After holding 82 hours of hearings and weighing the testimony of 450 witnesses, a D.C. City Council committee voted May 2 to reject Mayor Vincent Gray’s proposed human services budget for Fiscal Year 2013.
“The Fiscal Year 2013 proposal reflected fiscal decisions we should not endorse. It risks the safety and well-being of homeless residents,” said Committee on Human Services Chair Jim Graham.
A $7 million shortfall in federal funds could result in the closure of shelters for single men and women during the warmer months of the year, Graham said. He also worried the mayor’s spending plan did not adequately address the needs of the city’s increasing numbers of homeless families.
“There will be no cuts in the family shelter, but no increase in capacity either, “ Graham added. “We will have more children and babies living in stairwells and bus stations,” Graham predicted. “That is no way to hold a family together.”
Between November and April, 866 families applied to the city for shelter, a 15 percent increase over the previous winter season. The increase overwhelmed capacity at the city’s family shelter, at the former DC General Hospital.
The mayor has said the restoration of the $7 million in federal funding for homeless programs is at the top of his budgetary wish list. Local dollars are being used to replace lost federal funds in several other areas of the proposed budget.
Graham was joined by fellow committee members Michael A. Brown, Tommy Wells and Marion Barry in voting against the proposed budget for the city Department of Human Services.
Committee member Yvette Alexander voted to approve it.
Gray’s office did not return calls for comment on the committee’s rejection of the human services budget. Final approval of the fiscal year 2013 budget is scheduled for May 15.
