This was a budget hearing for the newly proposed Human, Homeless and Family Services (HHFS) Department, presented by administration officials. The session included an overview of the department's creation, consolidation of existing programs, proposed budget for fiscal year 2027, and extensive discussion of homelessness, home repair, immigrant services, and policy goals. Council members raised questions and made motions related to funding, performance metrics, shelter conditions, youth homelessness, mental health services, and the budget process timeline.
Understood. Hey y'all. Just got a budget hearing. Ready? Dr. Shaver, where did everybody go? Mr. Washington, where's your crew at? Okay, well their time for being in the hall was last week. And you'd be in the committee all today at the table. We can go with that one because we need to get going. Thank you. All right, come on down. And good afternoon. We're now moving into our budget hearing for I'm not sure if we have the PowerPoint locked and loading yet, but the budget hearing for the human homeless and family services department. Those who participating, please introduce yourself for the record, uh, and you may proceed. Uh David Bowser, Mayor's Office Chief of Staff. Okay, with me. Luke Schaefer, Chief Executive of Health, Human Services, and Poverty Solutions. Thank you. Good day. Donnie Johnson, uh, Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Budget Director. Okay. Uh Julie Schneider, Director of the Housing and Revitalization Department. Okay. Okay. So through the chair, today's presentation uh is about the newly proposed human homeless and family services department. Um this is an extremely exciting development uh from the administration. Um this is not a recent sort of concept. This is something that has been in the works uh for quite some time now, and the mayor is um has thrown support and sort of a structure behind uh a vision that has been much needed um in the city for a bit of context. There was a human services department in the city of Detroit uh at the conclusion of the bankruptcy or throughout the bankruptcy, it was dissolved. It was also the community action agency uh designated by the state to receive community um service block grant dollars, CSBG, that old entity used to provide furnaces, roofing, just different sort of programs for residents. Um after the bankruptcy, the community action agency went to Wayne Metro, that designation did, and at that time uh it was sort of seeing that there became uh a gulf between residents and resources. Um the city of Detroit has a pretty robust network of resources for residents, but a lot of times there's a gulf that is comprised of many different issues. Transportation, internet access, um, just general awareness of resources. One of the things that this new department is tasked with doing is bridging that gap between people and resources. Um we know that every household has multiple different resource needs. We want to create a one-stop shop to make sure that residents are connected to both internal and external entities, as well as to start to create policies to address the needs that families have proactively and not reactively. This is not just sort of a standalone entity that you come to for help is also an entity that's going to shape policy to make sure that we are addressing some of the major needs of Detroit households. And so just as an intro, um, this department, the services provided by it, and the policies are designed uh to meet Detroiters where they are. Um equity is a huge sort of quality and uh and a guiding point that the mayor has established to where every Detroit resident may need a different level of assistance, and we should be especially cognizant of that. Um we are looking to create barrier reduction programs, barrier reduction collaborations and policies, and we're looking to reduce or eliminate the factors that lead to poor outcomes for Detroit's most vulnerable residents. And so typically the budget presentations do sort of um uh review of what happened in the previous fiscal year. Uh the unique thing about this proposed department is that the uh the entities, the programs that are uh proposed to live under this new umbrella, they lived in several different umbrellas this past fiscal year. So we want to kind of go through those different umbrellas, sort of make the point that we are making sure that we are centralizing resources now under one umbrella, and then refining those resources to make sure they're deployed directly to residents in a way that reduces um uh the barriers that that residents have been expressing for a very long time now. And so you wanted to make sure that everyone understood that there are three different sort of departments um uh programming that is going to be consolidated through this one new entity. The housing revitalization department is probably undergoing the most dramatic shift uh of the sort of consolidation. Uh home repair, neighborhood opportunity fund, Detroit Housing Services and the Housing Resource Helpline and Homelessness Solutions uh would be condensed from HRD into this new umbrella. From the Detroit Health Department, the Detroit ID and sister friends would be reduced, uh condensed into this department, and the Office of Immigrant Affairs and Economic Inclusion will live uh directly uh beside or or under this umbrella that Luke Schaefer uh Dr. Luke will be overseeing.