Housing and Community Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the committee of housing, community development, and equity. This is your chair speaking, city council at large, Kristen Strezzo. Today is Wednesday, 01/28/2026. It is 06:01PM. We are in City Hall, and we also are hybrid virtually. And with that, I'd like to call this meeting to order.

This is roll call. Councilor Saeed? Councilor Link?

Present.

Councilor Stressow? Present. With two councilors present, we have quorum.

Thank you. Now pursuant to Jackson two, the acts of 2025 with meeting of the city council committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive rec record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City Of Somerville website and local cable access government channel channels. With that, our first agenda item is approval of the committee minutes of the equity, gender, seniors, families, and vulnerable populations committee from 05/27/2025. Can we just do a quick roll call on that? Mhmm. For? Approval.

And for approval of agenda item one, counselor Link?

Yes.

Counselor Schozzo? Yes.

Those are approved. We have just taken the second item of the FM, because we have now brought them together and consolidating. So super. We also take agenda item two up to for approval move for approval. The minutes of the Housing and Community Development Committee of 11/18/2025.

And for approval of agenda item two, counselor Link?

Yes.

Counselor Shazo? Yes. Those are approved. And I can see that counselor Syed is now in the room at 06:03PM. So it's January.

It's cold, and I I really wanna thank you very much for being here tonight. We're gonna take this next agenda item, item three, resolution two six zero zero five eight. But for discussion, this is a resolution by councilor McLaughlin that the administration collaborate with East Somerville Main Streets and the Ward 1 City Councilor to grow out in East to support East Somerville immigrant home businesses. I did reach out to doctor McLaughlin, and he is aware that this agenda item is happening and always happy to have him speak on it or throw in his further collections on this and and keep that from open. So that'd be future time.

But right now, it's just us and our committee. So here to speak on this item. Well, I guess first, I I don't know what's gonna come to my husband's head, so I won't speak for him. But I'm also a Ward 1 resident, and I'll I'll just talk very briefly about why I think that this is an important conversation to have. As we know, Ward 1 is is where a lot of our member at home businesses are.

And, also, the Summerville has endured a lot in the past couple years and especially with a lot of domestic terrorism happening, people residents not feeling safe. We know that business is down. We know that people don't feel safe to sometimes even do something as basic as well, their kids to school. It's a really sickening time to to be enduring. And as I know there's been a lot of active staff to respond to that.

I think the dialogue conversation and check ins are important. And I did ask our some of the main street's executive director to be here today, and I just would like to have her speak before we have you know, and great very much for economic development for being here tonight. And very much thank you for coming, and thank you for just sharing your thoughts and and for the dialogue. But I did start with that. I wanted to have early symptoms after losing with the fear just begun. With that, you have to please identify yourself, and it's just you don't have any thoughts. Tell us what you're seeing. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. Excuse me. I am working through a a cold. So but Lindsay Allen. I'm the executive director at East Summer La Main Street.

As councilor Schrozzo mentioned, the past year has been very difficult for the neighborhood. We particularly the last six months has been very, very hard. We have started initiatives like eat out at east. We definitely see a consistent turnout on Wednesday nights. We're appreciative to the city for for we'll be helping us promote it.

But when you look at the numbers of what is happening right now, it is alarming on many levels. We, since July, have had five immigrant owned businesses close. For context, during COVID, during the first three years of COVID, we had three businesses close. We during our December financial health survey, from businesses 60% of them have seen declined revenue in the past twelve months. We we had several businesses note that they were at risk of displacement in that survey.

For the revenue, we have businesses reporting COVID like revenue. So numbers as low as COVID, but importantly, without the funding that came along with that. So without funding from the federal government, the state, and the city. So this is really a cross sector as well that we our restaurant heavy in Somerville, but it's not just restaurants. Our barber shops are are struggling.

Our specialty stores are struggling as well. So we just two two weeks ago, saw our largest anchor restaurant close. And it is an alarming trend, and it is difficult to see. And I'm hopeful that there's support that we can really work together on to to help this very vibrant business district that I'm sure we all want to see continue to be so vibrant and diverse.

Thank you. Really quick. Madam Clerk, can we please put the can we put the the members on the screen instead of the the agenda? It's super and all. We have that, but it's kinda

The this is broadcast live to everyone watching. So This is it? I'll on that queue, I'll go to the agenda we're on. But, yes, what's on this screen is to the public. So

Right. Okay. Yeah. Got that. Mhmm. Probably about also, secondary. Would would I something?

Oh, I'm exactly. Thank you. Thank you, though. I forgot

to ask. We're hospitality. Okay. That's what you're reporting is really troubling. And then, also, when I I think of that, you know, and may I may I say the rest of the restaurant?

I remember last year we talked about La Graca and how just a couple months ago, it was they were they were they were kind of they were reaching out about that as well. I remember this. So with that, this with this feedback, Would love to have just a dialogue on this and hear more from the development of Boston. Please introduce yourself. I know you're very well, but just for the record, and thank you again for being here. This is where I I love our conversations to just talk about what we're looking at. It's January now. What are we before us? So thank you. Welcome.

