Northampton health officials warn federal, state grant losses would force cuts to community care and vaccine services

The Northampton Department of Health and Human Services told the City Council finance committee it submitted a fiscal year 2026 budget request during a May public hearing and warned that the department faces the possible loss of multiple grant funding streams that would force service changes.

Commissioner Meredith O'Leary opened the presentation by explaining the budget request and the department's composition and funding mix. "We respectfully submit our fiscal year 20 26 budget request in the amount of 1,000,390 and $931," O'Leary said during the presentation. She said personnel and salary account for the majority of the department's costs and that grant funding has been essential to expanding services.

The department flagged three grant programs it expects to lose or see deeply reduced in FY26 and estimated the combined impact at about $855,000. Those grants are the Equitable Approaches to Public Safety (EAPS) funding (described in the presentation as $450,000), the regional public health emergency preparedness grant (FEPP, cited as approximately $120,000), and an infectious-disease grant described during the presentation as supporting vaccine clinics. "At present, we are projected to lose 3 of our critical funding streams estimated in about about 855,000," O'Leary said.

Why it matters: DHHS staff said the at-risk grants support people on the front lines of crisis response and vaccination outreach. Meredith O'Leary and Deputy Commissioner Michelle Farri said reductions would require reconfiguring the Division of Community Care's (DCC) staffing model, relying more on volunteers such as the Medical Reserve Corps, and trimming operating budgets used for radios, harm‑reduction supplies and other program essentials.

More detail: Farri described the DCC as a 24/7-style, low-barrier community response model that has grown since the pandemic and partners with police, fire, EMS, social-service agencies and regional health planners. "The DCC's actually, served more than 1,200 people," Farri said, and she credited DCC Director Donovan Gibbs with building a response culture focused on harm reduction and follow-up. The presentation said DCC contacts and engagements have increased roughly 50% year over year.

Programmatic impact and staffing: The department said personnel comprise the lion's share of its budget and that grant-funded staffing has been cross‑funded to stabilize positions. O'Leary said grant losses would not immediately eliminate all services but would remove surge capacity and program flexibility: "The minimal staffing we are at right now leaves no buffer or surge capacity," she said, adding that loss of FEPP would affect regional emergency preparedness planning supported by a long-time contractor, Lauren Davin.

Community concerns and operational barriers: Public commenters and councilors asked about the origin of the DCC, its relationship to police-divestment advocacy, the visibility of responders and legal or operational impediments to dispatching DCC teams. Ace Taylor, a Ward 3 resident, told the committee the DCC was created in response to calls to divest from police and urged continued rebalancing of funding toward the DCC. Michael Stein and others asked why DCC could not always receive dispatch calls; Meredith O'Leary answered that state rules for emergency medical dispatch (Massachusetts General Laws / OEMS) previously classified many calls as medical and therefore not dispatchable to non-medical responders. She said the department worked with dispatch to develop a CAD-aligned call type and that many calls can now be routed to the DCC.

What the department asked of council: DHHS leaders asked the finance committee to consider the department's modest overall increase and warned that federal disinvestment or state budget decisions could force program reductions or require the city to replace grant funds. "These anticipated losses do pose real risk to staffing stability, program flexibility, and momentum we've all built over the decade," O'Leary said.

Next steps: Committee members and the public pressed for additional details about how DCC hours, communications staffing and supervisor coverage could be expanded if funding is restored. Farri and O'Leary said the department is tracking off‑hours referral data and would bring additional analysis back to the committee to inform decisions about extending DCC operating hours or adding a second communications specialist if grants such as EAPS are restored.

Ending: The department closed the presentation by noting a recent Northampton community health needs assessment with more than 2,500 responses and saying that residents prioritized mental health, social connection and coordinated disease monitoring. "Our community is asking for deeper investment in mental health supports, stronger social connection, and more responsive systems for monitoring and managing disease and wellness across the lifespan," O'Leary said.