Bridgeport health director proposes reorganization to speed housing enforcement and consolidate services

Dr. Rodriguez, director of health and social services, told the committee she plans to relocate the housing-code, blight and lead divisions into the social services area and return a relocation coordinator to housing code to improve alignment and enforcement. "I want to propose a reorganization to relocate the... housing code blight and lead division move them over to the existing social services area," she said during the FY26 presentation.

The proposal is framed as a phased, low-cost realignment that would move staff by June 1 where feasible and rely on public facilities and IT to assess and transfer cubicles and network access. Dr. Rodriguez said the shifts — including placing the fair-rent liaison and parts of the lead program under housing code — are intended to "provide a faster response time for any housing related cases" and to "reduce the duplication efforts across departments."

Why it matters: officials said the changes aim to shorten enforcement timelines and improve residents' experience. Council members pressed on whether the reorg changes budget lines or headcount; Dr. Rodriguez told the committee there would be no net increase in positions from the moves she described, and that the plan is intended to better align duties rather than add staff.

Council questions and follow-ups: during the Q&A, members asked for details on net position counts, supervisory roles and which concrete deliverables would change after the move. One council member questioned why the council should approve the physical moves of cubicles, arguing those are normally management decisions for department leadership. Dr. Rodriguez said the reorg would be accompanied by a 30/60/90-day implementation outline and that some immediate, "low-hanging fruit" could be implemented quickly while larger moves await public facilities and IT assessments.

Budget and staffing context: the director also outlined longer-term staffing needs she said remain unmet in the current budget request — specifically additional nurses in the clinic, environmental health inspectors and a relocation officer — and said she had requested some of those roles through the City's budget process but they were not placed in OPM's recommended budget. She described relocation funding for fire victims as an ongoing shortfall tied to an unfunded state mandate requiring relocation assistance in certain cases.

Next steps: the committee approved receipt of the department's packet and heard the director respond to follow-up data requests; council members asked the administration to provide specific headcount, cost and timeline details in the coming weeks so budget decisions can be informed by measurable implementation steps.