions, speed humps, crossing islands. Last year, we built more than a 110. And it's because of the solidarity of this community, residents, advocates and activists, elected officials, staff, our nonprofit partners, and NGOs. Everybody is saying that we feel scared. We don't like the idea of having to let go of our kids the way I did with my kid at the West this morning. Like, hey. I think you're good for this last lock. We need streets that can physically only be driven at slow, safe speeds. Enforcement, in all of its forms, is a temporary solution. It is a Band Aid.

It is a way to treat a problem spot by spot. And as you noted, Chair, it can be quicker to deploy. And yet, this spring and this summer, we are in a robust pipeline to build dozens and dozens and dozens more traffic calming features around Somerville. Like hotcakes, people want more than we can deliver. And so we're trying to match up our ability to scale, and we're excited about that. I think it's important to note that we do prioritize around schools. Everybody wants traffic calling on their residential blocks. And the number of times that we have to tell our constituents, your constituents, I'm so sorry. We believe you that there's a problem on your residential block, but we need to prioritize this treatment over here near this school, this senior housing complex, this park. That is an element of frustration for all of us.

But we have a robust program for the coming construction season, Cher, that includes the Argentiniano, Healy, the Winter Hill at Edgeley, the high school, the West, come to mind off the top of my head. And so we will continue to move forward with this type of work. I just really appreciate the village approach. This is controversial stuff. Intentionally making it slow and safe to drive around can be controversial. And yet, because we have 11 city councilors who are champions for safe streets issues, we have mayor who's champion and a city staff, all of us who buy into this work, we are delivering these medium and long term solutions to complement the short term ones that you described.

Yeah. Thank you very much for that. So with Highland and Vinyl or Ron McEnany or we still hear from parents in Healy. Hopefully, it's it's better, but everybody using their Waze shortcuts through through the Healy neighborhood. These are real.

So my question is, to get ahead, because we're in April, we'll be in May, and then we we only have a very short amount of time of of school left, what what does retention look like for crossing guards and just safer streets over, like, May, June, and then holding on to everyone hopefully until August? Or or what does that look like? Are you trying to get ahead of that or have numbers set? What does the reset of the new school year look like for crossing guard recruitment or retention?

Thank you, madam chair. All of the crossing guards that we currently have have indicated they will be back next season.

Awesome.

Usually, year over year, there is very few that leave. You know, once we get across and guard the only mass exodus that we had was when the vaccine was required. We had quite a few that had exited at that time. It's really recruitment that is the issue. Retention really hasn't been that big of an issue.

One thing I did wanna comment on is, that we will be working with, the high school administrators specifically on immediately notifying the police department when there is an incident. So the Highland And Vinyl, we heard about, through word-of-mouth long after the incident had happened. To that end, there is is there was no actual call put in for it at the time of the incident. So, trying to track that and, you know, use that as a statistic, you know, although we have included it because we've been made aware of it, you know, that prompt notification of the police department goes a long way towards having us, you know, be able to, you know, to intelligently talk about it. And also the incident at the Kennedy School, we were notified about that after the accident as well, long after, the parents and the striking vehicle had left the area.

You know? So I think it's important for us, and like I said, we'll work with the, school administrators to try to, get that word out to parents and to the the administrators, you know, that we should be notified even if it's extremely minor, you know, so that we can look into what were the contributing factors at that time of the incident.

Thank you. Thank you very much. And I'm delighted to hear it's like Christmas to hear that retention is crossing guard retention holding. That's wonderful to hear. And thank you both for being here, director, doctor Ross, and sergeant McCary. Thank you very much for being here. I really appreciate your work and and all you do for Somerville. Thank you. You're welcome. Do director I'm sorry. Hello, counselor Davis. Sorry about that. Do you have any thoughts or comments before we close? Because I wanna head into our last agenda item about the GBI and have a a second or two to talk.