Sure. So I can kick things off. Yeah. And then

we'll be here to be producing. So for

the record and for those

at home, I'm Richland, attorney director of economic development for the city. I'm here with deputy director Dana Whiteside and our senior planner for women and minority businesses, at our own. So wanted to put a little context to what we've been up to for the last couple of months, specifically around. In the thanks around Thanksgiving, that is when we kick things off, where we had a confluence of several things happening where promotions were starting to kick off. DataSquare motions were coming to us and say, hey.

We've gotta turn the narrative around here at DataSquare around getting folks to come on going to local businesses. We had all of our holiday events in all the different squares coming up. And so we worked with the communications office to really spin that up into a broader campaign where we revitalized the loyal global campaign that we've had in various other times in the past. And what that has allowed us to do is really take various opportunities and and turn it into a citywide. So that has been running now.

We had a big push in December, working on some things more for January, but I would say, in his first three days had multiple events focused on loyalty and local messaging. So he did a big push on what's going on, just saying, hey. Stay loyal. We have businesses. Did a push with that.

And he also did a specific walk for you down on East as well and on social media. So we're trying to really utilize social media channels. We had some challenges in the month of December. A lot of what we had planned for interactive campaigns ran into some technical issues with Instagram, and so we've actually moved migrated venues for those activities to Reddit. Some of those are very active Reddit community, and so we've shifted the communication solution to their focus to Reddit.

And what they're doing with those campaigns is to say, you know, tell us your favorite place to go. Tell us your coziest restaurant. They're really trying to drive people to crowdsource their sharing of where they're going and their what they're doing to support their local. Part of that campaign also was a whole series of ways you can support your local business without spending any money for those in your community that isn't having option right now of how do you, you know, share feedback positively, share negative feedback privately. Mhmm.

Some of those messaging, again, to try and engage our resident community and being supportive. We also did a little bit of a pivot on mitigation grant that we had, feedback specifically already saw on these streets. So we had gotten a grant to do a campaign that was focused on women loyal to local businesses. We've been planning to use existing ads from our it take

all shapes to make the

square campaign, recognizing that the square didn't quite resonate with every district. It can be someone close to check if doesn't necessarily mean. And we did a little pivot, and so we also then also set us up a community and provide a lot of welcome message. So the same as as you see on the buses, as you will see on the sandwich boards around town, the lawn signs, the blue bike stations. It's really a full blast across the whole community to say, blah blah blah.

A limitation that we have, though, at the city government, right, is that we can do sub campaigns to that. We can't, but it has to be in the framing of the whole citywide. So that's one of the communications limitations that our communications office had. And so the oil level has allowed them to do a lot of completion of these smaller campaigns like, they think that's it's a lot of it is bigger about. And the idea is that we're using the larger oil local campaign for December, January, and February throughout the winter. So it has a really good feedback yet.

Yeah. We'll work on this calendar. I've been making sure that we link with all the districts that were, like, promoting something. So Wednesday was police. We wish we could do more, but As you see. Unless we change the rules, we are not supposed to promote. Right? In individual. Right. But we thought about, like, coming in February, coming up another calendar, and I just need to give Lindsay and the staff a compliment for everything they do for in seminar.

We talk very frequently, right, to make sure if they need any help. And I wish they could have, like, you know, maybe a working in a full time position because she's doing her best, and we also are providing help. But I can't tell how hard it is for them to cover all those. They need special attention when we were working on the funding. We we were making sure that we were helping the business to apply, not just to promote their funding, but sit with them.

And I know that they do, like, beautifully. And, also, you know, if they're giving something. But if we could do more, then we've been joining. We would. Because we really, really appreciate all the immigrant community over here. And, also, we're sure these are the next people.

I'd say, tomorrow, we're just starting on this level of opportunity. We have another month to go. So there is a lot of opportunity to work with our communications office and continue to look at new ways of engaging. And, again, we just really launched these spread it little groups to kind of get people engaging. We're hoping we could follow-up with them again and see where Instagram is. There's a technical situation that we may have might be beyond it. I'm not entirely sure, though. There's limitations on how you reach out to the Instagram campaign managers.

I love it. And I I wanted to say before I open the floor to our counselors, I wanted to thank you very much for the Loyalty Local campaign. I love as well that it's not just siloed on the screen. You are out there with yard signs, very present. It's the Emersonville resident is catching on.

I hear about it, and I very much wanted to thank you for that and and your work to be very your I you're you're always intentional, but that your your your the intention of really getting in some level space about it is very clear. And the yard signs, the sandwich boards, the off the beaten pathway that covering all bases, it's I wanna think of that. So very much. Counselors on the interwebs, do you like oh, hey. Counselors, brought to you from Ward 5. How's it going?

Good. Thank you. Hello, everyone. Through you, chair Strezo, I would like to thank city staff for all you've been doing to help the businesses here, especially in East Somerville. It is a tough time in Ward 5 also.

I'm hearing from immigrant owned businesses, about how tough it is. So anything we can do right now is helpful. And, also, thank you for to the ward counselor who's not here tonight with us for this initiative. Yeah. I'm trying to encourage even my ward people to order from ward one immigrant owned businesses and go out also on Wednesday for delicious food.

Yeah. It's just like that's how, you know, a lot of people, you know, get to travel and try different foods in our city. And, also, thank you for the representative. I'm sorry. Would like the hybrid. They didn't, write down the name, representing the neighborhood. Yeah. Sure. If you could help with that.

