City Issues Appeal for Donations to the Melrose Emergency Fund
This month, Mayor Jen Grigoraitis, supported by the last five mayors of Melrose, issued an appeal to the community for donations to the Melrose Emergency Fund, which has declined to a level Mayor Grigoraitis called “unsustainable.”
The Emergency Fund was founded in 1996 by Mayor Richard Lyons, after two fires displaced 25 families in Melrose. The fund would accept donations from the community “for the purpose of providing relief and aid to resident families found in emergency need.” The Emergency Fund is technically part of the city budget, but it is a segregated fund that is not funded by tax dollars and can’t be used for other purposes.
Until recently, the Emergency Fund was administered solely by the Mayor’s Office, which would receive and approve requests and pay out grants. In 2020, under then Mayor Paul Brodeur, the fund’s operations shifted to the Council on Aging and an advisory board was created to oversee all requests. Tom Dalton, the City’s Communications and Events Manager, explained that this shift was made partly because many of the requests for assistance came from seniors, and partly because the Council on Aging has an on-staff social worker. “In general, when there are residents in need,” Dalton explained, “things get informally routed through our social worker.”
The Emergency Fund provides assistance to several dozen individuals or families per year, often for rent or mortgage assistance but also for utilities, and occasionally for other needs such as car insurance or emergency home repairs. Grants might be for a few hundred dollars, or as much as $1000, which is the maximum aid amount. All applications for aid are confidential, although the fund reports in broad terms how much aid was provided and what it went toward.
Recipients must not have previously received assistance from the Emergency Fund, since it is intended for one-time needs. Residents who have ongoing needs for housing or food assistance are connected to social services and nonprofits such as Housing Families and Bread of Life. “The idea is to provide for one-time needs,” said Dalton, “and help people catch up.”
Last year, the fund disbursed $57,000 in total. At the beginning of this month, it had dwindled to around $50,000. Mayor Grigoraitis, along with former mayors Paul Brodeur, Gail Infurna, Robert Dolan, Patrick Guerriero and Richard Lyons, asked community members to donate to the Emergency Fund in order to allow it to continue supporting Melrose residents in need of emergency assistance.
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