Yeah. No. Thank thank you, madam chair. Just to thank thank you to director Ross and and to sergeant McCrary. Hi. Good to see you. I appreciate appreciate all the work and and the response, and, yeah, anything we can do to help support those efforts as always.

Thank you very much. I have a very stern mom look for the for the teenagers when they think about it. It's it's all I forgot. Anyway, thank you very much. With that, I'm happy to close these two items, and we'll move on to our last one, a resolution two four zero zero seven four that the administration provide an update on plans for universal basic income, guaranteed basic income implementation rollout.

Wasn't there another one that we were I mean, I'm gonna take this other one together because yes. Okay. Here we go. A resolution two four zero four one eight that the administration discussed post pilot plan considerations with a guaranteed base pilot program. I'm I'm I'm talking because we we're short on time, and I I definitely want you to get comfortable and and settle in. I wish I had another camera for you because I wanna make sure that people can see you. I can Hi. Hi. Welcome. So have really quick, please explain what GBI, Guarantee Based Income, is. We know, but anyone's like, what is this? Please, you have the floor. It's 643. Go for it. Oh, thank you.

Introduce yourselves, and thanks for being here. I heard that from the administration that you really wanted to get on the agenda, and I heck, yeah. Let's go.

I'm so glad. And I I was preparing for five minutes, and I was, like, timing myself. I was going, oh gosh. Oh, no. So a couple extra minutes, and I I appreciate it. So thanks. Would it be helpful to for me to sit elsewhere for

Sure. Come on over here. Introduce yourself. Cameras on. She's on. Camera's on. Camera's Yeah.

Oh, hey. Wow. Alright. Oh, wow. Hour.

We did a little britt brittany butt chair. By the way, I have some chocolate covered matzo. Please have some. It's delicious. Thank you. Chocolate heals everything.

Once I stop talking,

I will

absolutely pick you up on that. We're we're a matzo brittle family. So, like, I'm excited, and I'm far from home. So this is exciting. Alright. Well, I'm Erica. I'm the ARPA director for the city of Summerville. Really excited to be here with you, and I I bring Jenny C. I am one of the ARPA program managers, and I assist Erica in administering the Guaranteed Based Income program. She says assist, but I do just wanna say, like We all put this together. Okay. Yes. And, also, Jenny keep like, I I credit the success of this program to Jenny. Jenny keeps this all together. We have so many partners.

We work with OHS and SLC, and they are working directly with clients. And there's without their support as well, we could never do this. And Jenny keeps keeps the crew together from from the ARPA side, so unending. Thanks to Jenny. So I'll use the shortened version GBI, which stands for guaranteed basic income.

This is a pilot that we're running with the ARPA funds, ARPA being the American Rescue Plan Act. And I guess I'll I'll do it very quick on that too just in case, which is the a bill that was passed at the federal level in 2021. One of the many items that stemmed from that is a state and local fiscal recovery fund where based on population, I think a few other factors, all cities, towns, counties, states, tribal governments received a set of funds that they could use fairly broadly to help their communities recover from COVID and the negative impact of the pandemic. So one of the ways that we wanted to use this funding, and Summer received $77,500,000 of that funding, one of the ways we wanted to use that was on a guaranteed basic income program, getting cash directly to families who are experiencing some of the worst of the pandemic. So the GBI program has run from 07/01/2024 through 06/30/2025.

I think there's a couple copies of just quick numbers so you have them in front of you as well on the table. But we are serving 200 households, and they are each receiving $750 a month during this twelve year pilot. Sorry. Twelve month pilot. That totals to $9,000 per household per year and a total distribution of $1,800,000 over the course of the year to all 200 households.

Yeah. We're loading the payments onto reloadable debit cards that people can use directly at a store. Just swipe like any other kind of debit card, or you can take out cash. The participants were recruited from existing OHS, Office of Housing Stability, and SFLC, Summerhill Family Learning Collaborative clients who are facing homelessness and urgent housing crisis. So at this point in the program, we've completed our baseline survey.