Are you referring to Lindsay Lindsay?

Lindsay? Yes. Lindsay. Thank you, Lindsay, for coming today to this committee and giving us, a full picture. I think we've been hearing about the businesses struggling, but I think it's important to have this conversation.

And, yeah, like, just learning that five businesses. We've lost five businesses, I think, is is quite alarming. So let's all as a community work so that we don't have other businesses that that's why we don't we lose more businesses, whether it's in Ward 1 or other wards. So, yeah, thank you for coming here tonight.

Thank you, counselor. Counselor Nick?

Yeah. So through chair Shoso, just thanks to everyone. Also, you know, the this is real something really important, and I'm I'm really glad that we are talking about it. I understand that the so there there's, you know, an issue of maybe, like, you can't, like, focus on one square specifically. Is there, other avenues for, maybe focus like, I was just thinking about what, counselor Sait was saying.

Is there, the potential for, like, a campaign of immigrant owned businesses, for example, where we could sign additional spotlights? And it wouldn't be specific necessarily to Ward 1, but could, but also would include, Ward 1. So, you know, is there any opportunities like that that we can potentially have?

Yeah. But it's Yeah. Yeah. I can Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's we wish we could. Yeah.

But by promoting, like, ads in maybe international business or something. Right. But for immigrant businesses, we were afraid about them making them, like, a target because, you know, especially next week, you know that we heard from the state that the eye's presence will be intensified. So

Absolutely. Yeah. Yep.

Yeah.

Okay. Understood. Thank you. Thank you.

Alright. A lot of people don't feel safe and certainly don't want to be highlighted in that way. Yeah.

That makes total sense. Yeah.

Deputy director.

Sure. Thank you, madam. For you. Another consideration, if we think about the support we wanna give to all the visit districts, of course, obviously, in some of the topic of conversation tonight. Something around messaging that I think we wanna be mindful of that we we we heard from some of the businesses we we talked to, they appreciate the obvious the idea of promoting the districts, but this idea of, quote unquote, help, they want us to be mindful of not positioning them as being, these are my words, not meeting or incapable.

And so we're trying to be mindful in our language around supporting the districts to say support. Enjoy. Enjoy, enliven, to give you a positive connotation so that we're treating these businesses like the wonderful entities that they are and not putting them in a in a less positive way. So we're I wanna name that as something we're all seeing, like, being mindful of.

Thank you. Oh, sorry. Thank you, doctor. I'm sorry. Interrupted you. That's okay. Thank you, doctor. I never would have considered that. I I mean, that yeah. For bringing that up. Please, doctor, continue. And

then the last thing I would mention just for context, because you you you operate also I wanna share the the business that you mentioned that has has closed with. There we we we made some objects to that owner to offer our support and thinking about how to reactivate that space, find another use, etcetera. So that's really on both collaboration, but it's really important to us to

Not to the property. We did. The moment the

today, we were able to

reach the property owner just to get just a sense of what they are. I know there's been a lot of conversation with the owner as well with business. They have fantastic. But it's yeah. We are we are limited. We do not have any resources at the moment. There are no grants that allow us to do business direct business support right now.

There's we have multiple of

the, close. January is typically the month that you see business closures happen. So it's not surprising that we see closures happening. Have a few the other, like, Jones, they closed. We have the December in the Zoom. Yeah. There's well, there's definitely a there's the it is the typical month because either major mergers in December

or you go. So it's

this is the new this five year we hear have these stories, and it is tricky for because we don't have the resources that we all would love to be able to offer to somebody to sustain.

If I may add that, director, is with the no grants to do direct business support? I and I know that a lot of that was gone from our right. I when we had it. Is there are there grants that exist out there in currently, or was that kind of a onetime things that ever or how can we how can we or or was that completely just an anomaly of a lipid tongue?

I think a lot of it was COVID specific. I think

we've seen a lot

of that being really COVID specific era of supporting that business is, like, sustainability was really a COVID era thing. There are and the majors are able to access more grants than the leads in a lot of money, but there are grants for technical assistance. There are grants for support. I think that'll just leave us awesome trunk more than what grants are out there, at least that are available to send.

Good

questions. I'm wondering if you

do any past city discussions. I know Cambridge has a a pretty robust grant system. And even pre builder, which is pre me and its position, but I know there was the storefronts movement initiative at the city. So I'm wondering, I guess, twofold. One, in terms of Cross City, we talked to Cambridge, talked to each other, other municipalities about their grant programs and also how they kind of working through what's happening with specifically in.

We definitely are in the nature we're definitely in a conversation with Boston and. We have a weekly meeting of some some of the Greater Boston area economic development department. The challenge really is is that CBDP, the the community development block grants, is the source that most programs utilize for their business grant programs. That's. It is very difficult to implement on a business specific basis.

It's possible the program had pre COVID did work, but it didn't reach very many businesses. It is also the money source that we use to we use that money source right now to supplement for LivingStreet's programs.

So it's I think we

have to look at what the the team there's a, you know, a whole infrastructure folks who are making the decision of how the funding for CBD funds is allocated and what the opportunity there is maybe shift some of that towards programs. That's not a decision that we're making. It's a decision that the. I think there's a whole committee that's supporting those decisions. Thank you. And use things like that.

