Good afternoon.

My name is Ben Weber.

I'm the Boston City Councilor for District Six and the Chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means.

The hearing, this hearing is being recorded.

It's also being live streamed at Boston.gov/slash city dash council-tv and broadcast on Xfinity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, and FIOS Channel 964.

The council's budget review process will and uh will encompass or does encompass a series of public hearings that began at the beginning of the month of April, then we'll run through June.

We strongly encourage residents to take a moment to engage in this process by giving testimony for the record.

You can do so in several ways.

You can attend uh one of our hearings uh and give testimony in person or virtually via Zoom.

Um you can uh uh and we will take that public testimony, usually at the end of the first round of questions from uh my council colleagues.

Uh you can uh you can view a full hearing schedule on our website at boston.gov slash council-budget.

You can also uh give public testimony uh in person at one of two uh listening sessions we're gonna be having one is tomorrow night here at City Hall uh at 6 p.m.

That's Tuesday, April 28th.

Then the the uh the last listening session we're having during this budget cycle will be in person on Thursday, May 26th at 6 p.m.

Also at City Hall in this chamber.

Um at any of those listening sessions in any chamber, you can give testimony in person or virtually via Zoom.

For in-person testimony, uh please come to the chamber and sign up on the sheet near the entrance.

Anyone who wants to speak at this hearing, there's a sign-up sheet.

Uh if you you haven't done so already, uh please sign in.

Um for virtual testimony, you can sign up using our online form on our council budget review website, or by emailing the committee at ccc.wm at Boston.gov, or by emailing uh uh Karishma Chohan at K-A-R-I-S-H-M-A.CHOUHAN at Boston.gov.

When you're called to testify, please state your name uh and uh residence, or if you're with an organization, your affiliation with that organization, and uh please uh we'll limit your comments for two minutes so everyone gets a chance to testify.

Email you um in in lieu of uh showing up or testifying uh virtually, you can also email written testimony to the committee at ccc.wm at boston.gov.

Uh lastly, you can uh submit testimony by submitting a two-minute video of your testimony through the form on our website.

I'm not sure anyone's taken advantage of that yet, but look forward to seeing some videos.

Um for more information on the city council budget process and how to testify.

Please visit the city council's budget website at Boston.gov slash council-budget.

In-person public testimony today will be taken following the first round of counselor questions.

Individuals will be called in the order that they have signed up, and we'll have two minutes to testify.

If you wish to sign up again and haven't done so already, the sign-in sheets over there on my left.

And uh you or if you're online, you can email our uh director of legislative budget analysis, Karishma Chohan at K-A-R-I-S-H-M-A.CHOUHAN at Boston.gov for the zoom link and your name will be added to the list.

This afternoon's hearing is on docket numbers 0733 to 0740, an overview of the FY27 operating budget for the mayor's office of housing.

Uh this is one of a series of hearings we're having to review the FY27 budget.

These matters were sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu and referred to the committee on April 8th, 2026.

I have uh been joined uh by my colleagues on order of arrival.

We've been joined by a lot of colleagues, which is uh which is great.

I should have some sort of like you know, some uh gift card to JP Licks at the end of this for the person with the highest attendance.

Uh the early standings are uh you know counselor Flynn is in the lead, Counselor Murphy's close behind.

Yeah, uh well, maybe uh maybe there was a pre-budget uh hearing.

Uh and uh anyway, lots of other counselors, counselor Braden, I think has also been at every hearing, Counselor Culpepper uh as well.

Um so this afternoon order of arrival, Counselor Flynn, Councillor Murphy, Counselor Fitzgerald, Councillor Louis Gen, Counselor Culpepper, Councillor Coletta Zapada, Councillor Pepin, uh, and that's all I have so far.

It's a full house, which is great.

Um, did I not say counselor Braden?

Is Councillor Brady not on the list?

Yeah, that's I'm just you know passing the blame here to okay so counselor Braden is third, so it's Flynn Murphy, Braden, Fitzgerald, Louis Jen, Culpeper, uh Coletta Zapata, and then Peppin, if that I think the order is right.

So it's Flynn, Murphy, Braden, Fitzgerald, Louis Jen, Culpepper, Coletazapada, and then Pepin, if that I think the order is right.

Um we're waiving opening statements in these budget hearings.

We're going to hear from the panel.

I'm just going to introduce our esteemed panelists, they're always esteemed, uh, our chief of housing, Sheila Dillon, and our director of administration and finance for MOH, Rick Wilson.

Um I don't know if you have a presentation.

Um, so the floor is yours.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

No, thank you, Counselor.

It's good to be here with all of you.

I just want to thank Council Member for inviting us and members of the Ways and Means Committee.

We are here to testify, as you well know, on our fiscal year 27 budget.

For the record, my name is Sheila Dillon, and I'm Chief of Housing and the Director of the Mayor's Office of Housing, and I am joined here by our ANF director, Rick Wilson.

I'm also uh joined by many senior managers who are here in the audience.

In case you have detailed questions, they will have the answers, as well as Joel Wolf and the BHA to answer any questions you have about their program or their budget items.

I'm going to just provide a very brief overview of MOH's accomplishments in fiscal year 26, uh, and then have and to talk about our goals for 27 and then hand it over to Rick to get into some of the details of the budget.

Um, it needless to say it's been a challenging year uh with our current uh federal administration, but we are we are glad to be here with you and glad that this budget preserves the vast majority of our fund, our city funding and allows us to continue this important housing and community development work.

As just to remind you all, um we are uh the MOH has six strategic areas, creating and preserving affordable housing, ending homelessness, strengthening homeownership in our city, supporting renters in crisis, promoting urban agriculture, and disposing of the city's owned surplus properties.

These functions, of course, are supported by our housing compliance and asset management divisions, which monitor affordable housing agreements, administers lotteries, and our policy department and research division.

I'll quickly go through our accomplishments for fiscal year 26 and our goals for 27 in each of these areas.

I'll begin with housing development.

MOH's neighborhood housing development division made strong progress in fiscal year 26, permitting 800 income restricted units.

And our acquisition opportunity program has continued to fight displacement, and we have funded the acquisition of eight buildings.

Since AOP launched in 2016, we have helped acquire over 1,400 units to preserve tenancies and affordability across the city.

Looking ahead to 27, we're aiming to permit a thousand new affordable housing units and complete construction on over 280 units of homeownership housing.

Here you'll see examples of our some of our fiscal year 26 projects, uh 288 Harrison residents in Chinatown, and the Welcome Home Boston project on Norwell Street in Dorchester.

Turning to homelessness and supportive housing in fiscal year 26, we're on track to place over 780 individuals experiencing homelessness into permanent housing, including 125 veterans.

And we've expanded our portfolio of supportive housing with the completion of over 200 new units.

We also fought to secure 48 million dollars in HUD Continuum of Care Funding, which uh funds the lion's share of our housing programs for homeless individuals.

And I want to thank the city council for really being with us as we have fought the very good fight with uh the federal government to maintain those funds.

In fiscal year 27, we're committed to sustaining this momentum by housing another 775 homeless individuals, serving over 680 people living with HIV or AIDS, and helping at least 100 young adults transition into permanent housing from homelessness.

These goals are grounded in data and driven by a strong collaboration with our nonprofit partners.

I would argue the best nonprofits probably in the country.

Pictured here are two of our permanent supportive housing projects, St.

Mary's campus in Dorchester, which we believe will start this fall, and 570 Warren Street in Roxbury, which is complete and occupied, and it was uh completed by the Commonwealth Land Trust.

This year, the Boston Home Center has continued to focus on increasing home ownership rates to grow intergenerational wealth and financial stability and supporting existing homeowners, especially our seniors.

In fiscal year 26, we supported nearly 2,000 residents through first-time homebuying education and helped 340 home buyers, 65 percent of which identified as BIPOC, with down payment and mortgage assistance to buy a home in Boston.

We also served over 900 homeowners through homeowner repair programs and foreclosure prevention and expanded our residential decarbonization and electrification offerings.

In fiscal year 27, we'll deepen this work by supporting at least 250 new homeowners, continuing to provide home repair assistance, and promoting energy resilience by piloting solar panel and window heat pump loan, pump loan programs.

The photos show here capture the real world impact of our program from a first-time home buyer on Magnolia Street who bought a beautiful new home to 15 new homeownership units on Hancock Street in Dorchester.

As you well know, your office is well know well, and your staff certainly.

Uh, we are continue to support uh renters in crisis and prevent to the best of our abilities displacement.

It's become one of MOH's most crucial functions.

The Office of Housing Stability has served over 2,700 renters this year, through everything from helping with rent arrearage, landlord tenant mediation and legal support, to emergency hotel stays and direct placement into permanent housing.

We also expect to help over 100 families with school-age children facing eviction through access to council pilot program, which is administered by the Greater Boston Legal Services.

In fiscal year 27, we aim to maintain this reach with a continued focus on eviction prevention and housing placements for insecure households.

These services are often the last line of defense, especially for low-income and vulnerable communities facing systemic barriers to housing stability.

Moving away from housing for a minute, I just want to talk about the incredible work the Grow Boston Office of Urban Agriculture can continues to do to impact really the food production systems across our city.

They are leveraging surplus land and funding to promote healthy food access, environmental resilience, and community connection, particularly in neighborhoods that have experienced disinvestment.

In fiscal year 26, Grow Boston completed construction of 300 garden beds at community centers, libraries, public housing sites, and at homes and nonprofit organizations throughout the city.

They have supported hundreds of residents through educational grants, gardening supplies, and technical assistance through the urban agricultural ambassador program.

In addition, the grassroots program supported 11 developments with land or funding, including community gardens, urban farms, food forests, and other open space projects.

In fiscal year 27, we plan to add 335 more raised garden beds and provide 200 gardeners with individual support.

We will also sell or transfer parcels to create six new community gardens and open spaces, and will construct and launch a new half-acre urban farm in Matapan on the Boston Public Health Commission property.

So that was a very quick overview of a lot of work of our fiscal year 26 accomplishments and goals for 27.

At the end of this slide deck, we have provided some appendices with detailed breakdowns of our spending by neighborhood and demographic groups that demonstrate how our programs are reaching Boston's diverse communities.

We take great pride.

I take great pride in the staff and how hard they work on outreach and making sure that our residents know of our programs and the resources that we have to offer.

We're happy to answer any questions you have about those slides.

I will now turn it over to Rick, and he is going to present our fiscal year 27 recommended budget.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jayla.

Good afternoon, Councillors.

For the record, my name is Rick Wilson.

I'm Director of Administration and Finance at the Mayor's Office of Housing.

MOH's FY27 recommended operating budget totals 49.2 million dollars.

What you see here is our recommended budget broken down by program area.

The City of Boston voucher program, which we passed through to the Boston Housing Authority.

It was the largest line item in our budget funded at 11.85 million dollars for FY27.

Home buyer and homeowner assistance is next at 10 million dollars, homelessness supportive housing, 9.3 million, affordable housing development, 7 million, and housing stability of 5.5 million.

