06/01/2026
FUND CARE, NOT COPS!
Join us at speak to council to advocate for a budget that meets the needs of our neighbors living outside.
If you can’t join us day of, call and email city reps to let them know your thoughts. We are paying close attention to:
•Housing for renters: Housing was identified as the number one concern among residents surveyed. 63% percent of Rochester residents are renters. Despite this, the proposed budget offers very little that directly provides affordable rentals or subsidizes rent. If housing is our community’s top priority, the budget should reflect that with stronger investments in renter protections, affordable housing, rent subsidies, and eviction prevention.
•Peace village: Peace Village is one of the clearest examples of a harm-reduction and stabilization project in Rochester. It offers a proven approach to housing and supporting people with complex behavioral health and substance use needs. Yet this important project remains unfinished while opioid settlement dollars are being stretched into adjacent programs. We need to prioritize completing projects like Peace Village that directly align with the purpose of these funds.
•Opioid Settlement funds: The proposed budget transfers $325,000 in opioid settlement funds to partially offset library branch security costs and fully fund a social worker contract. While a social worker role may align with the intent of these funds if it is directly focused on opioid use disorder, treatment referrals, overdose prevention, and recovery support, using settlement dollars for library security raises serious concerns because these funds are restricted and intended for direct opioid remediation, not general operating expenses like security. Key questions remain about how much of the $325,000 is allocated to security versus the social worker contract, whether the contract explicitly addresses opioid and substance use disorder impacts, what legal and programmatic justification exists for using restricted funds for security, and what measurable opioid related outcomes are expected from this investment. City Council must ensure these funds remain strictly aligned with their intended purpose and need clear accountability for how every dollar advances opioid prevention, treatment, and recovery outcomes.
•RPD slush fund: The RPD budget continues to fund over 100 long-vacant positions, raising real questions about whether these roles are ever meant to be filled or are instead functioning as a built-in overtime pool. At the same time, other city departments are being cut, with staff layoffs and reduced services that residents rely on every day, including housing support, libraries, youth programs, public health, and neighborhood services. The overtime slush fund exists while community needs are growing, not shrinking. The result is a clear set of priorities: funding a set-aside for police overtime with vacancies never intended to be filled while scaling back the services people say they need most.
