By Melissa Baltimore
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced Tuesday that he will invest $50 million in federal COVID-relief funds over the next three years to a city agency that works to prevent violence in Baltimore.
Speaking in Park Heights, Scott said the money from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 will go to the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement to fund community violence intervention programs, victim services, youth justice and efforts to help people transition from prison back into their community.
The money will also support those in need of emergency housing and to help relocate residents who are at imminent risk of becoming a victim of violence, Scott said. He said the federal dollars will boost city efforts at providing mental health services as well as helping survivors of gun violence.
“As Baltimore continues to contend with dual public health crises — the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing violence epidemic — I am proud to make this investment in significantly increasing our capacity to reduce the violence occurring on our streets and to activate community-based organizations as part of our Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan,” Scott said in a statement.
The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, or MONSE, was created shortly after Scott’s election in 2020 to work with Baltimore’s neighborhoods to stem the deaths caused by everything from gun violence to drug overdoses.
The agency plans to issue more than 30 grants and contracts to community-based organizations to administer evidence-based community violence intervention programming over the next five years, the mayor’s office said.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was passed by Congress and signed by President Biden to help states, cities and counties deal with the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Baltimore received $651 million in ARPA funds. The $50 million investment announced by Scott comes from these federal dollars.
The money will support key elements of the Mayor’s Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan, a multi-year public safety strategy that aims to reduce gun violence in the city through a public health lens rather than relying on policing, prosecutions and prisons.
The plan itself includes violence prevention efforts, community violence intervention, victim services, youth justice, re-entry services and community healing, the mayor’s office said.
“Curing Baltimore of violence is my top priority as mayor, and the dollars we invest today in this vision based in equity, healing, public health, and trauma-informed practices will build safer neighborhoods today, while paying dividends in the future,” Scott said.
In addition, Scott said federal dollars will also fund a city program that provides training and paid employment for nearly 3,000 incarcerated individuals preparing to transition back into their communities.
“The American Rescue Plan Act allows us to fund evidence-based community violence intervention programs to mitigate the increase in violence across America’s cities,” said Shamiah Kerney, Baltimore’s chief recovery officer. “This ARPA investment with MONSE represents the beginning of transformational change in Baltimore City.”
This announcement comes six days after Scott announced that the city’s first priority of the incoming funds would go to the city health department in its continued efforts against COVID-19, the Baltimore Business Journal has reported.
Baltimore City is one of 15 jurisdictions that have committed to applying a portion of money from the rescue plan to violence intervention programs as part of a collaborative with the Biden administration, according to the White House.
The violence intervention methods applied in Baltimore follow guidance released by the Treasury Department in May that provided recommendations to state and local governments on applying the $350 billion included in the American Rescue Plan Act to evidence-based community violence interventions.
“These resources provide an unprecedented opportunity for states and localities to invest in a strong, equitable recovery from the pandemic and recession,” said Jacob Leibenluft, the chief recovery officer of the Treasury Department. “We hope that with this guidance, communities can use these funds to build a holistic, evidence-based approach to combating violence, especially gun violence, through strategies ranging from subsidized employment and behavioral health programming, to community violence intervention programs and community policing.”