Creola Hampton, president and founder of the Black Leadership Advocacy Coalition for Healthcare Equity, left, and Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady speak during a committee meeting on Friday.

A group of Black nonprofit health group leaders and some aldermen put Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady on the defensive on Friday over what they called a trickle of money flowing to Black-led community groups, a condition they blamed for widening racial disparities in diagnoses of HIV and other health crises.

The accusations flew during a more than two-hour meeting of the City Council Committee on Health and Human Relations on Friday, when committee chair Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6) called a subject matter hearing to discuss the city’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Black community. The committee on Friday also passed resolutions urging city leaders to release more information surrounding a botched 2020 demolition and to support international efforts at nuclear disarmament.