We're almost finished with the midpoint interviews, and we've got some preliminary findings to share. So Jenny has been calculating for us that at the end of each month, more than three quarters of participants have less than $50 on their cards. So that means that most people are spending all their money each month, but there are some that are using this opportunity to build up a bit of savings, which is also a really great thing. What we're hearing from our surveys and interviews is that some of the biggest expenditures people are spending on are rent, but also paying off loans and debts, which is really important. And, of course, basic needs, the classics, food, transportation, childcare, the basics.

The basics. And I wanna be especially careful for anonymity, but I will just say, like, as we talk with participants about their experience, a few have also used the funds to stabilize from very difficult housing and family situations, and we're really glad to hear that the funds have been supportive of that. Participants have also reported that it's really easy to use. The debit card looks like any other debit card, and so really minimizes stigma using with at merchants and at stores. It also really allows the freedom and the dignity of choice.

That's really important. Next up, we'll have a final survey in June and July. We'll be looking mostly at program impact on household economic stability, on housing stability, and general well-being. So with that said, as I mentioned, the pilot is ending in June. We're transitioning the participants out of the program now.

So participants have been aware of the time limited nature of the pilot. We made that the timeline clear through the enrollment process, and we've been sending reminders, especially now, of the end dates. So we're doing a really big push. Clients have been remaining in direct contact with their representatives at OHS and SFLC to make sure that they're well connected with all of the city's other resources and services. And that's one of the really important benefits of working and enrolling from these two offices' existing client base is that participants and their representatives from those offices already have a really strong relationship and continue to, like, deepen the support work that they do together.

Few of the examples of programs that they are and are continuing to get connected to include flexible rental assistance, various types of legal services assistance. There was recently another financial management workshop that OHS led, which is great. Public benefits enrollment, social work throughout the city, etcetera. These are some a few examples of all the things that we're working on. And the clients, our participants are also talking with their OHS and SLC representatives about how things will change after the pilot ends, how do we prepare well in advance proactively.

And then, you know, we we just continue with our evaluation to gather the experiences in their interview and survey so we can kinda continue to retain those learnings and experiences and see all the different places we can apply what we learn in the future. One of the questions that we talked about a couple of months ago, can we keep this train rolling? And what we've been finding is that the program really can't continue as it currently exists. And there are a couple of challenges to resolve for any, like, future iterations of a program of this type. There's the kind of the legal, the budgetary, the capacity.

And, again, I know we just have a couple of minutes, and I wanna make sure we have, like, discussion time. But, also, we can come back in May to talk more in-depth about this. Yeah. But to give, like, a very quick overview of some of those challenges first, and I know, again, this has come up with others and will will continue to, to be honest, is that the general fund at the city has much more strict regulations on how we can use general funds as opposed to the ARPA funding. So the ARPA came with specific callouts to say, give the money away.

You know? Give it right to people who need it. Let them use it how they see fit. The general fund cannot cover direct benefits to individual constituents without, like, very serious legal challenge. So that is a number one issue to overcome.

Administering a program like GBI, the way that we've done it requires dedicated staff capacity. Mean, Jenny is here today, which is huge, and Jenny has dedicated the majority of her working hours to making this happen over the last couple of years alongside, of course, myself, our evaluation team, OHS and SLC staff, and and more as we work with our support teams like procurement, legal, finance. So with ARPA, we were able to allocate funds to the appropriate staffing to serve clients and serve them well. But as ARPA comes to a close and city departments return to their core services, it gets harder and harder to do. And I guess just to start to close out for you, I would say we we see a GBI program as, like, one of many tools in our anti poverty and anti displacement toolbox.

