Video Update for April 2: Mayor Brodeur & State Rep. Lipper Garabedian's Coronavirus Update

Mayor Brodeur: Good evening, Melrose. It’s your Mayor, Paul Brodeur, with the COVID-19 update for April 2.

I want to give you the case statistic update before we get started. There are now 42 postive cases in Melrose, and one death. As you know, that was our first death that happened yesterday. Happily, we have had nothing further since in terms of loss of life.

There has been some good news on the PPE front. Governor Baker announced today that the Kraft family and the Patriots organization have transported from China to Boston 1 million personal protective masks. We are delighted and grateful and thankful to the Kraft family and everyone else who played a part in making those things available, and also that I guess you’d call it a cleansing plant has come online at Assembly Square in Somerville. That is going to allow for 80,000 masks per day to be sterilized and repurposed so that they’ll be able to go back out into the field. That is terrific news.

Unfortunately, none of us are immune to or strangers to the economic disruptions that have gone on since this crisis started, and we are really starting to see a surge in unemployment. That is why I am delighted to bring to your attention today our new representative, Kate Lipper-Garabedian, who is going to talk about some of the resources that are available to residents that might find themselves out of a job or with an income interruption. Kate, welcome. A fast learning curve for you, that’s for sure.

Rep. Lipper-Garabedian: Sure. Well, thank you for having me tonight, and it’s good to be with everybody in the community, even in a remote capacity. I am thinking about you all. I know that this is a terribly difficult time for so many of our families, and I know we are all grateful to the people who are working as first responders to protect us and then to treat us as we or our loved ones become ill. If there’s anything that I can do, I believe at the end of this my contact information will be provided. I’m happy to serve as a resource for you.

And on that point, as the mayor mentioned, we are seeing unparalleled unemployment requests coming into the state, understandably as many people are losing their jobs for the time that the state of emergency continues. The good news is at both the state and federal level, policy makers have responded quickly to put into place a framework to be responsive and to support families at this time. My office put together a one-page table that is available online; I have put it out through some of the social media outlets, but I’m happy to send it to anybody who is interested as well, sort of summarizing those programs. So I’m just going to open up a screen-share, and I think everyone will be able to see this now, so this is the table that sort of walks you through, with hyperlinks that take you to the different places you need to go. About unemployment benefits, at the state level, the department that oversees unemployment benefits is the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance, DUA. And I know that many people in the community have never interfaced with DUA, but they will be there to help you if you need to apply for some temporary income to support you during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can apply online or by phone, and when you go to apply, they will walk you through the information that you need. If you end up having questions, DUA has been doing these virtual town halls. I actually participated in one earlier this week to get a feel for it. People are able to either participate online, through a computer or a smart phone, or they can just call in, so you can dial in by your home phone or by a cell phone, and you can listen in to some basic information and also ask specific questions. And I was very impressed by DUA in terms of the responsiveness and the ability to answer questions on the spot or make sure that people would be followed up with in a timely manner.

At the same time that we are seeing these expanded requests for unemployment, DUA has relaxed a few of the typical requirements you would see. So one thing that’s happened at the state level is we’ve waived a one-week waiting period for you to start to collect unemployment income. That’s great it means once you apply you will quickly be able to start receiving some unemployment benefits. Another thing that has been waived is a requirement that typically people have to attest each week that they are searching for work. DUA understands that during COVID-19 many people aren’t really losing their jobs; they will return to work as soon as their employers can re-hire them. And meanwhile it’s certainly not safe to be out in the community seeking work. So DUA understands that you do not need to be looking for work during this time. so those are some of the state level policies that have been implemented. There’s also a contact form on the DUA website so that if you have questions you can reach out to them directly, and then someone will follow up with you; you can also reach out to my office and someone will help you navigate that process as well.

Mayor Brodeur: The governor in front of his remarks today did talk about how they have actually added staff to the DUA call centers to make sure they can, as best they can, handle the volume that they expect to come in.

Rep. Lipper-Garabedian: That’s right. I think people should still expect that there may be a bit of a delay. I had tried using the contact form to ask a question, and haven’t heard back, for example, but I think we will hear back and have a little patience. The employees are working remotely and will be calling you as quickly as possible, and again, if you are having trouble you can check in with me and I’m happy to help sort of navigate that.

