Nantucket panel votes to seek $1 million human services budget

Other Committee · Meeting of February 6, 2026

Nantucket Contract Review Committee moves toward a $1 million human-services ask for fiscal year 2028. The panel, chaired by Veronica, voted unanimously to accept its fiscal year 2027 grant report and signaled it will seek $1 million total human services funding next year, a $175,000 increase over the current $825,000, arguing the town's allocation hasn't kept pace with inflation. Consultant Marcos Alcorn of KSA reported 219 responses so far in an ongoing needs assessment, short of a roughly 380-response statistical target, showing 49.8 percent of respondents below Nantucket's $151,000 median household income and a sharp racial gap in self-rated quality of life.

Fairwinds' Christy Wilson said peer recovery counselors have zero clients on a waiting list, though "people have deductibles of $6,000 a year" that keep treatment out of reach for many. Town administrator Jericho Mele called the funding "core service delivery," not philanthropy.

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Source: the Other Committee meeting of February 6, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.