Salem city councilors are considering launching a pilot program reestablishing the city’s social services fund, which would provide $200,000 in funds for vulnerable community members, including people and families impacted by federal immigration enforcement.

The council is scheduled to vote on the proposal at its Monday, Feb. 9, meeting.  

The matter was initially brought up by the city’s budget committee last month as a way to address the lack of funding attached to the city’s recent emergency declaration concerning immigration enforcement. 

The initial hope from budget committee member Evan Manvel was for the city to provide $270,000 for those impacted by ICE. The budget committee ultimately voted 11-7 to recommend a more general $400,000 social services fund for vulnerable community members, including those impacted by ICE.  

The demand for such funding originally came from Latinos Unidos Siempre, a nonprofit youth organization that’s been advocating for local leaders to take steps to provide more resources. The group is calling on community members to attend Monday’s council meeting to demand the full $400,000 instead of half as proposed by city leaders. 

Salem City Manager Krishna Namburi told Salem Reporter that given city budget constraints, she is proposing half the funding because the city expects a financial deficit by as soon as 2028. The city’s goal is to reduce spending for the next five years, she said. 

“We are focused on controlling costs now so we can proactively address that anticipated shortfall,” Namburi said in an email. “As we explored various options to fund the pilot program, $200,000 was the maximum amount we could identify while making necessary tradeoffs and without jeopardizing the general fund forecast.” 

If approved, the fund would also help people access health care and legal aid, and support people in the community experiencing housing and food insecurity, a staff report from Namburi said. 

If accepted by council, city staff will evaluate fully reestablishing the city’s social services fund as part of its budget for the upcoming year, which would take effect in July.

Doing that would depend on whether more money becomes available.

“The need in the community is real and substantial. Residents are experiencing disruption and uncertainty in their daily lives,” Namburi said in her staff report. “Despite an increase in demand for assistance over the past year, the resources available to community providers and the city have diminished, including funds to support families in need to reduce their housing or food insecurity, provide financial support for legal assistance, or to reduce the impact of increasing cost of healthcare.” 

The $200,000 in the social services fund would come half from one-time salary savings from the airport and half from the city manager’s office, Namburi said. 

In order to produce the savings for the pilot program, the city will need to keep those positions vacant until July 2026. 

Some airport positions remain vacant after Avelo Airlines pulled out of Salem over the summer, leaving the city without a commercial carrier. A new carrier has yet to come forward to take Avelo’s place, and it is highly unlikely that one will by July, Namburi said. 

The vacancies would not jeopardize the $300,000 in subsidies approved by council in October for subsidies to spur negotiations with a commercial airline, Namburi said. 

The savings from the city manager’s office would come from holding open a position for a manager position which would “result in continued higher workloads for existing staff and impact the city’s ability to be efficient and proactive in carrying out its work,” Namburi said in her staff report. 

She said keeping the position open into 2027 is “not sustainable.”

Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected]. 

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