And do you talk to the other municipalities?

Yeah. He just has a normal problem. Yeah. Especially

because he didn't see any chances for which they you know, supposed to have. I'm not connected with my business owner. So lots of restrictions recently with, you know, funding.

Are there other are are municipalities that are similar to ours, are they reporting the same devastation? I I imagine so, but do you have any impressions that you're able to share?

It seems pretty consistent. I mean, it it the national level too, it has seemed fairly it's there are certainly there are districts where it's more concentrated than others. And I think that's

sort of address the clientele of, you know, clientele of not control volume. What's been

a business that's specifically targeting it. There are other clientele specific group they may not have. That's we are seeing it. It doesn't seem this is a some of those specific challenges really a original and original challenge.

Okay. Counselors, do you have any other thoughts or looks like no. So with that, I'll close this item, and we are always happy for the dialogue to get on something to something we can be doing in in a future time, but I very much appreciate the conversation. And I I also wanna say that I appreciate the the insight that you're hearing from me, but also thoughts that like, how how else does support the business community, like you mentioned, by these positive reviews or maybe not just blasting a business because of one bad meal or whatnot, finding more constructive ways. And I definitely would love to hear more thoughts on that in in future conversations because I think that some some of the residents would really like to hear that too, and that's the first time I'm hearing that.

And I definitely wanna hear more so I can blast it out and send it out to the to my constituents as well because I think those are great cost effective ideas in addition to other ones. And if it it's okay. Oh, Sherry. That's a good. Good. Good. Yeah. See on the screen, but there's a little calendar. Where do you get these calendars? Where do we get this this information? Do you have them?

Although at this point, we don't know exactly. Right? But still. And then why don't let him know? Absolutely. Will you be that. Can you

I I haven't seen these, and and maybe I just walked past it, which is possible. But if you're able to leave them City Hall regularly, walk them. Yes. We're gonna we're gonna gonna another have

three months.

Wonderful. It's just Okay. Thank you very much, and I hope you have a great thank you so much for coming to you soon. January day. With that, I'll close the item. We'll be fine. Thank you.

Thank you, doctor. Thank you.

So great good news. On item four, I just received a text, and Doctor. Carroll's here. So we can talk a little bit about this item. So order number 2600Z3. This is my item, and I'll go a little bit into the rationale why it's here tonight. Yeah. The director of health and human services discussed the findings from the recent US surgeon general advisory on mental health and well-being of parents and its recommendations to better support care parents and caregivers. So this item, the attachment of this is not lookable on my screen. Nobody could complete that.

No. I'm just poking a screen. But the the attached document inside, please. So this was originally brought forward, I believe, by a counselor, and we talked to in this document,

is there any way to to

Yeah. Attach it? I have to There's no attachment

on the item.

Oh, really? There this carried over from last cycle, I can see. Yeah. I I'm I'm

not seeing either 260083 or 250118. So But I

I do recall this. Remember? It was pretty decent graphics too. That's so okay. Technical difficulties. It's not attached to the second, but we'll fix that at a later time. The fun of it of this order is really recognizing that parents are are are really struggling right now. Guardians are really struggling. And here in Summerville, we take things hyperlocal and love that about us. And we really try to do things that aren't done in in in different places.

And this order is here before us tonight, and I I really was planning on just keeping it in committee because I I know that Doctor. Carroll was I I wasn't sure if she was willing to to speak on it or just to have a a deeper conversation, so I wanted to go to Doctor. Klein and wait until she was able to, but looks like she's here tonight, which is super. But the the point of it is, like, when we talk about all the diverse groups that that we we could be focusing our resources on and and helping to just hit stabilize instead and and tread the water instead of sink below the water surface. Parents and families and caregivers are definitely top of the list, and I'm sure you've all heard it too.

And we can't gaslight the situation that a lot of families are just enduring from after school care or lack of it to preschool care or lack of it to resources to how inflation have affected the price of diapers you're forming off or any of those basic necessities and how families are really screwed over in a lot of these ways. So I want the dialogue. I want the conversation. So we'll get that. But as for now, director Carroll is is here tonight. And thank you so much, director, for being here. Thank you very much.

Good evening. Yeah.

Thanks. Katie. Hey.

Can you hear me? And, Siri, hi. Hi. So good evening, members of the committee and through the chair. Thank you for having me.

I'm Karen Carroll, the director of health and human services. I use she, her pronouns. I am happy to be here tonight to talk about this report and this recommendation that was brought forward by counselor Strazo to have a look at this report from the surgeon general, the findings and the recommendations, and then to take a minute and reflect on how our work in HHS is addressing some of the findings and maybe where some of the gaps are. So thank you first for the opportunity. So I'm gonna just do a quick overview, and then I have some specifics under the recommendations that I will share.

This is by no means a comprehensive look at all of the city's programs, both within the city, within HHS, and within our partner agencies. There is a lot going on, so I don't, want to feel like I've omitted anyone or any particular program, but I'm going to just talk high level and give some examples of, some of this work that we're excited about. So the findings of the US Surgeon General Advisory on Mental Health and well-being of parents and caregivers, are significant. And as the chair, counselor Strazo, just mentioned, the report again reiterates that parents are experiencing very, very high levels of stress. It also points out that there is a disproportionate, you know, as in so many health, issues, we have these disproportionate effects.