As Sheila mentioned, MOH has been fortunate to receive significant city investment in recent years.

In fact, our operating budget has nearly quadrupled, growing by $36 million over the last 10 fiscal years.

We take this growth as a reflection of the critical need for our programs and services and in the confidence that both you and the mayor have in our ability to effectively operationalize these funds, and we thank you for your support.

As you know, counselors, most of our funding um comes from external sources, um, especially grants from the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD.

Um, this includes continuum of care, community development block grant, home investment partnership, housing opportunities or presence with AIDS, emergency solutions grant, and lead pain abatement.

Um, all told these grants combined uh total 77 million dollars in annual funding.

Um, as Sheila intimated, there's been a lot of um kind of focus and tension around federal funds over the past year and a half.

Um first the Trump administration um froze uh many federal grant programs last year, uh, include and and then um proposed drastic reductions to them, um including our HUD grants.

Thankfully, Congress rejected those proposals and passed an appropriations bill that provided level funding for most of our grants for FY27.

Um we recently received our allocations and they are um close to what we expected.

CDBG Home and ESG received flight reductions of one to two percent, and uh Hop will increase by about 200,000 or 6%.

Um I'm also sure you're aware that we are uh involved in multiple lawsuits regarding our HUD funding.

Um the one we are probably watching most closely uh involves our continuum of care grants, which total 48 million dollars and support most of our homelessness programs.

Um last year, HUD attempted to restructure these grants to limit funding for permanent housing, which would have impacted hundreds of formerly homeless individuals in Boston, including people with disabilities, seniors, youth, veterans, and survivors of domestic violence.

Um fortunately, we've been successful at winning court injunctions and congressional action to preserve our COC funding for the upcoming year.

Um, but HUD has already indicated that it intends to move forward with these harmful changes for the following year.

We're working with the City Finance Department, Law Department, Intergovernmental Relations, and our state and nonprofit partners to respond to these actions and mitigate impacts to our clients, and we will keep you updated as the situation unfolds.

Um turning to other funds, other external funds, uh, we've come to rely heavily on other external sources to support our work, especially affordable housing development.

We expect to commit 23.3 million dollars in state, local, and other sources in FY27, including 20 million dollars from the inclusionary development program.

So in total, we anticipate managing over 100 million dollars in FY20 of external funds and FY27.

Um you will note that this does not include uh ARPA funding.

We received 237 million dollars in ARPA funding for housing and and Grow Boston initiatives.

That's it's technically outside of MOH's budget, which is why I'm not presenting it here.

But um I'm I'm proud to report that we have spent over 190 million dollars or 80 percent of our ARPA allocation, and we are well on track to spend the rest of it by the end of this uh calendar year by the deadline.

Looking at the uh the capital budget, the FY27 to FY31 Capital Plan, fund several ongoing projects at the Boston Housing Authority, um, including major redevelopments of Mildred Haley, Charlestown, Mary and Mary Ellen McCormick, as well as as well as elevator upgrades at a number of sites.

Uh, and again, as Sheila mentioned, Joel Wool is here from the BHA if you have any questions about these projects.

The capital plan also includes two ongoing MOH projects.

Um, first uh in Mission Hill, where we're placing a retaining wall on a city-owned parcel on Parker Terrace, uh Parker Terrace that will be um developed into housing, open space, community gardens, and commercial space.

Uh and that project uh is will be getting underway soon, and then um at 135 Dudley Street and Nubian Square.

Um, we the capital funds will be used to construct a public plaza adjacent to the affordable housing development that uh is closing in the coming months, um that'll connect that site to the nearby um Boston Public Library.

And with that, I'll turn it back to Sheila to wrap up.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rick.

So um that pretty much concludes uh our presentation.

And um I just want to wrap up by thanking the you know each and every one of you for a very, very positive working relationship and you know, bringing issues to our attention when we when when you need when your constituents need assistance or supporting us when we go out to neighborhoods and we're working on citing affordable housing.

I don't know, I just I feel like it's a very, very good positive working relationship, and I just really want to thank you for that and look forward to continuing such a positive relationship as we move forward into the next fiscal year.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh I I know like I think people like your children, you can't pick a most important one.

You know, people always talk about these hearings as being the most important.

I mean, this this may be the actual most important hearing we have.

Uh you know, how supplying housing for people across the city is it's really, you know, I I can't think of a more important function.

Um, and just uh before I get to my colleagues, I'm gonna exercise just a little privilege of the chair.

Um, you know, uh we talk about helping people who who need it.

Uh one something you highlighted, you know, and something we've done through the access to council pilot program is to help people who are facing eviction, who have kids in school here in Boston.

Uh I think you know, if you just that that is not in the budget uh for next fiscal year.

I guess can you just talk a little bit more about uh the what did that program work over the last year?

Is it uh is it worthwhile to try to continue it?

Um I'll just do you want to um thank you, counselor.

Yeah, uh the uh the access to council um pilot program as you as you mentioned is not included in the FY27 budget.

Um, you know, my understanding is that um you know that was uh part of a decision by the by the mayor's office and the budget office around city council amendments from prior years generally speaking.

Um I think the program has been successful.

We expect it to help a hundred uh families this fiscal year.

I will note that we do have other funding uh that we provide to Greater Boston Legal Services to provide case management and some legal assistance to um renters facing uh eviction and housing instability, not specifically for for families with school-aged children, like the access to council pilot is for.

Um I think um, you know, it it's a worthwhile program.

I think we would certainly welcome to see that funding added back to the budget, but you know, we also understand the city, the situation the city is facing.

Um, and I think you know there's lots of important needs across across the city.

So um, you know, we're gonna we're gonna do what we can with what we have.

But you know, yeah, I think we also heard that it's uh right now it's about three families a week come in looking for help from that program and just think about the impact we can have.

Um just ask my colleagues to think about that.

Uh okay.

Um so let's see.

Counselor Flynn, you're up first.

Uh we're gonna go with six minutes.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I apologize.

We're been joined by Councilor Warrell.

Um Councilor Flynn.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you to Rick, and thank you to Sheila and the housing team for the professional work you do every day.

Had an opportunity to work with you, Sheila for eight years, and you're an outstanding professional city employee.

Um, I wanted to highlight planned downtown.

I filed a text amendment, as you might know, to require on-site affordable housing as part of that.

Um, I still want to see housing for working class people in downtown Boston for low-income families as well.

And I know you've done a tremendous amount of work in support of the Chinese community in Chinatown.

But as you know, there's a lot of um Chinese and Asian residents living in downtown Boston.

But is this something that you would consider is um is supporting this text amendment to require on-site affordable housing.

And if if you're not prepared to deliver a response now, maybe we can we can certainly talk about it later, but I just wanted to give you the heads on.

Sure.

I I mean I I've I am not prepared to talk about that now, but I would be glad to engage you and and my colleagues at planning.

I will say the Office Therese um, which I think we're all a big fan of, is really I can't think of one uh instance and of all those new projects where the affordability has been bought out, which is good news.

Um I I will say just more generally, uh we are looking at projects right now uh again with a fresh uh set of eyes sometimes to if we can get them jump started and and going in this downturn.

Um but we are trying our hardest to keep any kind of buyout, you know, very, very localized and spent very, very close to the market rate project.

But I the specifics of that text amendment, I'd be glad to learn more about and and talk with you individually.

Okay, thank you, Sheila.

And I think Rick mentioned it or Sheila.

No, I think Rick mentioned it, but there were some cuts that are taking place to the budget, to the housing budget.

Can you explain what those cuts are, where they're taking place, please?

Sure.

Um, yes, counselor.

Our budget, uh, our FY27 budget, which was about 49.2 million dollars.

So it's about a five million dollars uh reduction from the current year's budget, the FY26 uh operating budget.

Um the largest reduction was in the City of Boston um voucher program, um, 2.3 million dollars.

Uh, and I think you know, Joel um again can I'm sure answer any questions you have about that specific specific reduction.

My understanding is that that will not um reduce the number of uh city of Boston vouchers uh that the uh BHA is able to support, but again, I'll I'll defer to him on that.

Um the next largest reduction was uh a million dollars from the removal of the um affordable commercial assistance fund or ACAF.

Um that was a program that we had in place for a few years that um provided subsidies to mixed uh mixed use of housing and commercial uh developments to support the commercial space specifically in exchange for a commitment to rent out the space to small local um businesses or or or nonprofits.

Um we had the application up for a few years.

We funded a handful of projects.

I think to be honest, it wasn't getting kind of the traction that we had that we had hoped, and given that we were asked to identify um you know reductions to help balance the city budget and working with the budget office.

Um we felt that you know we really wanted to prioritize our core um housing programs and services.

Um and given that we didn't have any applications in hand uh for that for that program, um, we we identified that one as one that would make sense to to reduce as we look to FY27.

Um there was also we also mentioned the reduction to the access to council program that counselor Weber brought up.

Um another area was a reduction to uh Grove Boston grants, uh about 400,000, and those were grants to uh urban agriculture organizations and and and uh um food provision nonprofits for education, educational programming, supplies, design, uh design and capacity building.

Um fair housing.

We we had a pass-through uh funding for fair housing in our budget, 250,000.

Um that was also reduced.

Uh they had they do have fair housing, does have um prior year funding that they'll be able to leverage to continue their programming.

So I'm my understanding is that that will not actually impact their programs for for uh FY27.

Um and then the last one I'll mention is is a reduction to the ADU budget of 200,000, but um that leaves a million dollars for that program, which we feel is sufficient to cover the the current pipeline for for that.

And there's a few other reductions, smaller reductions as well.

Thank you, Rick.

One priority I have is really maintaining the public housing in district too.

But I I am concerned about some of the challenges we face in many BHA developments.

Well, I was just over the last seven days, I was at Foley apartments in South Boston, West Ninth Street in South Boston, Ruth Bakley, um, the old cathedral in the south end.

But I I want us to I want to see a commitment to support existing BHA housing in providing a safer and healthier environment for for residents.

I am concerned about some safety aspects and um infrastructure aspects as it relates to Ruth Bakley.

As you know, Sheila, we've spoken to this about the elevator system.

And is there anything you are able to do to work with me to help support infrastructure improvements that are needed at BHA developments?

There are quite a few, and I think it's time for Joel to come down and just join us.

Okay, but uh it's always good to have Joel Woolf from the BHA join us.

But there in the capital budget, you know, I think you've probably reviewed it.

There are a lot of expenditures going to BHA projects, but uh really we'll defer it to Joe.

Um good good afternoon for the record, Joel Wool, deputy administrator at the Boston Housing Authority.

Um always could be good to be back at the City Council.

Um and uh thank you, Councilor Flynn, for your question and for your advocacy and of course personal visits out to the housing authority on multiple occasions.

Um I did want to note that the city has been and the the mayor of uh mayor and council have been strong supporters to the BHA in a couple of areas, um both for senior housing specifically and um on the elevator capital improvement project.

Um I think um some things to note on that um and uh apologies if I'm not going exactly in order on the on the nature of your remarks, counselor.

