By Pacific Island Times News Staff
The governor’s office is proposing a budget of $1 million to cover the salaries of the Office of Homelessness Assistance and Poverty Prevention employees for fiscal 2025
But Speaker Therese Terlaje has offered an alternative idea: How about using that $1 million to serve the needs of Guam's homeless sector instead?
During this week's budget deliberation, Terlaje proposed plucking $1 million out of the governor's proposed personnel budget and redirecting it to support critical services for homeless individuals, addiction recovery for single, pregnant and postpartum mothers as well as disability services.
The speaker's amendment targeted the OHAPP, whose personnel expenses were originally funded through grants from the American Rescue Plan.
"This amendment was based on the Office of Finance and Budget's findings that these OHAPP funds would cover salaries rather than actually providing direct services to homeless individuals," according to a press release from the speaker's office.
Terlaje proposed reallocating $500,000 to the Department of Public Health and Social Services to provide food, shelter and medical services to homeless individuals; $250,000 to the Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center to increase the bed capacity at Guma I Famalao’an, for single women struggling with addiction and fund an additional six to eight beds or total of 15 beds at the Center of Hope, a group home for pregnant, and postpartum mothers also struggling with addiction.
The remaining $314,000 would support the growing demand of individuals seeking in-home assistance and other services at the Department of Integrated Services for Individuals with Disabilities.
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OHAPP is already funded through the American Rescue Plan, and we should plan to continue using these funds effectively to support our community," Terlaje said.
"This way we can also use whatever additional money we have for our other health agencies in desperate need of it," she added.
Terlaje's amendment was backed by her Democratic colleagues Sens. Chris Barnett and Sabina Perez and Republican Sens. Telo Taitague, Joanne Brown, Frank Blas Jr., Jesse Lujan, and Chris Dueñas.
Terlaje earlier proposed tapping into the $47 million Rainy Day reserves to fund two departments' initiatives.
However, the proposed amendment failed due to disagreements among senators over the use of Rainy Day funds.
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