City Council - Ways & Means Committee Hearing on Dockets #0733-0740, FY27 Budget: Mayor's Office of Housing

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Good afternoon. My name is Ben Weber. I'm the Boston City Councilor for District 6 and the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means. Today is April 27th, 2026. and the exact time is 2.10. This hearing is being recorded. It's also being livestreamed at boston.gov slash city dash council dash tv and broadcasts on Xfinity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, and Fios Channel 964. The council's budget review process will encompass or does encompass a series of public hearings that began at the beginning of the month of April and will 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 one of our hearings. and give testimony in person or virtually via Zoom.

And we will take that public testimony usually at the end of the first round of questions from my council colleagues. You can view a full hearing schedule on our website at boston.gov slash council dash budget. You can also give public testimony in person at one of two listening sessions we're going to be having. One is tomorrow night here at City Hall at 6 p.m. That's Tuesday, April 28th. 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. At any of those listening sessions in any chamber, you can give testimony in person or virtually via Zoom. For in-person testimony, please come to the chamber and sign up on the sheet near the entrance.

Anybody who wants to speak at this hearing, there's a sign-up sheet if you haven't done so already. Please sign in. 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.boston.gov or by emailing Karishma Chauhan at karishma.chouhan.gov. When you're called to testify, please state your name and residence, or if you're with an organization, your affiliation. Please limit your comments for two minutes so everyone gets a chance to testify. In lieu of showing up or testifying virtually, you can also email written testimony to the committee at ccc.wm at boston.gov.

Lastly, you can 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, Look forward to seeing some videos. 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 dash budget. In-person public testimony today will be taken following the first round of councilor questions. Individuals will be called on in the order that they have signed up. We'll have two minutes to testify. If you wish to sign up again and haven't done so already, the sign-in sheet's over there on my left. and if you're online, you can email our Director of Legislative Budget Analysis, Karishma Chauhan at karishma.chouhan.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. This is one of the 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 been joined by my colleagues on order of arrival. We've been joined by a lot of colleagues, which is great. I should have some sort of like, you know, Flynn is in the lead, Councilor Murphy is close behind. Yeah, well, maybe. Maybe there was a pre-budget hearing. Anyway, lots of other councillors. Councillor Breadon, I think, has also been at every hearing. Councillor Culpepper as well.

So this afternoon, order of arrival. Councilor Flynn, Councilor Murphy, Councilor Fitzgerald, Councilor Louijeune, Councilor Culpepper, Councilor Coletta Zapata, Councilor Pepén, And that's all I have so far. It's a full house, which is great. Oh, did I not say Councilor Breadon? Is Councilor Breadon on the list? Yeah, I'm just passing the blame here to... Breadon. Okay, so Councilor Breadon is third. So it's Flynn, Murphy, Breadon, Fitzgerald, Louijeune, Culpepper, Coletta Zapata, and then Pepén, if that, I think the order is right. So we're waving 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. Our Chief of Housing, Sheila Dillon and our Director of Administration and Finance for MOH, Rick Wilson.

I don't know if you have a presentation, so the floor is yours. Thank you very much.

No, thank you, Councillor. It's good to be here with all of you. I just want to thank Councillor Weber 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 A&F Director, Rick Wilson. I'm also 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 from 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, 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.

Needless to say, it's been a challenging year with our current federal administration, but we are glad to be here with you and glad that this budget preserves the vast majority of our city funding and allows us to continue this important housing and community development work. As just to remind you all, The MOH has six strategic areas, creating and preserving affordable housing, ending homelessness, strengthening home ownership 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 1400 units to preserve tenancies and affordability across the city. Looking ahead to 27, we're aiming to permit 1000 new affordable housing units, and complete construction on over 280 units of homeownership housing. Here you'll see examples of some of our fiscal year 26 projects, 288 Harrison residence 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 in HUD Continuum of Care funding, City 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 the federal government to maintain those funds. In FY27, we are 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 non-profit partners.

I would argue the best non-profits 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 completed by the Commonwealth Land Trust. This year, the Boston Home Center has continued to focus on increasing homeownership 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 home buying education and helped 340 home buyers. 65% 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 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 home ownership units on Hancock Street in Dorchester. As you well know, your offices know well, and your staff certainly, we continue to support 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-aged children facing eviction through Access to Counsel 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 and many more.