Um we do have um investments, as you know, going on at Ruth Barkley, those are targeted for the elevator improvements to wrap in January 2027.

We have um pulled those up uh the timeline, knowing the urgency of that, so we are excited for that.

Um we also, as you know, are under construction at St.

Patolf that was in part that's a mix of sources, but that came from another capital project that uh from earlier capital budget years housing improvements.

Um, and the city has been great at partnering and thinking about how to um how to move forward on those.

I think that what you've brought to our uh which you raised for good reason is that some of the sites like Foley and West Ninth also need um transformation strategies.

Um both for the sort of security and the operating investments there as well as the physical plant issues.

Um we're engaging with the city on all kinds of fronts there.

Uh Foley, for example, is in an area where we and the city are looking at you know how do we pre uh how does uh South Boston protect it from climate change, resilience, um, how does that affect the mechanicals, the utilities, the uh infrastructure systems there.

Um so we're deeply engaged in that conversation and we'll continue to reach out about needs.

Thank you.

Okay, yeah, Councillor Flynn, thank you.

Uh so uh up next is Councillor Murphy, then Councillor Braden, then Councillor Fitzgerald.

So oh I'm sorry, Councilor Murphy's not here.

Um so uh if she comes back, Councillor Braden, uh you're up next, and then Councillor Fitzgerald and Councillor Louie Jen, and then Councillor Culpepper.

Um thank you.

Um thank you.

It's always good to see you all.

Um so I'm curious about um the overall um significant costs to external funding, and how does the mayor's office of housing plan to continue to uh it's charged to build accessible and affordable housing?

The external funds are cut by is that 49.4 million dollars from last from last financial year, or is that just a spend like is that just the ARPA money?

Yeah, yeah, so I think that's what that is, counselor.

Really the what we're seeing in the external funds, the big you know, impact to our external funds is the expiration of our of our one-time funding.

So the care the CARES Act, we had significant funding from the Federal CARES Act, CDB G C V ESGCV.

We also had uh you know the ARPA funding that I mentioned earlier.

So I think what you're seeing is just you know anomalies of pri with the timing of one project are closing.

But I think but your question is an important one, which is how are we handling the this you know decline in in this one time one-time revenue.

Um I will say that I think you know, we we tried to be prudent and thoughtful with our federal funds.

We knew it was one time, we didn't stand up any new programs.

We did some pilot programs, and we used it really to infuse for like major infusions into certain programs like AOP, $50 million for AOP, homeownership development, permanent supportive housing development, and that's gonna create hundreds, if not thousands, of new units all over the city, help hundreds of new first-time home buyers.

Um so yeah, it we are obviously we're gonna see a drop-off back down to pre-pandemic levels, particularly in housing development and um and home buyer assistance.

Um we have you know, we've applied for CPA fund.

We actually, you know, I think we're being awarded five million dollars in CPA funding to support our home buyer programs, um, and we have linkage funding now for our for our um AOP program.

Um, but I think certainly it's the the only and Rick has such a command on on the numbers, which is very, very helpful these days.

But the only thing I would add is that we have done um a pretty critical look at our programs like our homebuying program, right?

And so um really underwriting each and every transaction to make sure we're getting we're getting a person over the finish line to buy a home, but we're not giving them anything they don't need.

Um we've always been very prudent with our development, but now we're seeing if the state can pick up more of the gap and we're picking up less.

So we're trying not to reduce our the numbers of uh households that we're touching uh as or we're trying to reduce that that as much as possible, but by by both we're probably gonna end up assisting less, but we're also providing um we're providing less per transaction, if that if that makes sense to you.

Um I think you've done a stellar job with uh you know the ARPA funds and CARES funds um you know in a difficult time.

Yeah, I think you got a lot of buying for your book.

I we particularly like your AOP program.

Um I think um so in terms of that program going forward, are we what are we planning to invest in in AOP?

Like I know I know just from hearing things exchanges of property in our neighborhood that this this property turning over and you know having the uh capacity to get in there and acquire some of those would be really helpful.

Yes, yeah, AOP is uh I think every one of every one of everybody's favorite um favorite programs.

Um as Sheila mentioned, I think during our opening remarks, we've funded you know the acquisition of 1400 units since the program began in 20 in 2016.

147 builds I'm looking at my update here, 147 buildings, over 100 million dollars that we've spent on AOP, including like I said, about 50 million in in ARPA.

Um right now, the only source that we have left to use for AOP at the moment is linkage is neighborhood housing trust.

Um we have about seven million dollars available at the moment um for the program, but um beyond that uh you know we have to potentially apply for more CPA funding or um apply for more uh neighborhood housing trust linkage funding for that program going forward.

But beyond that, you know, we have to potentially apply for more CPA funding or apply for more uh neighborhood housing trust linkage funding for that program going forward.

We've used IDP in the past, um, but our IDP budget is you know fully spoken for for the next for the next few years.

So you know we don't have a dedicated source for AOP.

We've never used city funding, city operating funds for for AOP.

Um but yeah, that I think uh that that you know we we love the program and we would love to keep doing it.

Well, we'll just see what we can get some more money.

Um the biggest line uh item decrease for financial year 27 is the contracted services.

Um and it again I'm I'm trying to figure out um can you detail how these service what these services were and what adjustments are being made?

Yeah, things kind of show up in in funny places in our in our budget, and you've got to kind of piece them piece them together.

But you're right, the contracted services volume went down by about 1.3 million dollars.

Um, and those are some of the items I mentioned earlier.

So that's the reduction to the um the Grow Boston grants, which was about 400,000, the access to council program, um, which is about um 450,000.

Uh, and then uh we also had a reduction of 100,000 in our lot clearance um contracts as well, and that's based on actual actual spending.

So I think that's the majority of uh of that that 1.3 million dollar reduction.

Then one last question the the Aldison Brighton homeownership fund.

I think that's money that we got from developers who weren't going to build homeownership opportunities in Alston Brighton, they put money into a fund.

So it's decreased by 150K.

Um is that just that's money that's being put out to help support payment assistance for new home.

Yes, we've been we've been spending that down.

We got our we got the first payment, which was I think was one point or maybe one million dollars.

We've been spending that down over the past few years, and I think we actually just reached out to the developer for the next um the next payment for that into that fund.

We've helped.

Looks like 46 home buyers uh so far, um, and also helped provide rehab funding um for some units at the Hanno Street homes and then some senior sales projects as well.

Sounds good.

So and then the the developer will be putting an is it two million dollars, another trunche, two million?

Two million is that I'm looking up.

Two million.

About two million in Gwynn.

Very good.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Counselor Fitzgerald, six minutes.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, and thank you, Rick, Sheila Joel, appreciate you guys being down here.

Um it seems that this year we're just trying to do uh minimize damage, right?

Every department's taking a hit.

We're just trying to hold off until uh some other things change.

Um so it's nice to see where obviously we had to take it to it it really does the least amount to the the efforts that you guys are trying to push forward.

Um just to make sure I get this uh the the budget that comes in at 49.2 as compared to last year, how much what percentage are we down or up just in the just in the operating budget?

Just under 10 percent, it was 9.6% reduction from the 9.46% reduction.

And then of the of the outside uh there's you know, I know there's the HUD is 77 and the other 23 are made up of city, state, and other funds, but for a total of 100.9, that that number is usually at that total number.

Uh I I would I would actually say our external funds are more or less level.

Yeah, I'm sorry aside from the one-time funds going away, the ARPA, the CARES Act, um, the the R our sort of annual funds, I think uh so that's they're pretty levels.

Like I said, small decreases in some of our HUD grants.

Um and you know, IDP is uh you know looking looking out a few years.

I might have some concerns, but I think for the next few years, I think we're okay.

Right.

We need to set building some more stuff to up that IDP again, refill it, right?

Um looking at the supportive housing uh parts of your work as well as the rented real estate management and sales, uh let's set with real estate management and sales.

Is there ways, are there different ways we're looking at knowing we've got some difficult times in the upcoming years of the managing and disposing of our property?

Is there any like shift in in uh the way we've been thinking about how to do that in the future and what what does that entail?

Yeah, so it's a it's a great question because I um we've been working with communities as as you know for decades selling land for affordable housing and really crafting requests for proposals with community, evaluating proposals.

You know, it's just been a very, very good, respectful process.

But with the with not having as much money as we did, we used to put out land and would put out money to to build the the affordable housing.

We don't have that.

So we have been working uh sort of the test case.

We put out some smaller parcels.

The planning office took the lead.

We are working very closely with them for more moderately priced homeownership that didn't need to be subsidized as deeply.

Um when we're looking at other models too.

Can we put out can we put out some of our land for market rate or mixed income housing, but it wouldn't be a hundred percent affordable because we do feel like we need to continue to build housing, um, but at the same time we can't afford the land and the you know, as is subsidizing these projects as much as we used to.

So we are we're gonna it we'll see how we are designating in the in in the upcoming weeks this this more middle income homeownership.

If it works out well, that might be a very, very good model.

Great, thank you.

Um when it comes to and so are we are we selling off any land outright just to get cash?

Like is it like right when we're thinking about for low on cash, are we just saying, hey, let's get rid of these parcels?

Yeah, so um it's it's very something there is a um there is a change in led the legislation, so we are required to do things differently, and it's so complicated.

I'm gonna hand it over to Rick right now.

Yeah, I'll I'll I will try.

Um so this applies to um I don't remember the the exact year, uh I should, but I don't, I think it was 2022.

Um the state law.

If you remember the there was a Supreme Court decision that said municipalities and towns and jurisdictions um couldn't um take land through tax, take take real estate through tax foreclosure without returning the excess proceeds or the the the I forget the term the term here but uh excess equity um back to the previous homeowner.

So if it so if a homeowner owed $10,000 in taxes, the city couldn't take the property, sell it for $100,000, and then keep the 90th, they would have to return the the equity that the homeowner had above what they owed in taxes.

So that is gonna drastically change the calculation for the city.

Again, this is only for properties going forward, not for the two 1,000 whatever properties that we already have in our portfolio, but the one that foreclosed after 2000, 2022, I guess I think it's 2022.

Um that that you know again because most of the time when we're giving out property, we're giving where if it's for affordable housing development or community gardens, any kind of community uses, we're selling it for a hundred bucks a parcel.

Um and if we do that, then we're gonna be on the hook to give the prior previous owner the difference between what they owed in taxes and you know what the what it was worth at that at full appraised value.

Okay, so yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it will it will change how we're doing business going forward.

Um it's you know, the uh it it varies community by by community.

One, we our parcels, one the parcels we have left are probably not they're harder to develop, there's ledge, there's they're not as desirable maybe as as uh parcels we had earlier on.

So I'm not so sure they would command a lot of resources for us.

And two, a lot of communities almost feel that they would rather wait until we have resources because this is what they've got left in their neighborhood, and they want to make sure that they can build affordable homeownership or affordable housing for our seniors, because once it's gone, it's gone.

So it really is a conversation community by community.

Sorry, I just want to add council on that on that law.