So we have certain groups of parents and caregivers who are, experiencing mental health issues and stress at an even higher level than the rest of the community. And again, it's based on these social determinants. These are families that are experiencing violence within community or within their home. They're families experiencing poverty, racism, discrimination. Again, all of these core underlying structural societal issues that play a big role in disproportionately affecting some of our families more than others.

The report talks about the need for strong parenting that leads to healthy children, which also in turn leads to healthy communities. And I think this is something that we really try to understand and remember in our work, that when we are meeting with a veteran or a senior, we are also meeting with the needs of their family and their community and what's going on for them. Recognizing that, you know, if our parents are healthy, our children are healthy, then our societies are healthy healthy and operating, better. HHS, again, tries to keep this whole person view in mind. When we see folks at the Annex for case management and SNAP enrollment or fuel assistance, we also have fidgets for kids and toys, an area for the children who are often there with their parents to feel safe and comfortable and play, and that allows the parents to feel comfortable and relax and converse with our staff and and get their needs met.

Again, we know that simple and small things like basic needs, diapers, period products, wipes, Again, as counselor Strezzo mentioned, these things have a huge impact on the mental health and well-being of the family. There are many studies around postnatal depression linked to dirty diapers and that if a parent does not feel like they are able to care for their child and provide these basic needs are you talking to me? Sorry. Did you lose me?

Yeah. I sent you a Google. I'm trying to get you the the trying to get the the what we're talking about. Okay. Great. Give me one second, please.

Sure. Sure.

I I don't want hold that thought. Write it down, please. Yep. Yep. I got it.

I got my notes. Thanks.

But one second. Okay. I'm sending this out, and then hopefully, we can send it to the the committee. Anyway, there it is. Yeah. The okay. This is the the it's parents under pressure. Okay. And and then, counselors, you should be receiving it shortly, and we'll we'll get it on the screen. Thank you so much for putting it on the screen as well.

And this is 2022200224, which let's call it what it is. Seems like a world away. This was done under the Biden's administration, which is sad that it feels so distant now even in just a short span of time. And I refuse to let this hard work and the data and research and importance of this go under the radar just by because of indiscriminatory approach to dismissing the needs of infants and children at a federal level. There I said it.

Okay. Sorry, director. Please, please, please continue. Don't forget my interruption. I wanted to have this to accompany what you were saying.

Yeah. That's great. Thank you, and no problem. So, yes, as you can see, the report is up. So I was just talking about how, we try very hard to address the basic needs of the family as when they come into our programs or, throughout the city.

And, even things like period free period products and, basic supplies, diapers and wipes can profoundly affect the well-being and the mental health of a parent as well as a child, and have lasting effects. Postnatal depression can have lasting effects to a family for many, many years. So we know these things, and we try to always recognize the full story of what's at play here. Things like the HOPE framework, which, again, we could spend a whole evening on that, and maybe sometime one of our staff can come back and talk about the work that we're doing in HHS and throughout the city with the HOPE framework. This is a framework that is a positive approach to protective factors with youth.

So, traditionally, we've told youth what they shouldn't do, what's dangerous, and why. And we find that, it's actually more powerful to build up the strengths of youth, and it can even counteract some of the adverse things, adverse experiences, childhood experiences that that child might have had in their life. So this is a framework that we're adopting as an HHS department, and we're now slowly beginning to roll it out with our colleagues in the city and other agencies. We'll be running a training, in the spring. It's a very exciting program to me.

I have seen doctor Seggy, who is the sort of main researcher and founder. And it's, again, a positive approach to a family instead of seeing the youth or the adolescent as a problem, and, you know, addressing it in that sense. We're we're working with parents and family and caregivers and teachers to find the strengths and build on those and go from there. So I think these are all ways in which we are embracing that finding that strong parenting, strong families makes strong children, which makes strong communities. The report also mentioned, a number of core recommendations.

One is in the sort of policy systems realm, and we'll go through a number of those. One is to promote and increase programs and support and financial support to programs for parents and families. So you're gonna hear about some of those. I just wanna highlight how our participatory budgeting process last year kind of led us also community driven to support some of these family, programs like food access, out of school time programming. These were really big, things that the community said to us they want, and they voted for it.

So we are able to use those funds also to support, that programming. Maternal leave, you know, we know this is really important, for families. Social infrastructure and, economic and social barriers to mental health. So I'll go through some of the policy and systems things that we have worked on in HHS. Again, this is not a comprehensive list.

Somerville Partnership for for young children, the formalized early childhood mixed delivery system funded by the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative grant and co led by Summer Promise and SPS early education and care department and SFLC is working towards increasing access to childcare in various ways, including tuition assistance, affordability planning with centers, and a multi tiered system of supports. Again, we had our a lot of ARPA funding that, as you all know, went into early childhood education and tuition, and then those dollars ended. But we were fortunate enough to receive this grant to allow us to continue some of that work in those programs. Summer promise also leads the out of school time steering committee designed to increase access to care for school aged children. This work builds upon the many years of work that went into building out the robust early childhood system and has already led to quantifiable results for families.

