Birmingham Commits Another $1 Million To Temporary Worker Program
By Sam Prickett
In an abnormally short, 13-minute meeting on Tuesday, the Birmingham City Council voted to allocate more funds to the city’s fight against COVID-19.
The city’s coronavirus fund was given an additional $1 million, with money being taken from incentives the city had previously allocated to Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, $215,000; Lakeview Antisocial/Brat Brot, $58,000; and Top Golf, $228,000; as well as $499,000 from the Department of Innovation and Economic Opportunity’s economic incentives budget.
That money will go toward what Mayor Randall Woodfin called “phase two” of the city’s coronavirus response, which involves a temporary “Birmingham Strong Service Corps” worker program focusing on coronavirus testing, access to testing and food insecurity resulting from the pandemic.
The program, IEO Director Josh Carpenter told the council during Monday’s budget and finance committee meeting, will be similar to AmeriCorps, “making sure people have access to service opportunities that could supplement their basic income.”
So far, he said, nearly 100 unemployed workers have “been redeployed to paid opportunities that support community needs,” such as phone screening 8,476 public housing residents for virus symptoms, preparing and delivering 12,000 lunches for Birmingham City Schools students, and partnering with Christ Health to set up an emergency COVID clinic.
The $1 million allocated Tuesday by the council will add to the more than $300,000 already raised for the program by private donors including Shipt, the Overton Project, Altec and others. The city’s contribution will be reimbursable by the federal government, Woodfin told councilors Monday.
The council also voted to allocate $4,065,333 from the coronavirus fund to first responders; Lester Smith, the city’s director of finance, told the council last month that overtime for first responders during the coronavirus crisis would likely cost between $4 million and $5 million.
Birmingham is 3rd worst in the Southeast for ozone pollution, new report says
The American Lung Association's "State of the Air" report shows some metro areas in the Gulf States continue to have poor air quality.
Why haven’t Kansas and Alabama — among other holdouts — expanded access to Medicaid?
Only 10 states have not joined the federal program that expands Medicaid to people who are still in the "coverage gap" for health care
Once praised, settlement to help sickened BP oil spill workers leaves most with nearly nothing
Thousands of ordinary people who helped clean up after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say they got sick. A court settlement was supposed to help compensate them, but it hasn’t turned out as expected.
Q&A: How harm reduction can help mitigate the opioid crisis
Maia Szalavitz discusses harm reduction's effectiveness against drug addiction, how punitive policies can hurt people who need pain medication and more.
The Gulf States Newsroom is hiring a Community Engagement Producer
The Gulf States Newsroom is seeking a curious, creative and collaborative professional to work with our regional team to build up engaged journalism efforts.
Gambling bills face uncertain future in the Alabama legislature
This year looked to be different for lottery and gambling legislation, which has fallen short for years in the Alabama legislature. But this week, with only a handful of meeting days left, competing House and Senate proposals were sent to a conference committee to work out differences.