I don't want to make it sound like the city was like out looking to take properties, you know, aggressively take properties, but we have I mean we work closely with homeowners, we want them to keep their properties, you know, we work with tax title, um, and we do everything we can to support the existing owners, but the city does not want to take tax for closed property.

No, I appreciate it.

Um just uh my final question uh working on the the uh homelessness and supportive housing.

Uh I see the budget there is is nine million, and we get a lot from the the continuum of care from HUD grants at 50, and thank you for fighting to keep that as obviously it's important.

Um, could you just talk a little bit more about the homelessness piece of that and what that continuum of care goes to?

Is it go directly to I mean, is it directly to housing these individuals?

I guess my question there I'm now remembering was are we housing individuals that are residents of the city of Boston, or because I know a lot of people come in here, and then are we taking the folks that say that the massive gas intersection and finding them housing within Boston?

Is that coming on our dime or not?

Yeah, it's it's a it's a very fair question, especially with with resources being scarce.

So over the last you know, decade through uh through the coordinated uh care system has has used a system called coordinated entry.

I don't know why it's entry because you're exiting, but that's a whole other.

And really, what we do is we prioritize individuals that have been in the system for very long periods of time and have not been able to exit homelessness on their own.

So they've been here for years, two years, three years, four years.

Um, you know, if someone's been in Boston for years, you know, there are there are residents, right?

So it is I can't think of an instance where someone had just arrived and we're finding them housing in, you know, and and giving them resources to get housed.

It's we're really prioritizing people that have been here for very long periods of time, and the vast majority have roots or grew up here.

Yep, but that's important.

I appreciate it.

Thank you for the time, Jeff.

Thank you guys.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Counselor Culpepper.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good to see you again, Sheila and Rick.

And I wanted to just pick up on uh counselors, Ms.

Chair's question regarding uh the homeless and how they're being housed.

And it's by understanding they're all being housed with continuum of care uh funding, and I wanted to talk a little bit about the Elmhill Park Improvement Association.

Have you have you talked with them at Elmhill Park Improvement Association and the situation that they have there?

Yes.

And one of the uh statements that uh Mark Bradshaw from Elliott uh community human services made was, and this is what he said, is the big issue issue that we have come up with when a client moves into a unit is not any substance abuse issues, it's not mental health issues, it's not them damaging the unit, it's legitimately them bringing in their friends who are sleeping outside because they feel bad for them sleeping outside.

Typically their friends see them move in, they see a warm roof over their friends' heads, and they want to sleep on the couch.

And then he said you have to have some pretty faint conversation with clients about, you know, obviously we understand where you're coming from, but you worked really hard to obtain this housing, so you have to find a different spot for your friends if you want to keep this apartment.

And I think that's part of what's happening with the Elm Hill Park Improvement Association, where the Elliott Community Human Services Agency is working to place them in certain areas like Elmhill Park.

Then you have this situation where they're sleeping outside.

And so one of my questions is do you check with the neighborhood associations before you actually move folks into that neighborhood?

Because I know there's no uh hearing that's required that how does that work, Sheila?

Yeah, with the folks that are already living there.

I I am happy, I I'm pretty satisfied with the the that how the Elm Hill uh situation was handled, right?

Um a neighbor put out an email, it went probably to all all of you, but especially you because it's your district and us, we immediately, there were three or four of us that jumped in, including the CRT team and and you all, and and we did as well because that we were funding those those apartments.

And you know, within hours, Elliot was meeting with the residents, meeting with the residents, two of the residents left.

Um so it's a much smaller group there now, and that's okay.

It's okay.

We're we're we're we're want the remaining residents to be succeed, and we also want the neighborhood to feel like they're living, you know, that they're living in a neighborhood that they can sort of rely on and count on.

So to answer your question, um when we are sub when we are citing new supportive housing projects, 140 clarity, 900 more a C, uh, 41 Lagrange, right?

Really dedicated supportive housing.

We're having we're having meetings with the neighborhood, we're having honest, hard conversations sometimes.

We're compromising, hopefully, uh, most of the time.

And so those are open and public and real.

But if we're working with a nonprofit and they've got a couple of vouchers for a unit here or a unit there, or there it would be um it would it wouldn't be a good idea to go out to a neighborhood association and say, well, we're going to rent two apartments on this street for formerly homeless individuals.

When it would be stigmatizing the vast majority of these situations work out without a hitch, right?

But we do always need to respond very quickly when we hear there is a problem.

So I'd be very uncomfortable going out and talking about like personal characteristics of of just a renter, right?

Um, but once a problem is identified, the nonprofit, the supporting agency has got to be front and center.

And and we do too.

We were calling, we were we were making ourselves available.

So I think it's different when it's a permanent supportive housing project versus just someone renting an apartment.

So are there notice requirements that you have or notice protocol?

Or do you take it on a case-by-case basis?

Definitely case if someone's just renting apartments in the community case by case.

And so when you look at the Elm Hill Improvement Association, I mean their whole point was look, we were caught off guard.

We didn't understand what was happening.

The next thing we know, we saw folks sleeping outside of the apartment, the house, it was uh an entire house that I think they retrofitted two apartments, right?

Two apartments, yeah, in that house.

It was one family, right?

That they that I don't that I don't know.

I just know it was two apartments in a very large structure.

I think it was a one family.

Okay.

So my point is is it something that we need to start focusing on?

Looking at some kind of notice requirement.

Now look, I know you've got the hood requirements and you've got the issues with regard to um you know first amendment rights, but what can we do so that the residents that are already there can have some previous notice uh and have some discussion and help into plan for the folks that are moving into the neighborhood because they're not going in with according to Mark Bradshaw, they're not going in with supportive housing already.

It's kind of finding a place for them and then trying to get them the support that they need after they find a place.

And so my question is how can we make this uh smoother transition for the folks that are coming?

Let's say if it's mass and cash, how for the folks that are already living there?

Yeah.

So they uh just they we the program does pay for rent, but it also pays for supportive pretty pretty robust supportive services to make sure that um things go well.

Once again, I I I would feel slightly un I would feel uncomfortable, not slightly, I would feel uncomfortable going out to a neighborhood association saying two apartments are going to be rented on Elm Hill for formerly homeless individuals.

I that but I think that's fair, don't you think they need and look, Sheila, we work for years, you know, we love each other.

Yep, but don't you think it's fair that the folks that are gonna become neighbors have some kind of information and notice about who's coming into the neighborhood because even though it was two apartments, it caused an uproar and then that we're still getting we had a sort of we're still getting feedback from the neighborhood association.

So if you look, maybe you should sit down with them and have a face-to-face with them so they can better understand what's taking place and how it happened.

Yeah, because I mean we're still getting, and I'm not trying to pass the buck to you.

No, no, that's the one.

But I am trying to that's my job.

That's my job.

Just so you can sit with them.

Yeah, no, that's that's fine.

I um so anytime I hear there's a problem like that, I jump in personally.

So I'd be glad to sit down with this.

It's a beautiful neighborhood.

I'd be glad to sit down with those folks.

I wasn't I was aware as of last week that the issue had gotten a hundred percent better.

So if that's not the case, I do need to know so I can follow up with your office.

That's not the case, and and uh good to know.

Let's work on the process.

Okay, very good.

Be glad to work with you.

Thank you, Sheila.

Councillor Cole Bever, thank you.

Uh sorry, I think it's Councillor Colleta Zapata.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh good afternoon.

It's good to see you all.

Um thank you so much for your work, everybody.

Um, it's good to see my former council colleague Joel Wool here.

It's always good to have you back in the tank.

Um I'm excited for tomorrow's groundbreaking with Bunker Hell made possible by the public-private partnership through the accelerator fund.

I just want to give kudos to everybody uh for that with um for their creativity and their um innovation when it comes to that.

Um specifically on the housing vouchers for so we have 11.8-ish million dollars going to that program.

Um, how many vouchers has that will that fund for FY27?

Um and then a follow-up question, just generally, and I apologize that I did not ask this question before and and our many conversations, but where are we at with project-based vouchers in in the city?

Um, I think that may be for for Joel.

Sound console.

Okay, great.

Um council are always good to always good to see you.

Um the program uh when the program was conceived for the city voucher, obviously collaboration between um between the city, the mayor's office of housing, the budget office, the BHA, we had a soft target of around 500 vouchers, knowing that on a um year-to-year basis, there there are escalating costs in a voucher program.

So the program currently is around that level.

Um we're um trying to manage for two things right now.

Up to 500.

So we're able to manage right at this fiscal year with the close uh just above 500 because there was a lease up period.

Yep.

Um so there's there's sort of the transitional funds available for that.

Um, again, at present we can we can maintain the um just over 500 um households in that uh in the in the current structure.

Um you asked about project basing.

So um, and I want to say obviously we would be we do a lot with project-based vouchers collaboratively that's outside of the city voucher program too.

Um it is um I think it's it's uh it's between about 125 to 150 of them are project-based.

I do actually have a list of which developments got funded, but um and uh sorry about that actually, it's it's closer to 200 are project-based.

Um so um again of of around 500, slightly over 500, it's about two fifths of the program.

Um we have at the outset, we heard from uh advocates and um city stakeholders that there was a lot of interest in project basing some of these.

Um we also did them in a sort of unique gap filler way, particularly looking at things like um bridging the gap but um for uh people who uh uh, for example, were in low-income housing tax credit units but couldn't afford it or who needed a shallower subsidy.

So uh we uh we also did a lot of partnerships with um the uh acquisition opportunity program purchases to uh ensure ongoing affordability in those AOP units.

So really successful collaborations with the project base.

We've tried to get more a balance and more of those over time.

Some of the vouchers are definitely gonna remain uh mobile just based on the special populations that are serving within the overall program.

And uh, if I missed any of your questions, you can please repeat them or let me know what I missed.

No, it was it was very thorough.

I actually just want to clarify.

So the um it's gonna we were at 400, and then we were able to ramp up to the 500.

Yeah, there was a there was it was simply just that took you know how many people you can lease per year and um also project-based vouchers, some of them were awarded, but the literally the units were not built yet, so it took like the payments the cash flow did not start until the units were actually leased.

So um so we now have over 500 units leased up under the city voucher program.

Um and um we are um so we're we're managing um with with the current um proposed budget structure.

I would say we're we're very much monitoring um the federal budget all the time because the interactivity here is um you know we we don't want under any program that we're uh working on to uh serve Bostonians for anyone's voucher to be terminated, and um it requires uh national level advocacy on the Section 8 program for sure.

Um certain and we administer a smaller set of uh state vouchers as well.

Um we between we kind of monitor across the three programs and look for other um look talk with MOH in terms of how you know what are the what are the priorities who's who's um you know are there are there populations that are not yet being adequately served or that are particularly at risk and we try to make very slow programmatic adjustments based on that.

But overall, BHA's um, you know, for we we uh took towards serving uh formerly homeless populations and with a number of other priorities, including um you know people with disabilities seniors and um uh a great collaboration with the city on homeless uh or formerly homeless, Boston Public Schools families in particular, a number of whom are served under the city program.

Thank you, thank you.

