Photo courtesy of NJ Spotlight News.
A grant intended to fund mental health services, which was created amidst the deaths of two Black men shot by police officers, appears to have stalled, sources who spoke with Slice of Culture indicated, saying the funds have yet to be disbursed.
Jersey City was initially left out of funding when Gov. Phil Murphy signed the Seabrooks Washington Community-Led Crisis Response Act into law on Jan. 12, 2024, leaving a gap in resources remedying mental health issues.
“We were unable to conduct programming or occupy the space for an entire year,” said Pamela Johnson, the executive director of the Anti-Violence Coalition of Hudson County to Slice of Culture, noting that the organization signed on a contract this year for the state monies.
The grant is two-fold with $1 million set aside for training to Alliance Community Health, Inc, a healthcare provider for training, with the second-year grant aimed at programmatic work and crisis response, noted Johnson.
The grantees, including the Anti-Violence Coalition of Hudson County, have one year to roll out their programs and work out how “they’ll connect with local law enforcement,” she added, and that the coalition currently face a resource hurdle, with her team only able to respond to 60 to 80 calls per year, which is far less than what’s needed, echoed Johnson.
The mental health facility would be established inside 450 Martin Luther King Drive, situated in a Jersey City Housing Authority building.
The program is funneled through the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH), which awarded select grants to pilot programs in municipalities and community organizations through six different counties statewide.
The grant goes through that community-based organization to establish a Community Crisis Response Team (CCRT) pilot program, among other organizations in the cities of Camden, Newark, Paterson, Trenton and Jersey City, a program under the purview of the Attorney General Office.
Additionally, Camden, Essex, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex and Passaic Counties would also be part of the $2 million grant round up for the pilot program, stated in a bill by the Department of Law and Public Safety (LPS), according to the state’s Department of Health site.
As to when the funds will be allocated by the state is unclear.
When Slice of Culture inquired on when the funds will be disbursed, Tara Oliver, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office, wrote in an email:
“The Community Crisis Response Team Pilot Program is designed to refund awardees for eligible costs for completed work that falls within the program parameters. The Office of Alternative and Community Response works with pilot locations to prepare budgets and gather appropriate documentation in furtherance of executing a contract and receiving funds to reimburse allowable costs.”
Since 2015, at least 86 people have died in encounters with New Jersey police—Black individuals accounting for 48 percent of those deaths despite making up only 15 percent of the state’s population, according to the report by the New Jersey Policy Perspective.
A bill signed by then Gov. Phil Murphy last year cited data showing Black residents are killed by police at a rate 8.3 times higher than White residents, as previously reported by Slice of Culture.
Commemorating Andrew Washington
City officials acknowledged the “complexity” of rolling out the program, saying they were still working to figure out what services the grant would cover and how to address shortfalls through additional contracts.
“I am grateful for the state to embark on a journey to provide financial assistance to dealing with the mental health community and partnering with our organizations to do the work,” said Ward F Councilman Frank Gilmore who spoke on the phone with Slice of Culture.
“I understand it takes time and proper channels to go through, but I would just note that everyday this entity is not funded, it’s another day that an episode is waiting to happen.”
– Ward C Councilman Frank Gilmore
A unanimous vote at the Jersey City Municipal Council Meeting held on March 25, enshrined a day to commemorate the life of Andrew Jerome Washington III, who was shot and killed by Jersey City Police Officer Stephen Gigante, who fired the fatal shots that took the life of Washington.
The family alleged in a wrongful death lawsuit filed last in 2024 that officers flouted departmental de-escalation protocols and violated Washington’s civil rights.
A grand jury declined to criminally charge Officer Gigante—the “trained negotiator” as cited by the state’s Attorney General’s Office—after reviewing 911 recordings, body camera footage, witness interviews, photographs, ballistics reports and autopsy results, the Attorney General’s Office said.
The fight of one aunt keeps his nephew’s legacy beating.
“This really is an uphill battle,” said Toni Ervin Washington, who is the aunt of Andrew Washington, who spoke to the city council, thanking them for bringing awareness to the date of Aug. 27, 2023.
“We’re asking for accountability, especially in the face of police misconduct, we are seeing this type of misconduct of law enforcement throughout our country and right now here in Jersey City we can start shining a light to be a change for this kind of behavior.”
The allocation of said state monies to help embed mental health services to local law enforcement response is on standby as sources confirmed this to Slice of Culture.
