The Housing, Health, and Education Committee of the City of Frederick met on April 17, 2025, at 10:00 AM to review the proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget for the Department of Housing and Human Services (HHS). Acting Director Michelle Lott presented an overview of FY25 achievements, FY26 priorities, and associated budget challenges, including staff vacancies, the end of COVID-19 funding, and potential federal grant restrictions. Councilmembers expressed concerns about the use of MPDU funds, the department's capacity to execute its stated plans, and the growing general fund subsidy required to maintain services.
Good morning. Welcome to the April 17th meeting of housing, health, and education committee. We'll stand for the Pledge Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, everyone. Um, the first order of business is the approval of the minutes for April 3rd. Do I have a motion? Move for approval. All those in favor. That is unanimous. And we're just gonna go straight into the workshop presentation for the budget of um Housing and Human Services. I'm gonna say ahead of time, we do understand that you are kind of running things, and you're you don't have a person like you're missing people at the top. Um, which you know, I've said it was top heavy all along, so I'm okay with that. But we understand that you are presenting a budget that you maybe only had partial. Um providing, so don't worry, we're not gonna be mean. So good morning, Council members. I'm Michelle Lott. As um Councilmember Kazemchak said, I am serving as the acting director for the Department of Housing and Human Services. Um, I've been in this role for about the past seven months. Um our department is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for residents by providing critical ser services in housing, nutrition, health, and community engagement. Today I'm excited to share with you some of our key initiatives and priorities that we focused on in FY25, as well as our plans for the year ahead. So in reviewing FY25, one of our key initiatives was the evaluation of our community services. Through this review, we assessed how effectively our CSBG funding was being utilized to meet the needs of our most vulnerable populations. The aim was to empower individuals and families to become more self-sufficient and to enhance access to essential resources. Another significant effort in FY25 was our continued support of our food and security programs, particularly the child and adult care food program. This program provides nutritious meals and snacks to children in Frederick, ensuring that vulnerable populations had access to healthy food. Additionally, we expanded and opened a second food bank location at the former Trinity School. And we did that in May of my apologies, in May of 2024. We also focused on strengthening the new formed, the newly formed recreational collaborative, which helps provide a wide range of recreational programs for clients of all ages. This program ensures that there are fun activities, opportunities for our residents and clients to engage in community building and wellness activities. These events occur weekly, and some of our most well-attended topics included a movie day, pumpkin carving, free haircuts, which we have a photo of up there, and informational sessions on substance abuse. In the last six months, these programs have connected 124 clients, unduplicated individuals with resources, support, and community engagement. Next slide. So FY25 in review for our health center. In FY25, the federally qualified health center made several key improvements to better serve our community. We expanded our hours to include earlier mornings, evenings, and Saturdays, making it more convenient for residents to access care at times that work with their schedules. We also reinstated free flu clinics clinics at our downtown location and provided back-to-school vaccines for our school-based health center located at Hillcrest Elementary. In partnership with the community, we hosted a flu clinic at Frederick Community College, offering even more opportunities for Frederick to need receive these necessary vaccinations, including ones that are required for students to attend classes. In total, in FY25, we administered 1,03 critical immunizations. Additionally, we were able to increase the health center's efficiency through staffing changes. First, we ended our contracts with locum tenum tenums providers and reinvested that funding into hiring more city staff, ensuring more consistent and long-term care for our residents. Finally, we hired a medical billing specialist, which has dramatically improved our ability to bill for our services. This addition to our team has helped streamline billing operations, providing more efficient and accurate processing of health services, and since October of 2024, we have increased our revenue by 200% from having this billing specialist on board. Michelle, when you talk about that 200% increase, what's the number? Sure. If you give me just one second here. Yeah, it was 4,000. It was $900 previously.