Summer Promise works with an early childhood social worker to provide mental health supports and child care to child care centers and families. The William James interface referral service is available to help match families with mental health supports to meet their needs, and the Somerville hub is designed as a single point of entry for families to seeking a multitude of services. In addition, some of the other policy work throughout HHS has been a real push to, actually enrolling people in benefit to provide permanent sustainable access to all health care, but also to mental health access. We find that if we can connect people to a medical home, to insurance, then they are able to begin to receive the services they need versus putting Band Aids, offering clinics, those kinds of things. So we're really excited about the amount of enrollment efforts that the department has taken on in the last two years, and our ability to do MassHealth enrollments and SNAP enrollments at farmers markets, at engagement centers, at drop in places in the community.

So this is really important. And from a policy point of view, this is the most sustainable option for ensuring people have access to medical care that they need, including mental health care. Now I will say that even with insurance, it is difficult to find providers. We there are wait lists, and we struggle with that as well. But the first step is getting people connected and getting them insured so that they can begin to, access the system.

We, of course, every year at budget time, we plan, we review our data, and we always seem to need additional services to support our families, our case management, our food access, all of those things. We integrate mental health care and access into our programs. So when we, for example, the warming center that runs in the extreme cold months of the winter for the unhoused, That is written into the scope of the service that there will be additional mental health support and resources available on-site. And we partner with other agencies in the community to try to integrate those services however we can. We also use our marijuana funds and resources that we have.

We get creative around, ways in which those funds are allowable and can be used to support youth and mental health for youth. So we've added a point five of a counselor to an already existing part time role in the schools this year using those funds. And, again, our council on aging, as they are dealing with parents or grandparents who are raising children, caregivers, we offer social work and support and caregiver support groups to those folks. So it's something, again, that policy work we're thinking through and building into all of our efforts and work. And those are, again, just to highlight a few.

Under the recommendation around communities and schools recommending that we develop community programs fostering social connection and provide schools with resources to support families. There's an entire branch of the Summerville Public Schools Summerville Family Learning Collaborative designated to support families in the schools through various efforts and initiatives. I also can say that we have, our school colleagues attend our weekly huddle, which is often aimed at sort of immediate needs for unhoused or, new arrivals, other vulnerable members of the community, but they are there as a partner. They have access to all of the resources of the city and let us know what they need, what they're doing, and how we can work together to support the families that they are working with who are some of our most vulnerable families and young people. The other recommendations around workplaces and cultural shift, I'm not going to get into those as much because that's not really as much of an area of focus for HHS.

But under individual and family, again, encouraging open communication to seek help and building stronger support networks for parents. We have hosted some let's talk workshop series, and we're piloting it in new locations, including the Mystic Learning Center with plans to offer it to the broader community. These workshops provide parents, caregivers with skills to talk to youth about mental health, substance abuse, and online safety. The goal for these workshops is to be a springboard for ongoing parent support groups that will be run by the HHS clinical social work team and case management team. We're looking to provide a regularly scheduled parent drop in information session where parents can get information on mental health services and how to navigate referrals.

The summer baby universal home program is available to all residents who have a new baby in the city. We are able to do outreach through the state birth records and also rely on referrals from partner agencies. This initial visit is designed to welcome new parents to Somerville and create a sense of community through follow-up outreach events, referrals to other childhood programs, playgroups, etcetera, and also to be a link or a contact if there are postpartum or other issues, upon the arrival of a new child in a home. So, again, really, really critical times for families, those first few days and weeks. And our summer baby home visiting program is able to offer family support in that time.

Again, coming back to basic needs for individuals that we have recently installed, many of you know, two public health vending machines with free basic needs supplies in them. And many of those are aimed at families and, young people. We offer diapers, wipes, period products, birth control, and these dispensers as well as period product dispensers are available throughout the city for free. So these are just a few of the highlights that I I wanted to raise. But as I said in the beginning, this is an opportunity to review these recommendations and findings, and we know the need is enormous from our families, and we know that we can be doing more.

So it's a question of how do we, leverage resources and partnerships with our other community agencies, and, how do we support these families who are in in incredible need. So I will stop for the moment. I am not an expert on all of these programs. Many of them are run by staff within HHS who are more than happy to come talk with you more or provide additional information, but also appreciated the opportunity to highlight some of the efforts that they are making.

Thank you, doctor. And, yes, agreed. It's I I'm grateful to hear about the work that's being done and and in the broader community, and I'm grateful that we have a chance to talk about it and get it out there in the public because a lot of the work is sometimes quiet and behind the scenes, and we don't really get to see on the ground until maybe a little here or there happens. So thank you very much for highlighting that, Director. And I very much wanted to commend you, and thank you so much for those vending machines and taking period property into account in those vending machines and diapers as well and and wipes and and emergency contraception.

I I am so grateful that that was included. Cannot say that enough because it is extraordinarily important, valuable, and frequently dismissed. And, yeah, I agree that that that I hope that this is an ongoing dialogue and conversation on this and and how to modernize as well. And I am very much in the glossary and bringing this forward, I want to make I want definitely want to differentiate that, yes, addressing our unhoused population and those in poverty and families in poverty is vitally important. I'm also talking about the average regular Somerville resident who may drive a Subaru or may bike their kids to school every day.