It's such a vital program, and just again, thank you for all your work on that.

Um for rent stabilization slash displacement.

We know that East Boston has been argued the epicenter uh of that for um a little part of a decade now.

Uh OHS has been particularly helpful, and just thank you, Chief, for taking my calls literally 11:30 at night sometimes um to help with some eviction calls that we're getting and um emergency uh emergency situations.

We are seeing so the the state is lessening the emergency housing assistance any spots and that is manifested in St.

Mary's Crossroads Family Shelter, um, lessening their their beds for women and children, and so oh my gosh, my time is already up.

All right, um I do have a second round, I'm sorry, Chair, but I'll I'll finish this question.

So you can finish that.

Thank you.

Um how is that impacted our funding here?

Have we compensated for the loss of state aid?

Are we keeping it level funded?

Um and how is that impacting the operations and trying to house some of our most vulnerable?

Yeah, do you uh so it's I think you're referring to right St.

Mary's Crossroads Shelter.

Yeah, I was pretty surprised.

That's a that was a very good program.

So I was very sad to see that it was it was going to close.

So I we are seeing, and the census numbers will be putting them out in the next couple of days, hopefully.

We are seeing in Boston lower uh rates of family homelessness.

And we there's just not as many uh families coming into the city for for lots of reasons, and the state had a lot of resources, one time resources to get families out of shelter.

They also closed a lot of the hotels and motels.

So we are seeing the number of homeless families in the city go down.

Whether it's a permanent condition or not, it is very hard to say.

So we're watching it very, very closely.

So you know, right now, but but you are right though, that the Office of Housing Stability continues to get you know lots of calls every day where people are very scared of losing the apartments that they have.

So of course, our job, your job, everybody's job is to make sure they don't, because it it is it is hard to get into shelter right now.

So thank you.

Thank you, Chairman.

Okay, thank you very much, Councillor Papen.

Six minutes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you so much for the three of you for being out there as a panel as the chair of housing.

This is definitely one of my um most important hearings for me to attend and to be able to work with not just the three of you but your entire team.

I was able to um attend your amazing.

I don't know what we're gonna call it a fair or a press, but it felt like a fair like a celebration a few weeks ago where we were able to look at the future projects that are being um supported by all of you in the city of Boston.

So thank you so much for the invitation to that.

And then tomorrow Wednesday, as the chair of the community preservation committee, um we are looking to pass the five million dollars for the um the affordable um assistance funds for you all.

So um hopefully that gets passed.

You know, I mean I'm pretty sure my co all my counselors attended, and you know, nothing but support for that.

So I'm looking forward to just continuing supporting for that program.

Um for me, I also I kind of want to piggyback a little bit on Councillor Coleta Zapata's last point on the Office of Housing Stability.

I do want to give a very quick shout out to Daniel Johnson who just does so much work for my residents.

Whenever I reach out, there's always someone on the other side.

And I wanted to ask you all um in regards to the budget, because I know there's a lot of demand for for that office.

Are there servers are there services impacted at all?

Or I know that you mentioned contracted services could be impacted.

I know that one of the agencies that I was able to meet with the greater Boston Legal Services and Head, uh, want to give Head a specific um shout out who's consistently helping me out.

Um is that intact?

Is that still being is are we are we gonna be okay with there?

I I I'll hand it over to Rick.

I I do appreciate you uh recognizing the director Danielle Johnson, who's not with us today, she is off today, um, but she really just never stops.

And I and I just want to thank her for her work publicly.

But Rick, do you want to respond?

Yeah, um the only impact well the there's two two places where the Office of House Housing Stability is impacted in the FY27 recommended budget.

The first is the access to council program, which sits within the Office of Housing Stability, but as I mentioned earlier, is you know, admitted they they contract with Greater Boston Legal Services to provide the actual services.

Um and then the other is a very small $50,000 reduction to the tenant stabilization fund, which is rental assistance for um households facing housing instability and eviction.

Um but that still leaves 1.65 million dollars for that program for TSF and the FY27 budget.

The need always outstrips what we have available, um, but we make do with what we have, and we're glad to that I I would call that level funding for FY27 for TSF.

Okay, no, that's good.

I just I know that speaking from behalf of my office, that's one that those two Greater Boston Legal Services and the Housing Stability Department of MOH are two that I frequently reach out to every single week.

So wherever I can support you all there, please let us know we can better advocate for those services for our residents.

Um something that I've always been meaning to ask you all, and I think this is the right place is I see the MOH and BHA and in just any housing related thing as a opportunity for not just helping residents obviously find housing and build more housing, but as a sense of investment also into the city.

Do you guys find mechanisms to say, hey, in the next five years we're building we're planning on build on supporting building XYZ amount of housings.

Do we ever report or track the report of how much return of investment we get from that, um, especially the ones that MOH specifically supports?

Yeah.

It's it's a good question.

We we track very closely when we're making investments in affordable housing, how much uh we're leveraging on a particular development because you know we while we contribute and we're very proud of our contributions, it's um it's really a relatively modest percentage of the total.

So we get state funds, we get federal funds, we get private, a lot of private uh debt in in most projects.

So we are leveraging very large numbers.

And we could get you samples of those, those are very interesting.

But I think uh your your question is asking more than that.

I I do think as we really look at um the need to increase our tax base, especially for our operating, and we were we're talking about it earlier, that we do affordable housing contributes to that tax base.

The unless it's owned by uh a religious organization or some some nonprofits, but most affordable housing even owned by uh nonprofits is paying in paying tax property taxes.

So it would be good to start sort of keeping track of that.

You know, we knew we all have always known that it was contributing, but now I think it's an even more important story to tell.

Yeah, I very much am keeping an eye on that, especially where a lot of the rezoning is happening in my district.

I feel I started in Mattapan and then got approved in Rossi, and then um having conversations in High Park now, working with the community there, where it's like, all right, how can we also look at this as an what new housing could bring to the area and to the city?

So that's something that I would love to continue.

I mean, and and then there's things that we don't measure, right?

So we have a lot of new residents, they're shopping locally.

What is that?

What does that mean for, you know, just just having more, you know, of our residents safely housed, the the benefit to that is just immeasurable.

So it would love to think about how what else we should be measuring to tell the affordable housing story.

Thank you.

I just say really quickly, counselor, in addition to the affordable housing gets funded and what that generates, some of the sort of household and asset building opportunities, both in terms of I mean home ownership is a a wonderful and conspicuous one, but also um at BHA, um, like family self-sufficiency, we track things like escrow that um people can generate when when um they're they're going participating in a program like that and what they get when they finish the program.

So they grep like just households in Boston graduating with more assets.

Um something that we look at.

Um the last thing I'll say I don't have a question.

I just want to thank you all because um a phase three of the parcel developments that are that are happening.

There's a specific parcel in Reedville that is supposed to go for, it think it's a duplex two family each, two separate ones, and it's that's just that has got gotten so much support, even from it's gotten support from so many residents because that is exactly the type of housing that people are asking for.

It's like that family housing for for two working parents, two to a two-working family household.

So it's just thank you so much for for keeping an eye on that thing.

And I want to publicly thank you for that.

But that's it for me, counselor.

Okay, thank you very much.

Council Warrell.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Um I have more time before me.

But the 2.3 million dollars in housing vouchers, you said it would not impact uh the amount of housing vouchers that we're able to distribute.

Can you explain why?

Yep.

So uh thanks for the question, counselor.

So in the in this fiscal year, we're able to absorb it because in prior years we were leasing up to what we viewed it as our target number for the rough program size.

Again, so we were leasing up to around 500 vouchers total.

Okay.

Um it just means that there is a little bit from last year's funding that we can put towards this year's program.

Um so the the math does work on that.

It just means the annual, the annual we can balance the budget because of it's rolling in some of the prior years funding.

Okay.

Um any concern for future years because you know rents do increase over the years.

Are there any concerns?

To serve the same number of households in the future, we would need to um have increases in the budget over time.

Um we try to we try to again go after any opportunities to demonstrate also, you know, increased vouchers and other other programs or non non-city funded ones as well.

Um I think we're tracking this particular question very closely, not just with rental increases and what that projection is, but also again um the federal atmosphere around budgets and who we may be asked to serve in an emergency.

So yes, we we're tracking that closely for future years.

Okay.

Um and then I believe we had uh 90 households displaced by fire.

Um do we have a total dollar amount of what was used around that?

And can you just go over the policy again, like when someone is displaced, whether it's by fire or other instances?

Sure.

Um typically, and there's no, you know, I wish there was a lot of these situations are pretty atypical, but when there's a fire, um the fire um victims unit and ONS, and if it's very large, MOH lands on scene.

Um and Red Cross, as you as you may know, provides uh vouchers depending on family size and severity of fire.

So they they are our first sort of line of defense and they fund typically two, three, sometimes a little bit more uh nights.

Uh during that time, and it's it's a it's a good time for the Office of Housing Stability staff to call every uh resident that has lost their house either uh home either permanently or temporarily to sort of see what their plan is post uh Red Cross voucher being spent.

And then at that time there's an assessment made about whether or not they have any options.

Family, friend, if it's a uh if it's a young uh not young, but if it's uh you know a single person, they may need to go into adult shelter, which is never desirable, but um, but if it's a family and they have no place to go and that's been assessed, then they would be placed into hotels, but then we would be working with them as quickly as possible to get them out given the cost of hotels.

Awesome.

And a dollar amount.

I'm trying to confirm this right now.

Uh I'm being told um 650,000 so far this fiscal year.

And then when it comes um going back to the uh the the voucher question, Joel.

Do and I I don't believe we do wait list, but how many applicants do we get yearly on those who want to access city vouchers?

Um you yes, you sort of you started to get at the question, it's a little bit, it's a little bit nuanced here.

So we have again a portion of the program that's on project-based units, those may maintain their own wait lists.

Um we would have to go to the individual developers there.

For the tenant-based ones, well the way we've structured it is for example, like the Office of Returning Citizens, we say this is how many referrals we have funding to give you based on space in the program.

So it's because it's not administered in a wait list, it's it's hard to say this is the applicant pool.

I could tell you the demand on every category that we serve.

There's there are more people who need housing supports for sure.

But it's not structured in a way where there is a um you know X thousands pending here because we don't um we don't go to sort of the city or nonprofit partners on this one and say send us 10,000 people or send us a thousand people or send us a hundred people.

We say, look, roughly in the next fiscal year, based on attrition rates, based on other factors, we think there's space for about 10.

Um, you know, in that in that particular partnership.

So uh I hope that that's clarifying.

I know it may not give exact metrics for you.

Yeah, yeah.

Um yeah, just kind of wanted to see what the demand was, and I guess also trying to get an idea of um how many people like are aware, right?

Yeah of the city voucher program.

I I will say we have we do have pent the thing, you know, we we have uh responded to some feedback from the working group in terms of we'd love to see more project-based vouchers again, as I was saying, we we've been trying to incorporate more of those over time.

Um we do have some that are you know pending, like they say, hey, if funding comes in, you know, we'd love to do this that we um that are sort of sitting there at the at present because the programs for that capacity.

