New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Racism as a health issue
Panel seeks broad change, recommends actions to promote equity, inclusion
NEW HAVEN — Funding and hiring a municipal director of diversity, equity and inclusion; establishing training for city staff on those topics, as well as on justice; increasing affordable housing; and COVID-19 testing for all public school students and staff were among myriad recommendations by a working group on racism as a public health issue.
The group, tasked with developing the recommendations for the Board of Alders, submitted its ideas to the aldermanic Health and Human Services Committee.
Now the alders want to hear from
the community on the recommendations and how the city should should further respond.
“There have been many voices that have worked on the initial recommendations, but I want to ensure in particular that communities who are most affected by this issue have a voice at this time,” said Alder Darryl Brackeen, D-26, chairman of both the committee and the working group.
The working group was established because, on
July 6, about one month after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and several months into the COVID-19 pandemic where Black residents and Latino residents were impacted by the effects of the virus more acutely than white residents, the Board of Alders declared racism a public health crisis.
The working group convened to research the issue and compile several recommendations on how the city could respond; it presented recommendations in 10 areas, including the city’s COVID-19 response, education, jobs, housing and food insecurity.
Among the recommendations, the working group suggested a “revamp” of the Affirmative Action Office to become the Commission on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with at least $75,000 in funding to support the efforts.
“We believe there should be a long-term, actionoriented commitment within City Hall to continue to address these issues,” the eight-page recommendation document said.
The recommendations also placed an emphasis on increasing COVID-19 testing of students and staff in the city’s school system, so classes could return to school buildings, as well as prioritizing communities of color in vaccination outreach.
School buildings have remained closed for the academic year to date, a decision made by a majority of Board of Education members to prevent the spread of the virus in schools. The lack of inperson learning has led to concerns that students with the highest economic and social needs are losing academic ground to peers who do not encounter the same systemic barriers to online education.
The city began its mass vaccination program on Dec. 28, with health care workers being among the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna.
Alder Ellen Cupo, D-8, noted that the recommendations in the report around COVID-19 did not prioritize which items were more urgent than others.
“The situation evolves pretty dynamically and we need to act pretty quickly” on COVID-19, said Community Services Administrator Mehul Dalal, who sat on the working group.
The working group’s recommendations on law enforcement emphasized the use of data collection for increasing police accountability; the report does not note the national and local movement to defund police. One of the demands of a youth-led protest that drew thousands to the city this summer following Floyd’s death was to reallocate millions from the police budget to other areas in the city,
“Law enforcement commits to a role of service and care for community residents yet there is a need for extended accountability,” the recommendation in the report says. “Although the fundamental principles of policing are service, the role continues to evolve. Physical and psychological violence that is structurally mediated by the system of law enforcement results in deaths, injuries, trauma, and stress that disproportionately affect marginalized populations.”
The report further suggests a review process for metrics on hiring demographics, response times to complaints broken down by race, complaints of racial bias by civilians against officers and also a racial breakdown of law enforcement activities. It recommends that the city advocate for keeping youth out of “confinement,” reintegrating them into schools and their communities.
In terms of food, the report says the city should support local and state population-level sugar reduction policies to reduce health inequities, support an “equitable and enabling policy environment for urban agriculture in New Haven” to increase food access and remove barriers in zoning code and land-use policies, among other recommendations. The report notes that in New Haven, 22 percent of residents are food insecure, while the Connecticut rate is 12 percent and the national rate is 13 percent.
Regarding employment, the report says the city should continue to push Yale University to hire and retain New Haven residents, “particularly residents from Black and Brown communities”; should support development for businesses in Black and Brown communities; and adopt permanent paid leave policies, among other measures.
On housing, the report recommends the city increase affordable housing “by implementing the recommendations of the Affordable Housing Task Force” and support “statewide advocacy efforts to address segregation by exploring regionalization so that more affluent surrounding towns have their ‘fair share’ of affordable housing.”
Working group member Darcey Cobbs-Lomax, director of community connections and social impact for the Yale New Haven Health system, proposed a change in language to one of the recommendations before the committee.
She proposed that language calling on the Board of Alders to “assess Yale New Haven Hospital’s Community Benefit requirements to ensure accountability, transparency, and alignment between its Community Health Needs Assessments, Community Health Improvement
Plans, and allocation of community benefits dollars to ensure funds are strategically flowing into Black and Brown communities” should read that the alders would work in partnership with the Yale New Haven health system on the issue instead.
“Yale New Haven was not made aware of this language prior to the work group’s meeting, so it was not shared with the hospital,” she said.
Cupo contended changing the language would remove a layer of accountability for Yale.
“I don’t find that language satisfactory at all,” she said.
Alder Ron Hurt, D-3, agreed with Cupo.
Brackeen said Yale New Haven Hospital “really stepped up as a partner in this process.”
Cobbs-Lomax withdrew the amendment after it was discussed that the language before the committee could be revised before the full board votes to accept the report.
The committee voted to send the report to the full board, a procedural move to allow the issue to be sent back to the committee where committee leaders would be able to hold a public hearing on the report.