City Council - Education Committee Hearing on Docket #0507

Vice Chair Brian Worrell called the hearing to order at 2:10 PM on September 17, 2026, regarding Docket #0507, an order for a hearing to discuss strategies to prevent homelessness among students in the Boston Public Schools.

• Council Attendance:
  • Present: Vice Chair Brian Worrell, Council President Liz Breadon, Councilor Benjamin Weber, Councilor Edward Flynn, Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, and Councilor John Fitzgerald.
  • Letters of absence were submitted for Councilor Julia Mejia, Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, and Councilor Enrique Pepén.
• Opening Remarks:
  • Councilor Benjamin Weber referenced a Boston College School of Social Work study finding that 5,405 BPS students were identified as homeless during the 2024–2025 school year, representing roughly one in ten homeless families nationwide residing in Massachusetts. He stressed that housing instability causes severe downstream academic and behavioral impacts, emphasized the role of EHIP and Access to Counsel, and urged citywide prioritization to reduce student homelessness.
  • Council President Liz Breadon noted family displacement pressures across Boston neighborhoods like Allston-Brighton, driven by competition with student rentals and rising housing costs, advocating for more family-sized affordable units.
  • Councilor Edward Flynn highlighted former Councilor Annissa Essaibi George's past leadership and inquired about reviving regular task-force meetings among housing providers, BPS, and advocates.
  • Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata and Councilor John Fitzgerald emphasized that housing instability severely disrupts youth development and called for strengthening municipal safety nets and proactive prevention pathways.

Testimony was provided by Corey McCarthy, Chief of Student Support for Boston Public Schools, and Danielle Johnson, Director of the Mayor's Office of Housing Stability (OHS).

• Boston Public Schools (Corey McCarthy):
  • Emphasized that BPS's strategy focuses on coordination, prevention, and sustained response through the Homeless Education Resource Network (HERN).
  • Reported that through the EHIP partnership with FamilyAid, over 3,000 BPS families (more than 10,000 children and parents) across 100+ schools have received support, resulting in more than 1,300 families securing permanent housing.
  • Outlined an innovative college-residential model under exploration to provide stable campus housing, meals, and early-college coursework for housing-insecure students aged 16–19.
  • Disclosed that BPS allocated $1.8 million directly to schools in FY26 ($600 per homeless student, ranking in the top 10 nationally), but noted critical funding challenges due to the expiration of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, currently offset in part by a $450,000 state legislative earmark.
• Mayor's Office of Housing Stability (Danielle Johnson):
  • Reported that OHS assisted 2,292 households with minor children over the past two fiscal years, with 1,321 identified as connected to BPS.
  • Discussed OHS's Eviction Prevention Action Plan, developed from a decade of municipal data: nonpayment of rent accounts for over 70% of eviction filings, evictions are heavily concentrated in Roxbury (02119) and Dorchester, and many filings involve arrears under $5,000.
  • Outlined the Access to Counsel partnership with BPS, FamilyAid, and Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS), which screened 248 households and generated 225 EHIP referrals as of September 2026.
• Inquiries Submitted by Councilor Julia Mejia:
  • Vice Chair Worrell read questions into the record regarding the status of school-based homeless liaison lists, cross-agency coordination, in-district academic supports, and anti-displacement planning. McCarthy confirmed liaison lists are maintained and highlighted ParentSquare and Family Liaisons as direct communication channels.

A panel of research experts, legal aid attorneys, shelter providers, and youth advocates delivered testimony regarding program outcomes, system capacity, and structural barriers.

• Panelists:
  • Christy Staples, Vice President of Safe and Stable Housing, United Way of Massachusetts Bay
  • Dr. Brandy Brooks, Executive Director, Boston's Higher Ground
  • Dr. Tom Byrne, Associate Professor, Boston College School of Social Work
  • Luciano Ramos, President and CEO, FamilyAid
  • Ed Ehrlich, Managing Attorney of the Housing Unit, Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS)
  • Vinnie Schmidt, Member, Boston Youth Action Board
• Key Presentations and Research Findings:
  • Dr. Tom Byrne (Boston College) reviewed the multi-year evaluation of EHIP: families living in their own housing increased from 49% to 84% over two years; chronic absenteeism among participating children dropped from 61% to 52%, netting an average of nine additional school attendance days per year.
  • Dr. Brandy Brooks (Boston's Higher Ground) shared lived experience and stated that 16% of all homeless students in Massachusetts attend BPS. Higher Ground has housed over 650 families (averaging 11 months from referral to housing), maintaining an 80% long-term housing stability retention rate.
  • Luciano Ramos (FamilyAid) stated FamilyAid served over 5,000 children and parents last year with an 88% housing retention rate and a 63% placement rate. He highlighted that investing $5,000 in early eviction prevention saves between $30,000 and $85,000 per family compared to emergency shelter and downstream costs.
  • Ed Ehrlich and Liz Alfred (GBLS) explained that Access to Counsel provided full legal representation to over 170 families facing eviction since January 2025, but noted that state-level policy changes in 2025 eliminating 30-day presumptive shelter eligibility have created severe barriers for unhoused families.
  • Christy Staples (United Way) noted that 35% of Greater Boston households cannot afford an unexpected $400 expense and advocated for flexible funding pools and cross-sector collaboratives connecting housing to behavioral health.
  • Vinnie Schmidt (Boston Youth Action Board) shared recent lived experience in youth shelters, urging reforms in staff training, respect, and direct investments into youth empowerment and education.

Councilors questioned panelists on coordination challenges, state shelter system contractions, and resource constraints.

• State Shelter System Constraints:
  • Panelists noted that the state Emergency Assistance (EA) shelter capacity is contracting to roughly 3,000 units statewide. Ramos stated that FamilyAid's EA shelter portfolio will decrease from approximately 160 units to 77 units by November 1 due to reimbursement rate cuts and state policy shifts.
  • Families unable to access shelter locally are increasingly displaced outside Boston to locations such as Peabody or New Bedford, complicating school commutes.
• Transportation and Prevention Economics:
  • Discussion highlighted that the City spends approximately $17 million annually on specialized transportation under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to transport displaced students back to BPS, funds that advocates noted could house roughly 700 families if redirected toward permanent housing solutions.
• Screening Tools and Identification:
  • Dr. Byrne and district staff discussed efforts to design sensitive, stigma-free screening tools for school liaisons to identify housing precarity before an eviction filing occurs.
• Adjournment:
  • Vice Chair Worrell thanked the participants and adjourned the hearing.