Awesome.

And the city has a housing strategy planned, I believe it goes from 2022 to 2025.

That's correct.

Um have we created a new strategy plan?

And then based off of that 2022 to 2025 housing strategy plan, the city targeted, I think 307 expiring privately owned income restricted units uh to be preserved by 2025.

Were we able to reach that target goal?

Yeah.

So um the you're right, the first housing strategy term one concluded.

Um we posted, I think we've posted all of our accomplishments online.

We are now in conversation uh amongst ourselves and with many, many, many people about what we should be doing in term two.

And um it's how do we continue?

I think the biggest question for us is how do we continue to serve as many people as we have been serving uh with a more you know, uh a tighter fiscal climate, especially our federal um and lack of uh a lot of new development that that funds affordable housing development.

So um, but we're we're generating a lot of new ideas, and we hope to have something probably out in a couple of months about our priorities for term two.

Um so the preservation, um the we're we only have that I'm aware of one project that is 140 units uh that we weren't able to preserve yet.

It's Forbes in Jamaica Plain.

Um we continue we haven't given up hope.

We haven't given up hope.

Things have gone slower than we would have hoped, but we have resources and the state is holding resources.

So we had we were hoping that that would have been accomplished by now.

That's the only project preservation project I'm aware of that has been stalled.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Okay.

People ask, you know, there was supposed to be construction and renovations, and that it's not happening.

So that's it's still happening.

It's just moving slowly.

Okay.

Well uh okay, uh, Councillor Louie Jen.

Yeah, we have six minutes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you to Sheila to Chief Dylan and your team for all the work that you do.

I guess like my first question is I mean, this is an incredibly important hearing.

Housing is the number one issue that we get from residents.

I know that your work would be such much more amplified if you were able to get revenue from the states that as what we are hoping for in the transfer fee, so that we can do the work of building more housing and preserving more housing.

Um, but what is the biggest, what has taken the biggest hit this year to your budget given the the decrease that your department is experiencing?

With operating or more of external funds counselor.

Okay.

Um I'm gonna hand this over to Rick.

I I I think I know, but I think it's our public with external yeah, I mean the the big the basic.

Oh no, no, no.

I don't mean external funding in that sense.

I mean like I I thought you meant internal in terms of like your department and external in terms of like what we're actually able to do.

Very good.

Not I know that it's okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean the biggest the the the biggest impact is is to the the voucher program, which we we just talked about, Joel just talked about um the other the other big you know reductions that uh I I went over earlier a million dollars for the affordable commercial assistance fund, 400 450,000 for access to council, um 400,000 to work.

What was the one that you said before access to council?

The sorry the um affordable commercial assistance funds.

So that was a million dollar, so that was a million dollar line item in our budget to support um uh commercial space and mixed use affordable housing developments.

Um we had the application posted for a few years.

We funded a handful of projects.

Um we think it was um you know a good program, but it wasn't getting the traction that we had hoped.

Um why not why why not?

You know, I I think it was targeted at um projects that were that were kind of ready to to lease up and um and and it was an exchange for a commitment to rent a below market uh rent to small local um businesses.

Uh and you know we had no applications in hand at the time that we were asked to identify reductions to to the um to our budget.

Um so when speaking with the budget office, we felt like you know, we really wanted to prioritize our core housing housing programs over that program.

Not that not it's not an important use, it is an important use, uh, but just on balance um, you know, in the effort to balance to help balance the city budget.

We identified other we identified that as a as a potential reduction.

Can you give an example of where it was used positively or successfully?

Um just bookish um wrote that we wrote down Travis Lee's project on Dorchester Avenue, Dorchester Street.

I always get this mixed up.

Um but just bookish um uh Portia and Bing's bookstore.

So we were able to uh write down the rents in that, I think for five or six years uh while they got their feet under them.

And that's a very good example of how it was used.

Okay, thank that's a side on it.

I can you talk a little bit more about the tenant stabilization fund and how much was um expended and what it was used for.

Yeah, the budget the budget for TSF is 1.7 million dollars this year.

It'll be one point with the with the recommended budget is 1.65, so it was a $50,000 reduction to the budget.

Um it's the demand is strong and we continue to get applications for that for that program.

Um we think but it's not it's not direct it's it's not direct assess assistance for a rearage.

It is, yes.

For for whom for households facing eviction, yeah.

Outside of the RAF program, outside of RAF.

We we do really encourage uh folks calling to go to RAF first.

Um but sometimes the the resources need to be combined if the rearages are really large, sometimes they don't qualify for raft and um so they come to us, or sometimes it's just it's um they're in too much trouble and the time is too sensitive, so we will fund.

What's the average amount?

I'm looking to the to the looking to the option.

Yeah, we but we can provide that to your counsel.

Okay.

I have two, well, two questions, uh, additional questions, I think.

What you talked about the continuum of care funding and that lawsuit and amicus brief and was happy to help on that.

The you mentioned housing for domestic violence uh victims, and I just want to know generally sort of what are we doing as a city to provide more support for survivors and those who are trying to uh lose uh leave abusive situations, but housing um is a huge bear.

What are we doing?

Talk a little bit about the priority for those who are facing domestic violence.

I think that would have a problem.

So I mean, I'll start and Joe, I don't know if you have things to add or if there's anyone.

Um then and then after that, my last question because I'm probably we'll get cut off, is about community land trust and how our support for community land trust is reflected in this budget.

Sure.

So um so we are funding through the continuum of care, and uh if um I mean we can get you exact the exact programs, but I know that we are funding several programs who casemyrna.

So we are funding nonprofits that are really um that are doing a lot of work with domestic violence, both residentially and and programmatically in support services through the continuum of care.

But I can get you the exact programs and the amounts.

Do the chair, can we get that information just because I want it to be more clearly known to community how we are supporting that work.

Yeah.

Absolutely, we can get you that.

Just in Seminams or two, um the BHA has had uh admissions at priority on related to DV for some time, and then under the city voucher program, I believe one of the referral pathways, the one coming out of the state shelter system um supports in that way.

It's a small number of vouchers.

But there is a BHA priority for folks who are facing domestic violence.

And within Sheila, within COC, um what I what I have in front of me, if you know, uh we have uh four million dollars worth of our COC funding goes to survivors of domestic violence, 125 households is the minimum number of households served through that through those programs.

Um and I also have the thanks to Kathy up there, I have the average um tenant stabilization fund grant is about 3800 bucks.

3800 is the average award under the tenant stabilization fund for household.

3800, okay, thank you.

Yeah.

It's always um good to hear that amount because the the numbers are pretty the back rent, the the rent arrearage is always a pretty low number or reasonable number when you think about really stabilizing a family and keeping them housed.

So uh land trusts.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Um land trust, hold on, let me pull up my my update that I got here.

Um so the the you know, land trust is not a line item with on our budget, but we do work with land trust in a number of different ways.

Um we've uh funded some AOP projects, but land would be in big Boston neighborhood community land trust at 364 Harvard Street and the Commonwealth Community Land Trust at No, three Johnny Court, that's not Commonwealth, that's yeah, Commonwealth Community Land Trust, right?

Three Johnny courts or AOP, um, Welcome Home Boston.

We're working with the Boston Neighborhood Community Land Trust um on a Welcome Home Boston project for six students.

Um a few years ago we gave B uh Boston Community Land Trust Network uh 2.4 million dollars to establish a revolving fund.

Um and then using ARPA funding, we also gave um the land trust network uh a million dollars to help with to help with acquisitions, and I can we can get you um specific updates on those programs if you like, counselor.

Thank you, but no specific line item like over in to support.

There's no specific island and there's no specific reduction or cut to to land trust it per se.

Thank you.

Those are my questions, Chair.

I'm out of time.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh so I'm just uh I have a couple questions, then we're gonna go to public testimony.

Um I guess for just to go back to access to the council for for a minute.

Uh I think we had it funded at 450,000.

Um based on your experience, money not being an issue uh in terms of funding.

Like is is that does that is that adequate?

Does it you know meet all the needs uh of that particular group uh is I know in New York City that their right to counsel access to counsel program is this is a hundred million, you know, sort of and they're working their way up.

Uh what is your sense of what kind of funds would we need to cover the needs of people with kids in school facing eviction here?

Yeah, I and Danielle's not here, but I I would probably have to get back to you on what the ideal amount would be, probably more than we can ever imagine.

And you're right, New York City has a right to counsel, and we have access to counsel, which is you know, we would we have supported right to council legislation at the State House now for many legislative sessions.

But um so the program is in the program is incredibly successful because we're able to target uh BPS families and families, and there are as as you know, I'm just stating the obvious, there are many low-income housing, housing insecure families at BPS.

So the idea that we have resource, but not only did we have a resource, there was a mechanism, right?

That families were identified, family aid stepped in, they had a really good relationship with greater Boston Legal Services.

It was very much, it is very much uh a really working a system that's working well.

Um so you know, schools were identifying, family aid was you know, meeting with them, seeing what they needed, and then if they need legal services, they were they were being um you know transferred over to get legal services.

So I think we we really need those very, very thoughtful supports for our families and um and not and and have them not get lost in the system, but having resources that are identified just for them is is very very it was a very it's very very special.

And just in in uh in a world where we had the you know more resources, are there other populations that you think that we should also look at uh who would benefit from that sort of program?

I mean if there's yeah, right to council where everyone is is gets an attorney, just like in you go to criminal court, you know, have the resources.

Um but in a world where we have to build build it up.

I mean in New York they didn't start with everyone, they started, I think with zip codes and then went to seniors or you know, they sort of uh is there some other group that you I mean there's I just said I'm I mean I think we're very much in agreement that everybody should have access to counsel going into housing court or having legal issues with their housing.

So that's you know um we we I think when we were designing this with you um several years ago now, we identified that our older adult population too is uh getting notices they're they're um the it's it's hard, it's confusing, they're scared, um, they sometimes don't have any of the support, so I would say certainly older adults and a lot of our our um newly arrived immigrant families too that have language barriers and have to navigate, wouldn't that be wouldn't that be ideal as well?

So I almost can't think of a population that isn't deserving, but those those three probably come to mind.

Families with school-age children, uh older adults, and uh families or individuals that have language or cultural barriers.

Yeah, yeah, I think I that I that's what I was thinking.

Uh and you know, just for my colleagues, I know you know Counselor Louis Jen practiced in housing court and probably Councillor Culpepper uh also, but just you know, in a few visits, I remember seeing a a senior from uh from Boston who spoke Chinese and didn't speak English, and you had a didn't have an attorney, and you had a judge saying, like, well, are you familiar with this case from the SJC?

It was like it's like this person, you know, uh like is not represented by council, and you're citing cases, it just seemed the crying out for uh legal representation.

Um okay, and then um in terms of so I I I just wanted to nail this down.

I think Councillor Orell was asking about uh city housing vouchers and you know uh amounts that we added in amendments that aren't gonna be there next year.

