Detroit Health Department 2025-26 budget hearing

Copublished with BridgeDetroit. 

Detroit City Council is holding 46 hearings this month as part of its annual budgeting process. Outlier Media has teamed with Detroit Documenters and BridgeDetroit to cover all of them.

Detroit Health Department
Date: March 14
Proposed budget: $51,810,922
Number of employees: 284.50

What’s new this year: 

• A few highlights: The health department opened a full-service satellite clinic at the Samaritan Center. Seven new neighborhood wellness centers at churches offer health screenings. The department collected more than 6,300 survey responses and conducted focus groups to ID community health needs. The completed report will be out in June.
• The Too Cool for Drugs engagement program contacted 1,400 youth in schools with anti-drug messaging on vaping, marijuana and illicit drugs.
• Rides to Care, which offers Detroiters who are pregnant and anyone who takes care of an infant free rides for postpartum and pediatric visits, scheduled 5,329 rides and assisted 664 Detroiters.

Things to watch: 

• The Continuing Community Violence Intervention will continue this year with $4.3M in remaining federal funding. (What happens after that?) 
• What happens if Medicaid and other federally funded medical services are cut? Department Director Denise Fair-Razo says it is developing “contingency plans.” However, the department itself relies heavily on federal funding.
• Councilmember Durhal plans to push for an additional $2.3 million for gun violence prevention during the executive budget session.

Other things to note: 

• Councilmember Johnson says she’ll propose funding for expanding Rx Kids, a direct cash assistance program for families during pregnancy and the first year of infancy, to Detroit. Rx Kids already operates in Flint, Kalamazoo, Pontiac and the eastern Upper Peninsula. The estimated cost is $50 million. Philanthropy covers 70% of the cost, per Johnson.
• The health department distributed 4,300 Detroit ID cards, which provide official identification to residents regardless of legal residency status. The department is confident it has what it needs to continue the program. Santiago-Romero said a Detroit police officer called ICE after being presented a Detroit ID by a resident on March 14, the morning of this hearing, and called ICE. She said city workers need additional training on Detroit ID, which does not indicate immigration status.
• The department currently has 4 full-time employees handling opioid crisis response

For more information, check out the video of this budget hearing.

-Koby Levin, Outlier Media