New ​“Resilience” Department Created

And just like that, there is now a new city department — charged with finding a data-driven, coordinated response to a vast array of social issues, from homelessness to mental health disorders to drug addiction to prison reentry.

That new agency is called the Department of Community Resilience. It will be placed under the umbrella of the city’s Community Services Administration.

The Board of Alders voted unanimously Thursday night in support of two ordinance amendments and one order that create the department, reshuffle a handful of existing social-service positions under its purview, and use $8 million of federal American Rescue Plan pandemic-relief money to fund four new positions over the next four years.

“We have heard the cries of our fellow residents saying, ​‘Do something in New Haven,’” Board of Alders Majority Leader and Amity/Westville Alder Richard Furlow said. ​“Crime is up. Mental health is out of control. We cannot continue the same track record of what has been done, because it has not been working.”

Many people are in need of help, he said. ​“We have the chance tonight to do something. Let’s do it. Let’s give it this four years.”

The official creation of the new city department comes less than two months after the Elicker Administration first announced its plans to do so.

At an early August Finance Committee hearing on the matter, city Community Services Administrator Mehul Delal said that the new department will be tasked with finding a coordinated and data-driven way over the next four years to address various social problems.

“It’s a lot of initiatives to be organized in a scattershot way,” Dalal said at the time about the city’s current approach towards tackling issues that sit at the intersection of housing insecurity, substance abuse, and mental health. ​“I think [this new department] can bring them the focus and attention they deserve, and help [city staffers and programs working on these issues] sustain and succeed over the long term.”

The legislation approved Thursday night moves four existing city positions into the Department of Community Resilience. Those are the special projects director that currently oversees the reentry center and the community crisis response team initiative, the coordinator of the Office of Housing and Homelessness, the manager of community development initiatives, and the homeless health outreach staffer.

It also creates four new positions for the department. Those are a new director of the Department of Community Resilience, a new coordinator of the office of violence prevention, a new coordinator of mental health initiatives, and a new data/GIS manager.

The new department’s annual budget for each of the next four years will be $6 million: with $2.1 million each year coming from the general fund, $1.9 million each year coming from federal block grants, and $2 million each year from the pandemic-era ARP aid.

Downtown Alder Abby Roth and East Rock Alder Anna Festa suggested pausing the creation and funding of this new department until alders have more information about the four newly created positions. Roth said she worries that, when the federal pandemic relief money runs out in a few years, the city’s general fund will have to pick up the costs for positions that might best be filled by existing private social service agencies.

Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison disagreed, and urged her colleagues to vote in support.

“We know that these monies are temporary,” she said, ​“but this gives us an opportunity to see where we need to focus our funding when this money is no longer around.” She said creating these positions and this department will give the city some ​“hard data” towards approaching a host of related, systemic social issues.

Ultimately, all of the alders present voted in support of the three Department of Community Resilience items.