They are leveraging surplus land and funding to promote healthy food access, environmental resilience and community connection. In Fiscal Year 26, Grow Boston completed construction of 300 garden beds at community centers, libraries, public housing sites, and at homes and non-profit organizations throughout the city. They have supported hundreds of residents through educational grants, gardening supplies, and technical assistance through the Urban Agriculture 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 Mattapan 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 neighbourhood 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 the Director of Administration and Finance at the Mayor's Office of Housing. MOH's FY27 recommended operating budget totals $49.2 million. 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, is the largest line item in our budget funded at $11.85 million for FY27. Homebuyer and Homeowner Assistance is next at $10 million, Homeless and Supportive Housing at $9.3 million, Affordable Housing Development $7 million, and Housing Stability at $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, Councillors, most of our funding comes from external sources, especially grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. This includes Continuum of Care, Community Development Block Grant, Home Investment Partnership, Housing Opportunities for Presidents with AIDS, Emergency Solutions Grant, and Lead Pane Abatement. All told, these grants combined a total of $77 million in annual funding. As Sheila intimated, there's been a lot of focus and tension around federal funds over the past year and a half. First, the Trump administration froze many federal grant programs last year. and then proposed drastic reductions to them, 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. We recently received our allocations and they are close to what we expected. CDBG Home and ESG received flight reductions of 1% to 2%, and HOPWA increased by about $200,000, or 6%. I'm also sure you're aware that we are involved in multiple lawsuits regarding our HUD funding. The one we are probably watching most closely involves our continuum of care grants, which total $48 million and support most of our homelessness programs. 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.

Fortunately, we've been successful at winning court injunctions and congressional action to preserve our CoC funding for the upcoming year, but HUD has already indicated that it intends to move forward with these harmful changes for the following year. We are 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. I'm turning to other external funds. 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 in state, local, and other sources in FY27. including $20 million from the inclusionary development program. So in total, we anticipate managing over $100 million of external funds in FY27. You will note that this does not include ARPA funding.

We received $237 million in ARPA funding for Housing and Grow Boston initiatives. That's technically outside of MOH's budget, which is why I'm not presenting it here. But I'm proud to report that we have spent over $190 million or 80% of our allocation and we are well on track to spend the rest of it by the end of this calendar year, by the deadline. Looking at the capital budget, the FY27 to FY31 capital plan funds several ongoing projects at the Boston Housing Authority, including major redevelopments of Mildred Haley, Charlestown, and Mary Ellen McCormick. as well as elevator upgrades at a number of sites. And again, as Jill 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.

First in Mission Hill, we're replacing a retaining wall on a city-owned parcel on Parker Terrace that will be developed into housing, open space, community gardens, and commercial space. and that project will be getting underway soon. And then 135 Dudley Street, Endovion Square, The capital funds will be used to construct a public plaza adjacent to the affordable housing development that is closing in the coming months and that will connect that site to the nearby Boston Public Library. Turn it back to Sheila to wrap up.

Thank you. Thank you, Rick. So that pretty much concludes our presentation. And I just want to Thank you. or supporting us when we go out to neighborhoods and we're working on siting 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. I know people like your children, you can't pick a most important one. People always talk about these hearings as being The most important, I mean, this may be the actual most important hearing we have. You know, supplying housing for people across the city is really, you know, I can't think of a more important function and just before I get to my colleagues, I'm going to exercise just a little privilege of the chair. You know, we talk about and many more. Helping people who need it, something you highlighted and something we have who are facing eviction, who have kids in school here in Boston. I think that is not in the budget for next fiscal year. I guess, can you just talk a little bit more about what,

Did that program work over the last year? Is it worthwhile to try to continue it?

I'll just...

Thank you, Councillor. Yeah, the Access to Council pilot program, as you mentioned, is not included in the FY27 budget. My understanding is that that was part of a decision by the mayor's office and the budget office around city council amendments from prior years, generally speaking. I think the program has been successful. We expect it to help 100 families this fiscal year. I will note that we do have other funding that we provide to Greater Boston Legal Services to provide case management and some legal assistance to Steele, Steele, Steele, Steele, Steele, You know, 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. And I think, you know, there's lots of important needs across the city. We're going to do what we can with what we have.