Then on the federal level, on Friday of last week the CARES Act was enacted. That’s a huge stimulus bill to make sure that we are addressing many of the damaging effects of COVID-19 on personal income and small businesses and the like. At the unemployment level, there is really great news because the act does three things: It expands the types of people who are eligible for unemployment income, so not only would it be typical employees but also people who are working in the gig economy, folks who file 1099s because they are independent contractors, self-employed individuals, apparently some non-profit organizations, their employees would not quality for the traditional unemployment benefits but under the CARES Act, they will. So that’s really great news for many families. The CARES Act also will expand the number of weeks a person can receive benefits, expanding it by an additional 13 weeks, fully federally funded unemployment insurance benefits. And then third, it expands the amount that people will be receiving, so there will be an additional $600 per week on top of the state benefits that someone would be receiving, for the next four months. So for the average worker in Massachusetts the combination of the CARES Act compensation as well as the state unemployment benefits will mean the average Massachusetts worker is going to realize about the income that he or she would have otherwise had, had COVID-19 not hit us.

This is a table, you can see that we are waiting from the federal executive branch to provide guidance to DUA about how to implement these provisions of the CARES Act. Once DUA has this information, things like eligibility rules, business rules, it will update its own website and it will explain exactly how people can apply for these benefits. But the law is in effect as of Friday, so as soon as we have that information, I know it will be the department’s top priority to provide information to us so that we can begin to process additional claims. That’s the information that I have tonight, and again we are here to help you navigate this. I know this is a very scary time for many people, but the good news is people are working hard to put into place policies that are going to address the challenges we are facing.

Mayor Brodeur: And just so folks are clear, this is terrific information and you probably feel like you’ve been at the job for about a year and it’s what, been maybe a week, and folks should also know a couple of things. This is a work in progress, this is going to change, I think there’ll be some benefits added along the way, and also there is an equally robust suite of supports for small businesses that are facing business interruption and there’s even, I know there’s progress in the legislature on eviction and foreclosure prevention, that are additional supports for folks that are really feeling the impact.

Rep. Lipper-Garabedian: That’s right

Mayor Brodeur: I want to compliment you and your colleagues in the Legislature and our delegation at the federal level because the communication has been tremendous, and the effort has been it’s either nonpartisan or bipartisan, I’m not sure which way to describe it.

Rep. Lipper-Garabedian: Sure.

Mayor Brodeur: Folks are moving quickly and aggressively to make sure that people in Massachusetts are taken care of, and interestingly I note that our Senate delegation worked very hard on a couple of provisions with the Alaska delegation on the federal level, and that is two liberal Democrats, two pretty conservative Republicans, all pulling in the same direction to make things work, so kudos to you, kudos to your new staffer Rebecca, I know she’s jumping right in the middle of things. To shift gears a little bit, I know there’s a lot of concern on the local level about our health care system and making sure that folks have their medical needs taken care of. We had the opportunity to participate in a call with our friends at MelroseWakefield Healthcare, that run Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, just a little while ago, and I want to assure folks that we are all, again, same stroke, working on the same page, making sure that we are delivering the resources that they need if they need our help and if there is a push needed at the local, state, or federal government, we’ve got that covered. You were on the call, anything you want to add about MelroseWakefield and the meeting we had?

Rep. Lipper-Garabedian: Well, it was a great conversation, again, a true spirit of collaboration. People are very attuned to the important nuances of how we are going to handle the surge, which we expect is coming soon. And it’s really wonderful that our community is resourced not only by a very strong community hospital and the workforce that supports that, but also by a fantastic team at City Hall who were asking great questions, providing really good information about the services you all are going to provide and the needs you have at the same time, so to your point, we have seen fantastic collaboration across the aisles, across the different levels of government, with the private sector, and it really is a testament to the strong spirit of community that exists in our nation at a time when there is a crisis. And that’s reassuring for everyone.

Mayor Brodeur: So just two things to close out with. One is I can’t reinforce enough, we heard it from the hospital, they are very grateful to the community for taking the social distancing, what I like to call physical distancing, very seriously. Again, it doesn’t just protect you and your family, but it also protects those health care providers in making sure that they are as protected as they can be as we try to flatten the curve and reduce the spread of the virus. And finally to that end, to recognize their work and the work of all the folks who can’t work from home, the folks that are on the front lines, Melrose is participating in the Clap Because We Care event tomorrow night. You can find out more about it on social media but the basic gist is this: At 7:00 tonight, wherever you are open your window, step out on your porch, maybe go out on the sidewalk, clap, shoot off—I shouldn’t say shoot off fireworks, that’s a no-no—but play an instrument, blast a horn, whatever you think, whatever would be fun for you, let your neighbors know, let the community know that you really appreciate the work that so many people are doing to keep us safe during a very, very challenging time.

And with that, Kate, I want to thank you again for joining us. Welcome aboard, it’s great to have a terrific partner at the State House, and we will see you folks tomorrow. Have a good night.