I mean it's how much uh do we when we think about families, number of families, and I I think you're saying the same number of families are gonna be covered next year on less less money, but like how can we attach like a dollar figure to a family, you know, in terms of the numbers, like what should we be thinking about?

Uh around 2200 per month.

22 okay.

Yeah.

Um that helps one family.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So and then also a question about uh BHA.

We had funding last year for uh youth programming at Mildred Haley.

I don't think that is being funded.

I I'm not sure.

Um do you do you know anything about that?

How we can uh fund youth services.

There's like 500 kids there, and there's no full-time youth programmer.

Um I know the uh our state rep San Montano and and Senator Liz Moran have gotten funding in the state budget, but um how the city can support those those kids.

Thank you for your um support of uh young people in in uh your district and in at the at the Haley specifically.

Um we have to your point gone to every source possible there.

Um we've managed that with the city um it's been through different departments over the years, but I think it's now technically um situated at or through the health commission, if I'm not mistaken.

Um we um I think we would we would love to see kind of continued and stable support there.

Um I can't I can't speak for the city departments, but I can say that we are we've been we've made a lot of progress there through the mix of uh city-state and philanthropic support, including the boys and girls club coming in and opening up a space there.

So um if you have if there's specific questions in terms of you know household serve or the funding needs there, we can we can follow up on that.

Um but uh other than that, we're we're grateful for what's been there and are really trying to every every uh you know budgetary opportunity we we try to put in a little bit more for uh to keep that moving.

Okay, well thank thanks.

I I think we'll be talking about that um at least my office and and BHA Office of Housing in the future.

Okay, so I'm gonna go to public testimony uh before we go to our next round of questions.

I've got some folks here who signed up.

If anybody who wants to testify, who's here who hasn't signed up, uh you can just uh come up when we're you've gone through these names.

Uh so first I have Daniel Andrews, uh Danielle Andrews, Annabelle uh Rabai Rabayam.

I'm sorry, I'm gonna mispronounce that.

Mark Winter, Olivia Martin.

Let's stop there.

And you can uh for uh public testimony, very good.

Uh Danielle, uh, and you can be here or you can be over there.

Uh first we'll start on the left.

I'll point to you.

Uh so you get uh two minutes.

Let me get the timer started.

Just uh you know, tell us your name, uh, where you live, what organization you're here with, if you here with an organization, and then uh just two minutes to uh let us know your thoughts.

Thank you.

Um my name is Danielle Andrews.

I live in Jamaica Plain, and for the past almost 25 years, I've had the pleasure of caring for the food projects, urban farms, and the Dudley Greenhouse in Boston alongside our teen farmers.

While I recognize the difficult fiscal position the city of Boston is in, I was deeply disappointed to learn about what feels like disproportionately large cuts to the Grow Boston budget for the upcoming 2027 budget year.

And I'm here with a number of colleagues to share how these cuts will impact Boston's network of gardeners and farmers.

Uh I consider myself a grower, but I'm uh in some ways more of an educator, an informal extension service, if you will.

And much of my time is spent answering questions, not only for our youth staff, but perhaps even more so to the community of gardeners and farmers that gravitate around the Dudley Greenhouse.

From school teachers asking for lessons about pollination to daycare seeking out opportunities for their toddlers to plant cherry tomatoes on our farm, which is how we plant our cherry tomatoes every year.

And also neighbors asking for check-ins about what is eating their spinach.

It's always leaf minor.

I do my best to accommodate as many requests as possible.

I think this is really the core purpose of an urban farmer, and I'm motivated by what our and other research has shown that growing food is life-changing, both for individual as well as community health.

The food project stands within a field that has academically proven that every dollar spent on urban agriculture is a deposit into the public health account.

It goes very quickly.

I'm gonna just say quickly, one of the programs that is likely to be cut through this is the Urban Agriculture Ambassador Program, which is a program that goes across many neighborhoods and uh for us has been a way of really uh just had this huge multiplier effect in terms of being able to reach so many more gardeners.

And so I I just want to say that we just really feel like uh the the thinking of this is very short-sighted, and this balance budget does not balance the books and unbalances our neighborhoods.

And I hope you'll counselors will reconsider uh and push back on this budget.

Okay, thank you very much.

Yeah, for anyone testifying with you, it's two minutes, it just goes by very quick.

My advice is just to lead with your best shot, and then uh you know, yeah, you'll be you'll be done before you know it.

Uh so uh is it Annabelle?

Oh, okay, sorry.

So I have Annabelle, then Mark Winter, then Olivia Martin, Lisa Evans.

Okay, so I've just I'm going in the order uh that so if we have Annabelle, Mark, Olivia, then Lisa, and then Matthew.

There's one person I've signed up, Joy Online, who will be after uh the folks who are here in person.

So uh Annabel, two minutes.

Hi, I'm Annabelle Rubia.

I'm a Boston resident, and um I help support the network of uh 56 community gardens through the trustees, Boston Community Gardens, which is just a subset of the community gardens in the city.

Our gardens, I'm here on behalf of our 4,000 gardeners, which uh grow food for over 20,000 people, um, which doesn't account to other donations of food that come from those gardens, and we engage up to 20 12,000 people in educational and family programs.

And um wanted to speak to the importance of Grow Boston's grant funding for our support of the garden.

So the supply grant every year um offers important infrastructure support for all the community gardens, including sheds, tools and other equipment to grow all of the food that they grow that which they otherwise can't afford.

And another important piece I want to um touch on is the fact that I know that a lot of these um budget cuts were trying to avoid cuts in staff and labor, um, but actually grant funding, especially Grow Boston grant funding allows me and my role to hire a lot of contract labor um of community members, including the urban ambassador program.

It's a really important workforce development, and um, you know, a lot of the people who we contract with really rely on on the income from this contract income, and that I think is true of the grant funding overall, and so this is impacting important and potentially more vulnerable jobs in our city.

Um the gardens and urban farms are, as Danielle mentioned, um, have a lot of returns.

They're really important for our public safety.

They're um spaces for people to congregate in safe ways.

There's an immense 1.2 million dollars value of food that's grown every year.

Many of our gardeners subsist on this food, so this is a very important program.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Uh Mark.

Uh yeah, okay.

Hi, I'm Mark Winter, the co-founder and owner of Recover Green Roofs.

We've worked with Grow Boston on a rooftop farm with the Boston Medical Center where they're feeding patients uh who are hungry, food as medicine, and also using the therapeutic power of gardening.

We're in the middle of a mental health crisis.

I think we all know somebody who's suffering, and two big culprits to mental health are bad diets and being stuck inside on our phone looking at screens, and what we're talking about is the antidote to that providing healthy food and getting people to look outside at nature, and that's uh important part of our health.

Health is the foundation of lives, and food is the foundation of health, and we live in a densely populated city, and we've pushed out our agriculture further and further away from our city, and what Grow Boston is doing is bringing that agriculture, that food security back to the place where we need it the most.

And there's a shortage of that right now.

And thank you, Grow Boston, for for doing the right thing and being a beacon of light, and um I think Grow Boston needs more money and not less.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Uh Olivia and then Lisa and then uh Matthew Ellison.

So my name is Olivia Martin.

I like to know who has the jurisdiction over Boston Housing, Metro Housing.

Miss Dillion, look at me, please.

I've been to quite a few of your meetings on the five-year plan at the Capley Library.

Young lady at the inn, I've gotten your cards.

Haven't been able to get in contact with you.

Mr.

Flynn is gone.

Someone needs to help me understand how I can get a mobile voucher, but my mobile voucher has not for relocating on it.

And when I go out and find an apartment, all of a sudden, Metro Housing has four other leases on the same apartment.

How is that possible?

In 2023, I was taken to court by property that's owned by the Boston Public Health Commission and found out that there are four leases on it.

My rent was 1,178.

How do you take me to court when you're getting $2100?

I brought that to their attention.

All of a sudden, the other day when I was up there, my rent changed.

You can't do that legally by law.

Now dealing with Boston Housing.

I've been to Boston House.

Miss Dillion, look at me, please.

Because all of these different entities that y'all bring in here, make and believe is separate.

We know that every one of them.

Age strong, Boston Housing, Metro Housing, oh God, ISD, inspectional service, your service is all up under the cap of the mayor.

There is no way that I should have been given a voucher that's mobile that says not for relocating.

And all of a sudden, what November 2025?

I'm able to relocate.

That's Atha Metro.

Miss, are we allowed to call out names?

Are we allowed to say people's names?

You can say people's names.

I would say I I I think so I get calls like this.

I'm going to be homeless come this Friday.

And the hood says that a person is entitled to have a more expensive apartment if they can pay the difference.

The place that I am at right now in October of 2025, Metro Council told my landlord how not to renew my lease, knowing I would need a place to stay.

October, November, December, January, February, March.

These people have been holding an apartment for me that if I'm not out come Friday, I'm homeless.

Why are y'all making me homeless?

Boston housing, Metro Housing, Miss Dillion, you say y'all got this money.

And trust me, I have the documents to prove everything that I'm saying.

By law, we need to be transparent and open because when I used to live in BHA's housing, when the budget comes out on July the 7th, they hold apartments until the budget comes out so they can get.

She's talking about the one on the right to the Atlantic Ocean because the minute you cross that asphalt and you're on that other yellow line, you're in Lower Roxbury.

I see Mr.

Wait.

I'm gonna stop.

No, I want to know who has the jurisdiction so that I bring no Metro send you to Boston Housing.

Boston Housing is the public administration plus uh agent for the mayor plus housing.

I want to take these people into federal court because all this money coming into this city, you've got trust funds, diaries, pensions, and all of that that they're putting money in and not putting it for the people.

Let's open up some of these and see what this money is at, since they're getting it and saying they're supposed to help people, unless you can get me a place to stay by Friday.

You can't help me because Metro Boston Housing is trying to make me homeless, and the reason they're doing that is because when I put my documents into storage, the first thing people ask is who, when, where, why, and how.

If I don't have documents, their documents to put in their face, then all of a sudden what I say is wrong.

Miss Dil Young, you know I put documents in your hand every meeting that I attend to at Copley.

Okay, Miss Martin, thank you very much.

I think there's somebody from Chief Dylan's office.

I have your email, I'll send you my information, and we can talk.

Uh there also there's what I can show you everyone.

Well, I uh happy to help where we can.

What do you do for people that's homeless?

I seen all this money up here.

I'm telling you that come Friday, I'll be in the street.

Woods Mullins is not gonna take me.

Why?

Because on the corner of Mass Ave and Harrison Al, the Bureau of Homelessness is at 7.15, and you can't find that door unless you go in the building to the second floor.

I'm talking about things I live, not about things people are projecting to say.

I I understand.

Let's see if they can do anything to help you.

I'll be in touch.

Uh and and yeah, I just so Miss Martin, thank you very much for your testimony.

Uh they're gonna help me.

Help me with money, not conversation.

Even Miss Dillion and say we'll talk later.

I don't want to do that.

Yeah, no, that was I want to place the leader.

They're gonna talk to you right now.

Hopefully, they can do something if they if they can't, we'll look for something else.

Uh I I know the mayor's office of housing has helped several of my constituents who are who are facing imminent homelessness.