Yeah, I think we also heard that 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. I just asked my colleagues to think about that. Okay. So let's see. Councilor Flynn, you're up first. We're going to go with six minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize. We've been joined by Councilor Worrell. 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. I had an opportunity to work with you Sheila for eight years and you're an outstanding Professional City Employee. Sheila, I wanted to highlight planned downtown. I filed a text amendment, as you might know, to require onsite affordable housing as part of that. 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 Chinese and Asian residents living in downtown Boston.

But is this something that you would consider is supporting this text amendment to require onsite affordable housing If you're not prepared to deliver a response now, maybe we can certainly talk about it later, but I just wanted to give you the heads up.

Sure. I mean, I'm not prepared to talk about that now, but I would be glad to. engage you and my colleagues at planning. I will say the Office Teresi program, which I think we're all a big fan of, is really, I can't think of one instance and of all those new projects where The affordability has been bought out which is good news. I will say just more generally, we are looking at projects right now, again, with a fresh set of eyes sometimes if we can get them jump-started and going in this downturn. But we are trying our hardest to keep any kind of buyout very, very localized and spent very, very close to the market rate project. But the specifics of that text amendment, I'd be glad to. Learn more about 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. Yes, Councilor. Our budget, our FY27 budget, which was about $49.2 million, so it's about a $5 million reduction from the current year's budget, the FY26 operating budget. The largest reduction was in the City of Boston voucher program, $2.3 million. And I think Joel, again, can, I'm sure, answer any questions you have about that specific reduction. My understanding is that that will not reduce the number of City of Boston vouchers that the BHA is able to support, but again, I'll defer to him on that. The next largest reduction was a million dollars from the removal of the Affordable Commercial Assistance Fund, or ACAF. That was a program that we had in place for a few years that provided subsidies to mixed use of housing and commercial developments to support the commercial space specifically.

in exchange for a commitment to rent out the space to small local businesses or nonprofits. 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 hoped. And given that we were asked to identify reductions to help balance the city budget, and working with the budget office, we felt that we really wanted to prioritize our core housing programs and services and given that we didn't have any applications in hand for that program, we identified that one as one that would make sense to reduce as we look to FY27. We also mentioned the reduction to the Access to Council program that Councillor Weber brought up. Another area was a reduction to Grow Boston grants, about $400,000, and those were

grants to urban agriculture organizations and food provision nonprofits for educational programming, supplies, design, and capacity building. Fair Housing, we had a pass-through funding for Fair Housing in our budget, $250,000. That was also reduced. They do have, Fair Housing does have prior year funding that they'll be able to leverage to continue their programming. So my understanding is that that will not actually impact their programs for FY27. And then the last one I'll mention is a reduction to the ADU budget of $200,000, but that leaves $1 million for that program, which we feel is sufficient to cover the current pipeline 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 2, but I am concerned about some of the challenges we face in many BHA developments. I was, just over the last seven days, I was at Foley Apartments in South Boston, West 9th Street in South Boston, Ruth Barclay, The Old Cathedral in the South End. But I want to see a commitment to support existing BHA housing in providing a safer and healthier environment for I am concerned about some safety aspects and infrastructure aspects as it relates to Ruth Barkley. 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. But it's always good to have Joel Wolf from the BHA join us. But In the capital budget, I think you've probably reviewed it, there are a lot of expenditures going to BHA projects, but really we'll defer to Jill.

Good afternoon. For the record, Joel Wold, Deputy Administrator at the Boston Housing Authority. Always good to be back at the City Council. And thank you, Councilor Flynn, for your questions and for your advocacy and, of course, personal visits out to the Housing Authority on multiple occasions. I did want to note that the city and the mayor and council have been strong supporters of the BHA in a couple of areas, both for senior housing specifically. and on the Elevator Capital Improvement Project. I think some things to note on that and apologies if I'm not going exactly in order on the nature of your remarks, Councilor. We do have investments, as you know, going on at Ruth Barkley. Those are targeted for the elevator improvements to wrap in January 2027. We have pulled those up the timeline, knowing the urgency of that, so we are excited for that. 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 from earlier capital budget years, housing improvements. and the city has been great at partnering and thinking about how to move forward on those. I think that what you've brought to our, what you raised for good reason is that some of the sites like Foley and West 9th also need I think we're happy to continue to work with you on how best to do that both for the sort of security and the operating investments there as well as the physical plant issues. We're engaging with the city on all kinds of fronts there. Foley, for example, is in an area where we in the city are looking at, you know, how does South Boston protect it from climate change? Resilience. How does that affect the mechanicals, the utilities, the infrastructure systems there? So we're deeply engaged in that conversation. We'll continue to reach out about needs. Thank you.