This pilot is ending, but the city remains committed to supporting and investing in vulnerable community members in different ways that we you know, they're using different tools in that toolbox as well. We were glad to to use the flexibility of ARPA in this way as, like, an urgent immediate support for community members and take back what we learned, but wanted to just be able to come in and talk with you, you know, of more in advance of the May meeting to give you kind of the preview, but recognize that, you know, we'll we'll wanna, I'm sure, answer more specific questions and talk through for you. Yep. So about that.

Thank you. Thank you. Yes. I I I intend to keep this in committee. Mhmm. We have a guest star, counsel Davis, you as our guest star this evening. Would you have any I wanna give you the opportunity to share a comment or thoughts or questions, before we, keep, closed for the evening.

Thank you, madam chair, and and thank you to the director for that, for that follow-up. I much appreciate it. You know, as as many of us disappointed that this isn't something we're able to continue right at the moment, but, hopefully, we learn some good things and and have a model for, potentially something in the future, whether it's exactly like this or or, you know, picking the things that work best. Appreciate all the work towards it and and the report.

Thank you. I I know we have a few minutes. If if I may or Yeah. Certainly. Because I I am I'm gonna be here next month, and I wanna talk about it again. But I I wanna point out how important it is that thank you for making those cards considering stigma because probably stigma is rare.

Mhmm.

And there's a lot of shape attached to even just the whole situation. So allowing people that dignity really matters. With the demographics, how many are women or similar parents? Or what what what is the breakdown of some of the demographics? And this necessity drops next week. That's fine. I don't I don't I

think so part of what we'll do next month is I think we can do a more in-depth breakdown of the baseline statistics. Yeah. I would I think we can probably give a very Yeah. Off the cuff sense. I don't know if I Jen, if you wanna

I had I knowed down a

bunch of members, and, unfortunately, I don't have

it on top of my head right now. But, but yeah. So we're interested in sort of gender breakdown Yeah. Or number of households with children. Yes. All of that. Yes. It's available. Yeah. Wonderful. And then thank you. And and just a precursor for the next month's meeting. What are the participants saving there to get out of it? Because the the GBI. And and as you you see my my resolution, my genuine concerns of you don't want to put anyone in a worse position when the pilot does evacuate here because this is changing their lives now.

What do the participants say they want? What what would help them to where their own GBIs were a reality without the GBI? Mhmm. What would change their lives? Yeah. And

I yeah. I appreciate that. And I'm wondering well, I I will take a look closer look at our evaluation questions to see where we can pull some of that, but also if there are places we can add that in. I know there's some, like, IRB institutional review board questions about what we've what we're asking and and getting approval when we do research with with people. But I'm sure we can take a closer look at that exactly.

And, again, I I go back to the incredible work year round and also out outside of GBI, very much of OHS and SLC to be connectors for their clients to to other resources. So I appreciate that they're doing that. And I think, we can take a look more closely at, like, what else is missing. But I think the unrestricted or, you know, mostly unrestricted nature of being able to say, use it where you need it has been huge, not having to pull together, you know, completely different parameters and requirements and cards that, as you said, the the nature of the need and the nature of this work is is often fragmented is where I would add to what to what we're saying about about dignity because each program is different and addresses a specific thing and has specific requirements. And so to be able to say, do what you gotta do, and you know what you have to do that.

Yeah. Has been big. So I think the flexibility has been has been huge. Thank you.

Well, with that, we're gonna keep these items in committee. We're good. We will renew this conversation next month for or at our next equity community. Stay tuned. And I really appreciate you coming tonight to speak on this, and thank you as well. We're gonna keep residing some community as well. And TBD, thank you for being here. With that, I

I move to adjourn. Can I just clarify three and four, your marking were completed? The Correct. Okay. Alright. And on approval of agenda item one, minutes of the equity, gender, senior families, federal populations, committee meeting in February 3 and on adjournment. Councilor Davis?

Yes.

Councilor Mbaugh? Councilor Schozzo?

Yes.

We are adjourned.

Thank you. Have a good night.

You.