And uh and and so uh so thank you very much for your testimony.

Uh so next up is Lisa Evans, and then uh Matthew Ellison.

Good afternoon.

Um, my name is Lisa Evans, and thank you for giving We Grow Microgreens, a small urban farm in Hyde Park the opportunity to testify.

Um I am also a resident of Roslendale, as is my business partner Tim Smith.

Our farm has benefited from grant funding from Grow Boston in the way of hydroponic growth towers for growing leafy greens.

A smart planet, a smart flower, which is a retract retractable solar panel array that generates solar energy for the farm.

An electric loader that allows us to move heady heavy objects like soil.

In addition, we have benefited from a grant to build raised garden beds in the backyards of families in our neighborhood.

The UADA defines a farm as any place that produced and sold at least a thousand dollars of agricultural products during a given year.

This standard established in the 1970s includes hobby farms and rural residences with small scale production.

Since the 1950s, the number of farm operations has declined by 3.75 million.

That's 66.4%.

The number of acres of farmland declined by 323 million.

That's 26.9%.

Slightly twice the size of Texas.

In the Northeast, 9,0254 farms have been lost between 2017 and 2022.

In Massachusetts, between 2017 and 2022, we lost 158 farms.

And this is according to the agricultural census.

This is in contrast to Rhode Island that gained 11 farms.

According to the Wall Street Journal, farmers are aging.

Their kids don't want to be in the family business.

Their rising costs, weak prices, and a trade hit are pushing more farms to the brink and making the search for their successors harder than ever.

Thousands across the U.S.

are closing the book on farms that have been in their families for generations, either by selling to a larger entity or declaring bankruptcy.

Sorry, can you wrap it up?

We're over two minutes.

It is vital that the investment in these small farms continues so that a new generation of farmers can be trained.

The disappearance of small farms has carried steep consequences across America.

The tough economies are making the search.

One more sentence.

Okay, thank you very much.

Matthew Ellison.

Two minutes.

Thank you, Council, for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Matthew Ellison.

I'm a Boston resident, also assistant farm manager at the Urban Farming Institute.

I'm here with some of our other colleagues in the urban farming world to support fully funding Grow Boston for the next year.

Our organization promotes urban agriculture, access to healthy food, as well as community well-being in Dorchester Roxbury and Matapan.

We know firsthand how important the access to healthy nutritious food is, especially culturally relevant food in our communities and grow Boston has supported this mission through their raised bed program, which you've been a recipient of.

This has allowed us to install and assemble 45 raised garden beds throughout the neighborhoods that we serve with a wait list that's double that and growing.

These beds provide safe growing soil for residents to grow food that is fresher and healthier, and most importantly, taste better than the food they can get at the grocery store.

Some examples of people who receive these beds are a 97-year-old who's growing for the first time, educational institutions who can provide continued learning for these groups with these grazed beds, and people hoping to get a taste of home and grow things like Kahaloo and Hot Peppers and the things they really like to find that they can't find elsewhere.

Grow Boston has also supported a monthly growth series that we run that provides educational workshops, opens to everyone who want to learn how to grow their own food.

Combining access to growing space with educational support empowered residents to grow a season's worth of fresh vegetables and an eight by four bed that they can do in their driveway in a spare alleyway, place where otherwise the soil isn't sufficient to grow food.

Cutting funding for programs like this would dramatically impact the health and access of to people of food, especially at a time where we all know food continues to increase in price, accessibility continues to be harder and harder.

We really support the continued funding of Pro Boston.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Does anyone here also want to testify?

No, that's the end of the sign in.

Okay.

Online, we have each other.

We have Joy online.

If you can hear me.

Whenever you're ready.

Yes, I can hear you.

Can you hear me well?

Yes, perfectly.

Uh you have two minutes.

Okay.

Thank you, Council.

Um, my name is Joy Gary.

I'm the executive director of Boston Farms Community Land Jurist.

We build productive ecosystems in and throughout the Boston area and make them available to farmers within our city.

We've built five farms in our track to build to six.

Um, and the food from these farms feeds tens of thousands of residents across the city.

And for many, this is their primary source of food.

Additionally, we are um building Boston's first urban farming um incubator program, giving farmers access to land and the training um that gives them the key features to be a part of the local economy.

Um I recognize that we're at a critical time in our history where we are seeing increasing levels of crisis in the health and food, energy, and housing, and even in the educational opportunities for our youth.

Um, but it's it's vitally important um for you as stewards of our city's budgets to view programs like Grow Boston, the Office of Food Justice, and MOH's affordable housing programs as investments.

Um, continuing to invest in these programs, um, creates the types of infrastructures that are leading to economic um and health and economic resilience for our communities.

Food, shelter, water, safety are all critical investments that when shortcut, we will see the ripple effects of them with increasing levels of disease, mental health decline, violence, and poverty will move from a mere um uh food insecurity problem to a problem of starvation.

Um, we yes, revenue um and margins are a critical part of the budget, but so are values.

High revenue and great margins are needed, but having no values will equate to failure.

That's not just for the leadership of the city, but also for its people.

So I implore you as the city council leaders to reconsider the budget and add back as the much needed funding for Grow Boston, the Office of Food Justice, and the funds that support um MOH and uh the community land trusts within the city.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um so uh before we go to a second round of questions.

I guess you know uh we heard of Olivia Martin.

I mean, when somebody is uh experiencing, you know, under threat of eviction, losing their home, uh you know, there's there's you you can't just you know uh put that to the side, and I when we hear that, I'm sure when you hear that and you you hear it more than we do because um uh and I guess I so with with the operating budget going down nine percent, you know, it's uh which is more than most uh uh other departments.

I mean, how do we explain that you know, or justify how are you going to be able to help people like you know, Olivia Martin, who are facing problems we may not be able to solve all these problems, uh but when we hear it, you know, you saw all the counselors kind of jumped up and you know, uh because you know, yeah, anyway, it's such a like a basic human need to have a roof over your head.

Martin and of course folks were uh jumping up to help and so we'll get the stories and we'll follow up probably not today but certainly tomorrow morning it sounds like she has a problem with her metro voucher so immediately we'll we'll call over and and we'll see what the status is and try to work with her as best we can um so that's you know that's what we do and this happens you know with with frequency um so we and we do the best we can and we always do to make sure that we cobble together resources or a solution for for people's house that are housing insecure um you know it's um every year I think we are looking at how to spend our money uh wisely uh it's very expensive to build new housing but we're also always looking at how we set aside important resources to immediately help those that are in housing crisis right and I think it was interesting when Kathy said that the back the average back rent is $3800 right so we we always need to find enough money for those for those relatively inexpensive back rent scenarios.

And I don't know Miss Martin's situation now I'll have to we'll have to get an update so it's um it's continuing to build affordable housing and permanent supportive housing that people with you know physical or mental health issues they need and at the same time you know dealing with the crises before us.

So it's it's um you know it's just every day I got a hand to Rick you know every single day we're coming to him with something and there's a juggling act going on and we're just always looking at where's what is the state have what are the feds have what do we have you know what are private developments have and uh you know each year we get through it um we're not able to assist every single person but I do think every case we hear about we're doing our best to find to find a relatively decent solution.

Yeah I will I will say when I get calls from from people in situations like that I reach out to Daniel Johnson and then I when I reach back out to them a couple hours later they say oh I've gotten a phone call you know from that office and they're helping me and so you know I it's that this is the it's those are the hardest calls to take you know uh whether somebody's gonna lose their housing absolutely I would I will say I I say it now more because maybe because I've had a bird's eye view for I've had the the I've been lucky I've had a bird's eye view but Boston would be a very different place without the mayor's office of housing they it would be we wouldn't have the affordable housing resources we wouldn't have the programs we wouldn't have the very organized nonprofit networks that we respect and work so well with it it would be a different place.

Okay uh second round uh I have one more question yeah yeah I'll I'll give you 45 minutes um yeah sorry to keep you guys I know everyone's busy um I guess well with with the Grove Austin testimony that we've heard here today and I'm I apologize that I didn't get it earlier how much is being decreased from from Grove Austin?

Uh 4300 total um decrease the Grove Boston grants um leaving 32000 in of city funding growth also gets um C D BG funding for their um primarily for their grassroots program which creates and community gardens food forest other open space projects okay so that they have 3200 left for the year so it's over a 50 percent budget reduction that's tough um I have made it a a priority through the environmental justice lines of trying to have urban gar gardens everywhere and I've actually been to the BMC rooftop garden and have seen the impact that it's made and just what it means for our carbon neutrality goals even to have whole nutritious food in close proximity to people so that is a that is a tough cut.

And what is the um what is the makeup of the cut the 4300 it it was three three grant programs although and you know Shawnee Fletcher who's the director of Roboston sitting sitting right over there I'll confess I I I chatted her right after I gave my last answer to Councillor Louisian around our work with land trust because I failed to mention a lot of the work that you heard about that we do with land trust on the Grove Austin front as well I focused on housing.

But yeah it it it it it is a reduction we are going to look if if you know again we understand the situation that the city is facing and the you know that the belt tightening that had to happen to balance the budget um if these reductions you know stay in the budget we will look with on our own budget we will look at philanthropy we will look at external sources to see if we can free up other funds or or or generate other revenue to support the robust and program we understand how important they are to the to the community.

Thank you for that and I appreciate the philanthropy um perspective I know the Boston Foundation is is very much looking into food access and wondering if there's ways in which we can dovetail what they're doing with the Office of Food Justice just to try to help as much as we can but I want to thank all of the advocates that showed up and talked about it because it is something that's important to all of us right it's we're just in tough times right now.

I think my last question is just about the percentage of the funding share building both rental and home ownership what share of that is city versus state funding how that landscape has changed for for the office over the last couple years if it has changed.

Sorry can you just like percentage I'm sorry sure the um the the share of how much money we're getting from from the state to help with like home ownership home ownership and and um and rental if we get money as well so I think we're we might have to follow up on like in the last year two years you name it we we can get you on each project making total like how much we're putting in versus the state and and other resources.

We look at that a lot I just don't have it here but we can um it's um home ownership is certainly more expensive to us for us because there's fewer resources for home affordable homeownership it's it's MOH and the state um so and um we did just get uh I they it's not public yet but we just uh they just had a round and we we received the majority of of that funding round so it's good so they we we continue to work with them on home ownership but I will get you certainly a breakdown of like what we're putting in both home ownership and rental and then what the state is providing.

Thank you thank you Chair okay and and for the other uh advocates who showed up I had somebody who had a plot at 60 Paul Gore Street for years and is looking to get back in there I know how important and these community uh garden spaces are and the good they can accomplish for for everyone so I uh you know I I it's hard to hear uh that those programs are being cut as well um uh no but okay well um uh so I guess uh thank you for being here I don't see anyone else uh and so no yep uh I just want to thank everyone who showed up today uh and gave their testimony and for the panelists for for being here for the really you know vital work they're doing for the people of Boston so uh with that said uh this afternoon's hearing is now adjourned.

Thank you