Okay, yeah, Councilor Flynn, thank you. So up next is Councilor Murphy, then Councilor Breadon, then Councilor Fitzgerald. Oh, I'm sorry, Councilor Murphy's not here. Breadon, Fitzgerald, Louijeune, Culpepper.

Thank you. It's always good to see you all. So I'm curious about the overall Significant cuts to external funding and how does the Mayor's Office of Housing plan to continue to, it's charged to build accessible and affordable housing. External funds are cut by, is that 49.4 million? dollars from last from last financial year or is that just to spend like is that just the ARPA

Yes, I think that's what that is, Councillor. Really, what we're seeing in the external funds, the big impact to our external funds is the expiration of our one-time funding. So the CARES Act, we had significant funding from the Federal CARES Act, CDBG-CV, ESG-CV. We also had the ARPA funding that I mentioned earlier. So I think what you're seeing is just anomalies of the timing of when projects are closing. But I think what your question is an important one, which is how are we handling this decline in this one-time revenue. I will say that I think 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 going to create hundreds if not thousands of new units all over the city, help hundreds of new first-time homebuyers.

So yeah, we are... Obviously, we're going to see a drop-off back down to pre-pandemic levels, particularly in housing development and home buyer assistance. We have, you know, we've applied for CPA fund. We actually, you know, I think we're being awarded $5 million in CPA funding to support our home buyer programs. And we have linkage funding now for our AOP program. But I think certainly it's...

The only, and Rick has such a command on the numbers, which is very, very helpful these days, but the only thing I would add is that we have done a pretty critical look at our programs, like our home buying program, right? We've always been very prudent with our development, but now we're saying if the state Thank you. We're probably going to end up assisting less, but we're also providing less per transaction, if that makes sense to you.

I think you've done a stellar job with You know, the ARPA funds and CARES funds, you know, in a difficult time, I think you've got a lot of bang for your buck. We particularly like your AOP program. So in terms of that program going forward, what are we planning to invest in AOP? I know just from hearing things, exchanges of property in our neighborhood that This property turning over and having the capacity to get in there and acquire some of those would be really helpful. Yes.

Yeah, AOP is, I think, one of everybody's favorite programs. As Sheila mentioned, I think, during our opening remarks, we've funded the acquisition of 1,400 units since the program began in 2016. I'm looking at my update here, 147 buildings, over $100 million that we've spent on AOP, including, like I said, about $50 million in ARPA. Right now, the only source that we have left to use for AOP at the moment is Linkage, is Neighborhood Housing Trust. We have about $7 million available at the moment for the program. Beyond that, we have to potentially apply for more CPA funding or apply for more neighborhood housing trust linkage funding for that program going forward. We've used IDP in the past. But our IDP budget is fully spoken for for the next few years. So we don't have a dedicated source for AOP. We've never used city funding, city operating funds for AOP.

But yeah, I think that we love the program and we would love to keep doing it.

Well, we'll just see what we can get some more money. The biggest line item decrease for financial year 27 is the contracted services. And again, I'm trying to figure out, can you detail what these services were and what adjustments are being made?

Yeah, things kind of show up in funny places in our budget, and you've got to kind of piece them together, but you're right. The contracted services line went down by about $1.3 million, and those are some of the items I mentioned earlier, so that's the reduction to the the Grow Boston grants, which was about 400,000, the Access to Council program, which is about 450,000, and then we also had a reduction of 100,000 and our lot clearance contracts as well. And that's based on actual spending. So I think that's the majority of that $1.3 million reduction.

One last question. The Alston Brighton Home Ownership Fund, I think that's money that we got from developers who weren't going to build home ownership opportunities in Alston Brighton. They put money into a fund. So it's decreased by 150K. Is that just? That's money that's been put out to help support payment assistance for new homeowners.