The average Somerville resident and family is extraordinarily suffering as well. And those are also the points that I'm trying to highlight as well by bringing this conversation important. The work on the unhoused has been fantastic and vitally important and consistently necessary. We're also not talking about the parents that were struggling to get their kids through snowbanks this morning. And and so I in general, just for the entire committee, some of the points that I wanted to bring forward for the record on this, this has nothing to do with your director.

I'm just talking. Like, meaning, like, I'm not like, this is not like, what do you think about this HHS? That's not what I mean. I'm just bringing this up for the general public to to get this, to think about when we talk about paternal mental health, even paternal mental health. We know that paternal mental health has been understudied.

Research from from this study says that or from this this document. And this, of course, was 2024, so I'd like to guess that maybe it has increased. But, you know, that's. Per perinatal depression incurs in eight to fourteen percent of men between the first trimester of a partner's pregnancy and the end of the first year postpartum. Further paternal perinegal anxiety may occur in approximately eighteen percent of men.

And and we don't really talk about that. And and I remember when I first read this study, on that same page, when we talked about maternal mental health, the leading cause of pregnancy related deaths is mental health conditions. Twenty two percent, including from suicides, an overdose, poisoning related to substance use disorders. Another critical period for maternal mental health is a child's early years, and we know that that there's a lot of silent struggling. And then the the the document was talking about loneliness and the epidemic of loneliness.

And, of course, we've seen this in the broad spectrum of not just parents, but across many some of her residents, but parents themselves, when we talk about the statistics brought forward in this study, the fact that nearly forty eight percent of parents report for most days their stress is completely overwhelming compared to twenty six percent of non parents. Every single day is overwhelming. Thirty three percent of parents report high stress compared to twenty percent of adults, and we know that impacts the children. And and and then the the symptom of loneliness and how, like, say, for instance, this dark, cold January night, how that coupled with the concept of every single day becomes one more completely overwhelming day how our constituents in the city are are feeling that. And so my hope is that then when we talk about my hope is that we really get creative and think outside the box on how we are supporting families and parents and all caregivers in Somerville.

And my hope and then I'll I'll open the floor to colleagues. My hope is that we're talking about how we can help eliminate that loneliness or how sometimes with some of I've I've heard from some of our our residents of color that they feel very unsafe talking to social workers because social workers are the ones that take your kids away. So there's that reality too. So if you're a parent that's just struggling and social workers are there to talk to you about your feelings, the social workers are the ones that take your kids away, then what? So it's a it's a long, extensive conversation.

But with that, I'm I'm happy to open the floor. And colleagues, do you have any questions, thoughts, impressions, etcetera, constantly?

Yes. So, doctor Carroll, first of all, thank you for for coming and, you know, speak so rudely through the chair. I a couple questions, and I guess my first is we talked a lot about the different services that are being offered to parents. And it occurs to me that a lot of these, especially our some of these safety net things are things like Head Start or programs that are maybe receiving, like, SAMHSA funding, which for about I guess, it was maybe two weeks ago, it all kinda went away for a day. There was so I'm I'm curious, you know, like, do we have any contingencies set up for, like, you know, how to keep these programs alive if if the worst happens?

Director?

Through the chair, you know, some we we it's a complicated question. I think we are always trying to plan and anticipate, and I think the schools are in the same position as well. Very concerned about funding that will be coming through and whether it will be reduced and by how much. So, you know, the most of these programs would be too large, certainly, for HHS to pick up in a you know, within our budget. We are very creative when it comes to looking at alternative funds, grants, that kind of thing that might be able to support.

Again, this this CPPI grant, I mentioned the full name earlier, but it's replaced some of the ARPA funding we had and the programs we had for early childhood tuition. You know, that's that's the problem. These things go away. But our team was able to very quickly put in a grant application and were successful there. So that was over a million dollars that was received, earlier or in the fall. So that's great. We can't always be as, responsive as that. It's it's a huge drain. But, and there aren't as many grants and things. So it's a complicated question.

I appreciate the question. It's something we are always grappling with is, you know, is this program sustainable? Is how can we make our efforts sustainable? So, again, it comes back to some of the benefits enrollment, making sure people have SNAP benefits, have MassHealth because those will go with them over time. But there's just not enough resources.

Even with those things, we know that there is incredible need. So, you know, yes and no. And and we I suppose we would come to when we learn of cuts or major impacts, we would be speaking with the administration, the council, and there could be opportunity to look at emergency funds if there were any available. But, again, some of these programs are so massive that it'd be really challenging. But thank you for the question, and it's definitely one that's always on our minds.

Yeah. Yeah. Through the chair, thank you for your for your answer, for the work. I know that, like, you know, especially, you know, when we talk about all the different stresses, day care, for example, I think in in this region specifically is maybe the most expensive in The US. So, like, these programs are just, like, so, so, so essential. So, yeah, I I appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Okay. Thank you. And I wanna clarify because I'm not and just with that, I I am not saying that social workers are the ones that take kids away. What I'm trying to emphasize as well is the is the skepticism and the nervousness that sometimes residents of color have told me that they feel don't feel safe talking all this about to social workers or that and so a lot of social workers do great jobs, and they know they're very devoted, and they know they work hard. So I'm not trying to say they don't wanna clarify that.

