Boston Advocates Demand $2.6 Million Police Budget Cut for Mental Health Pilot

BOSTON — April 27, 2023 — Boston advocates demand $2.6 million from police budget for community mental health pilot. More than 30 speakers testified at an April 27 Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means budget hearing, calling on councilors to redirect $2.6 million from the Boston Police Department's proposed $405 million FY24 budget to pilot a community-based, consent-driven, police-free mental health crisis response model developed over a year with city funding. Dr. Bisola Ojukwu, Commissioner of Public Health and Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission, presented the agency's FY23 behavioral health work, including six low-threshold housing sites that have sheltered 545 individuals and placed 110 into permanent housing, and a syringe services program funded largely by the state at $1.4 million. Advocates from Boston Liberation Health, the City School, Youth Justice Power Union, and Families for Justice as Healing cited Denver's STAR program — which saved nearly $1.9 million in six months — and Long Beach's CAT 911 program, where 86 percent of participants were diverted from jails or emergency departments. Committee Chair Tanya Fernandes Anderson pledged to circulate the hearing video to colleagues and work toward a follow-up in-person community hearing.