Yes, we've been spending that down. We got the first payment, which I think was one point... or maybe $1 million. 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 payment into that fund. We've helped. Looks like 46 homebuyers so far and also helped provide rehab funding for some units at the Hanno Street Homes and then some senior sales projects as well. Sounds good.

So, and then the developer will be putting in, is it $2 million, another tranche of $2 million?

Is that $2 million? Is that, I'm looking at Bob, $2 million.

About $2 million in Gwynn. Very good. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. Councillor Fitzgerald, six minutes.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Rick, Sheila, Joel. Appreciate you guys being down here. It seems that this year we're just trying to minimize damage, right? Every department's taking a hit. We're just trying to hold off. and so on. The budget that comes in at 49.2 as compared to last year, what percentage are we down or up just in the operating budget? Just under 10%. It was 9.6% reduction. A 9.6% reduction. and then of the outside, I know 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 number is usually at that total number.

I would actually say our external funds are more or less level. Aside from the one-time funds going away, the ARPA, the CARES Act. are sort of annual funds, I think. They're pretty levels. Like I said, small decreases in some of our HUD grants. And IDP is... 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 start building some more stuff to up that IDP again, refill it, right? Looking at the supportive housing, Thank you very much for your time. Let's start with real estate management and sales. 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? How does that shift in the way we've been thinking about how to do that in the future and what does that entail?

It's a great question because we've been working with communities as you know for decades selling land for affordable housing and really crafting requests for proposals with community, evaluating proposals. It's just been a very, very good, respectful process. But with not having as much money as we did, we used to put out land and would put out money to build the affordable housing. You don't have that. So we have been working sort of a 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. When we're looking at other models too, can we put out some of our land for market rate or mixed income housing, but it wouldn't be 100% affordable? Because we do feel like we need to continue to build housing,

But at the same time, we can't afford the land and subsidizing these projects as much as we used to. So we'll see how we are designating in the upcoming weeks Thank you.

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 it's very, something, there is a, There is a change in 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.

I will try. So this applies to, I don't remember the exact year, I should, but I don't, I think it was 2022. If you remember, there was a Supreme Court decision that said municipalities and towns and jurisdictions couldn't, Take real estate through tax foreclosure without returning the excess proceeds or the excess equity. back to the previous homeowners. 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 $90,000. They would have to return The equity that the homeowner had above what they owed in taxes. So that is going to drastically change the calculation for the city. Again, this is only for properties going forward, I think it's 2022. and so on.

Again, most of the time when we're giving out property, if it's for affordable housing development or community gardens, any kind of community uses, we're selling it for $100 a parcel. And if we do that, then we're going to be on the hook to give the prior The difference between what they owed in taxes and what it was worth at full appraised value.

It will change how we're doing business going forward It's, you know, It varies community by community. One, the parcels we have left are probably not, they're harder to develop, there's ledge, they're not as desirable maybe as parcels we had earlier on. I'm not so sure they would command a lot of resource 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 home ownership 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 on that law. I don't want to make it sound like the city was out looking to take properties, aggressively take properties, but we work closely with homeowners. We want them to keep their properties. We work with tax title. and we do everything we can to support the existing owners. The city does not want to take tax for closed property.

No, I appreciate that. And just my final question, working on the homelessness and supportive housing, I see the budget there is, 9 million and we get a lot from the continuum of care from HUD grants at 50 and thank you for fighting to keep that as obviously it's important. You know, 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? And I guess my question that 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 at the Mazacast intersection and finding them housing within Boston? Is that coming on our dime or not?

Yeah, it's a very fair question, especially with resources being scarce. Over the last decade through the coordinated care system 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. If someone's been in Boston for years, they're ours. They're our residents, right? So it is, I can't think of an instance where where someone had just arrived and we're finding them housing and giving them resources to get housed. 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.

That's important. I appreciate it. Thank you for the time, Chair. Thank you, guys. Okay, thank you.

Councilor Culpepper?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good to see you again, Sheila and Rick. I wanted to just pick up on Councilor Fitzgerald's question regarding the homeless and how they're being housed. And it's my understanding that all being housed with continuum of care funding. And I wanted to talk a little bit about the Elm Hill Park Improvement Association. Have you talked with them at Elm Hill Park Improvement Association and the situation that they have there? Yes. And one of the statements that... Mark Bradshaw from Elliott Community Human Services made was, and this is what he said, the big issue that we have Come up with when a client moves into a unit, it's 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 Thank you for joining us. 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 Amhill Park Improvement Association, where the Elliott Community Human Services Agency is working to Place them in certain areas like Elm Hill Park. Then you have this situation where they're sleeping outside.

