Boston's COVID-19 Health Inequities Task Force Monday released its pandemic recovery plan, a 112-page report that urges the city to identify and dismantle the root causes of structural inequity in order to eliminate health disparities in Boston.
The plan comes one year and a month after former mayor Marty Walsh declared racism a public health crisis, reallocated money from the Boston Police Department's overtime budget and tasked the Boston Public Health Commission and with developing policies for combating the issue.
Titled "Health Equity Now," the plan calls for an ambitious blend of economic, social, and medical initiatives with eight goals as guideposts:
· Increase Home Ownership, Support Renters, and Promote Neighborhood Stability
· Decrease the Wealth Gap
· Increase Participation in the Economy
· Expand Access and Opportunity for Students of Color
· Increase Representation in Positions of Leadership, Influence, and Power
· Increase Cultural Pride
· Foster Well Being and Enhance Quality of Life
· Increase Disease Prevention and Reduce Chronic Disease
The report recommends the city move towards those goals by doing things like acknowledging and increasing awareness of racism and inequity, closing the digital divide and eliminating food insecurity.
Announcing the report from Whittier Street Health Center, task force members said the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the persistent racial and socioeconomic disparities between Boston's less-wealthy communities of color — including immigrant communities — and its white middle class.
"The time is now for all of us leaders, community members, policymakers, business leaders, the city, the universities, the hospitals, all of us from all corners of Boston to take part in the rebuilding of Boston, free of racial and health inequities," said Frederica M. Williams, the CEO of Whittier Street.
Michael Curry, the CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, said Boston deserves credit for convening health professionals to strategize beyond equitable testing, vaccinations and contact tracing and talk about the underlying issue of racism.
"Not enough mayors and town managers across the country did that," he said, nodding to now-U.S. Labor Secretary Walsh for starting the effort. "What came out of this Health Equity Now report [is] the recognition that racism exists, that it is how we got here."
Asked about the ongoing mayor's race impacting the implementation of the report's goals, Williams said it is up to voters to press candidates.
"This should be a critical part of what they're holding people accountable for accomplishing," she told GBH News.
A recent poll from Suffolk University/The Boston Globe shows racism, justice and equality high on voters' minds. The issue was second only to housing among the 500 likely voters surveyed.
Acting Mayor Kim Janey is set to hold a press conference responding to the report tomorrow.