But there is an absolute there are there's numerous statistics that say that persons of color are that they are when it comes to childcare and stuff like that, they are not seen always in the same light and and that we we gotta prove that that the dog that they it doesn't that that that the service doesn't always help the way it should. Let's say about that. And that there's a skepticism and that, Adeep, that that racial bias absolutely exists, and it's not okay. So with that, director Sai, go ahead. You have the you have the next questions.

Through the chair, thank you, director, for being with us tonight and for highlighting all the efforts to support families, whether HHS or other city departments. Yeah. I think it's important to, yeah, just take a moment and also talk you know, to discuss what we're doing. And, it is just taking a moment here to recognize that it is yeah. These are difficult times, especially for families, you know, where they have little ones making sure they're fed.

You know? They go to day care, and they have everything they need. I think what I will say is, you know, counselor is grateful we're in Somerville, and we are trying to, you know, work on whether it's rent stabilization. When I think about family, what they need, they need rent that they can afford. We're fighting for rent stabilization.

We need they need you know, we are here. We are a union city. We support unions when they're fighting for fair contracts, better benefits. That's important because that's what addresses, you know, all you know, we know many women, immigrants, and people of color are not paid fairly. So when union is, you know, negotiating a better contract, it addresses that aspect, the financial aspect.

There's also for for benefits, whether it's paid parental leave or having access to health care. And, yeah, if a parent needs to take time off to focus on their mental health, they can do that as well, not worry about not being paid. So, yeah, just trying to think about what we're doing as a city. These are all obviously, you know, fights that take years, you know, to, you know, to, like, be able to accomplish. You know?

And right now, we know that in the schools, the after school programming is really important, making sure that every family who needs that to access that program gets in. That puts the stress on the families. So, yeah, I hope we can continue to, work on these things at the local level, at the state level, and let us know, as a council, what we can do, especially when, as you mentioned, some of the these grants go away and how we can, find a way to, the funds to so that those programs continue to exist.

Thank you, Did you you guys say again?

Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, So I I just a clarifying question for my own, edification here, to the chair to, director Carroll. Does does health and human services actually touch anything with the out of school time? It does.

Through the chair. Yeah. We have an out of school time coordinator position within our summer promise program, and that role also heads up the out of school time committee steering committee, I think it's called, in conjunction with the schools. So, yes, we have, constant, you know, liaison there trying to figure out where the gaps are and how to best fill those. And as I mentioned, you know, we had those additional, participatory budgeting dollars that were allocated to out of school time. So that position has been very busy this year, but in a good way.

Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Care. Please please please address through the chair. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. I got the link. You did you why don't you continue?

No. No. No. I just back to the chair. Thank you.

Sure. Okay. With that, thank you very much for the conversation. Any additional thoughts or anything? Doctor. Karev, thank you so much for for showing up tonight and for your insight and your work on this. And and, yes, I'm I'm hoping that that we can keep the dialogue going on this. 2024, we'll have some more updates hopefully soon. I'm assuming that it might be state level or

even

citywide because I'm not sure what federal statistics would look like these days. So I I'll leave with two positive notes about living in Massachusetts, which is a little more local, that gives me hope because I think a little positivity is always helpful. The say, for instance, that the fair share tax allows free breakfast and lunch for every fifth child in school job in the schools, and I think that helps. And then also we have free college for anyone who has not received it. So those little touch points hopefully help the families, caregivers, parents, etcetera, to for a better quality of life.

And that that, I think, is a little positive touch point. Sometimes feeling like some really dark times. With that, I'd love to keep this in committee. Thank you very much, and thanks again, director for for having the conversation and the update. Thank you. Thank

you for having me. Good night.

Always. And with that, we have one agenda item. Actually, Chris's purses. I was gonna ask the administration about if there were any thoughts about that Chris's purses. So we're done then. I already yeah. I know. But would love to hear your thoughts, administration. Jesse Lewis Sure. Representing the I I captained committee. But You can can we stop you? Yeah. Give a second. Yeah. Good.

I totally forgot. You're, like, a fly on the wall today. It's great to have you. In his debut appearance, and I and we released our director of of health and human services, which is what everybody told again. I I'm grateful because I signaled that that that's where we were going. So that's on me. But just here we are in month one. I'd I'd love to hear as as there's been conversations or just Sure. Give us something uplifting.

Thank you. Sure. Sure, though. You know? Good evening for the record. My name is Jess. Currently, legislative leave on Remdesi unable to attend this meeting issued at a conference in e. Send in regards. She will be reviewing this recording of this meeting at a later date and follow-up with any outstanding discussion items,

not about just this, but also about two other items.

Our questions have come up. Regarding item 26 dash zero zero four nine, unfortunately, the administration does not have

the necessary time to prepare and respond But

we will work from a parent response to this committee meeting and look forward to participating in the session later at that time.

So that is on order 260049. Just quickly feedback that the director housing and housing report to the council how many new housing units have been approved for development year by year since adoption of Subdivision 2040, and of those numbers, how many permanent, affordable, and how the department defines affordability. So, yes, having to keep that in committee and talk about it at a later time. And, yes, so no discussion on that. Keep in committee. We ran out of agenda items.

Very much.

Whatever time we do. So in that, I I think it could be crowded from the items, and we should just move to end our discussion as we have a meeting.

K. And on adjournment, councilor Sayy?

Yes.

Councilor Link?

Yes.

Councilor Schoze, we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.