First in a series
[img]1307|right|Meghan Sahli-Wells||no_popup[/img]Years before she was elected to office, Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells was known as a fightingly committed advocate for assisted housing, and at last evening’s City Council meeting, she welcomed a fresh ally.
After Vice Mayor Mehaul O’Leary stood up stoutly for the broke Housing Division—saying certain vulnerable participants must be protected at any cost – he explained his thinking this afternoon.
The Council instructed city staffers to somehow uncover new and potential sources for emergency and ongoing funding theHousing.
[img]2122|left|Mehaul OLeary||no_popup[/img]Meanwhile, there are 54 families or individuals in Housing’s two Rental Assistance programs, and they are the people Mr. O’Leary is fretting about. At the moment, no protections are in place for them.
“I don’t know or really care where the money comes from to take care of these people,” the vice mayor said. “The Rental Assistance program was created by our predecessors, based on the fact there was a stream of funding, though not an infinite one.
“The funding was going to end. But the people who were placed in the program were only told, in some cases, of the five-year maximum they could be in the program. In the case of the elderly and the disabled, there is a federal law, apparently, that does not allow us to put an end date for their rental assistance.”
The vice mayor’s Irish soul was touched by their exposed plight.
“To me, they are the most vulnerable people in our community,” Mr. O’Leary said.
“They probably are living on set incomes. They have no chance of improving their incomes. Even if we told them the program is going to end two years from today, good luck, they still would not have any means by which they could save money or get to a better place.”
The vice mayor is making his stand.
“We need to suck this one up and absorb it,” he said, challengingly.
Is Mr. O’Leary agreeable to dipping into the relatively sacred general fund to protect the 54?
“I am willing to look at any option,” he said.
“But I am not willing to look at the option of taking these people out of the system.”
(To be continued)