And so one of my question is, do you check with the neighborhood associations before you actually move folks into that neighborhood? Because I know there's no hearing that's required How does that work, Sheila, with the folks that are already living there?

I am happy. I'm pretty satisfied with how the Elm Hill situation was handled, right? a neighbor put out an email it went probably to all of you but especially you because it's your district and us we immediately there was three or four of us that jumped in including the CRT team and you all and We did as well because we were funding those apartments. And within hours, Elliot was meeting with the residents, meeting with the residents. Two of the residents left. So it's a much smaller group there now, and that's okay. It's okay. We want the remaining residents to succeed, and we also want the neighborhood to feel like they're living in a neighborhood that they can rely on and count on.

So to answer your question, when we are citing new supportive housing projects, 140 Clare, 900 Morrissey, 41 LaGrange, right? Really dedicated supportive housing. We're having meetings with the neighborhood. We're having honest, hard conversations sometimes. We're compromising, hopefully, 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, it would be... 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.

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 personal characteristics of just a renter. But once a problem is identified, The nonprofit, the supporting agency has got to be front and center. And we do too. We were calling. 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. 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 The apartment, the house, it was 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 know. I just know it was two apartments in a very large structure.

I think it was a one family. 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 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

A smoother transition for the folks that are coming, let's say if it's mass and cast, for the folks that are already living there.

Yeah, so the program does pay for rent, but it also pays for supportive, pretty robust supportive services to make sure that things go well. Once again, I would feel slightly uncomfortable. 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. But don't you think that's fair?

Don't you think they need... And look, Sheila, we've worked for years. We love each other. But don't you think it's fair that the folks that are going to become neighbors have some kind of information or notice about Who's coming into the neighborhood? Because even though it was two apartments, it caused an uproar. We're still getting feedback from the neighborhood association. 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. Because, I mean, we're still getting, and I'm not trying to pass a buck to you. No, no, that's my job.

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 was aware as of last week that the issue had gotten 100% 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. Good to know. Let's work on that. Very good. I'd be glad to work with you. Thank you, Sheila.

Culpepper. Thank you. Sorry, I think it's Councilor Coletta Zapata.

Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon. It's good to see you all. Thank you so much for your work, everybody. It's good to see my former council colleague, Joel Wool here. It's always good to have you back in the tank. I'm excited for tomorrow's groundbreaking with Bunker Hill made possible by the public-private partnership through the Accelerator Fund. Give kudos to everybody for that, for their creativity and their We have 11.8-ish million dollars going to that program. How many vouchers will that fund for FY27? and then a follow-up question just generally and I apologize I did not ask this question before in our many conversations but where are we at with project-based vouchers in the city? I think that may be for Joel.

Okay, great. Councilor, always good to see you. So the program, when the program was conceived for the city voucher, obviously collaboration between Between the City, the Mayor's Office of Housing, the Budget Office, the VHA, we had a soft target of around 500 vouchers knowing that on a year-to-year basis there are escalating costs in a voucher program. So the program currently is around that level. We are trying to manage for two things right now. One is that We went from around, you know, last fiscal year, more closer to like 400 voucher up to 500. So we're able to manage this fiscal year with just about 500 because there was a lease up period. So there's sort of the transitional funds available for that.

Again, at present, we can maintain just over 500 households in that. and the current structure. You asked about project basing. So and I want to say, obviously, we do a lot of project based vouchers collaboratively that's outside of the city voucher program, too. It is. I think it's between about 125 to 150 of them are project-based. I do actually have a list of which developments got funded. and sorry about that actually it's it's closer to 200 are project-based. So again of around 500 slightly over 500 it's about two-fifths of the program. We have At the outset, we heard from advocates and city stakeholders that there was a lot of interest in project basing some of these.

We also did them in a sort of unique gap filler way, particularly looking at things like bridging the gap for people who, for example, were in low-income housing tax credit units but couldn't afford it. We also did a lot of partnerships with the Acquisition Opportunity Program purchases. to ensure ongoing affordability in those AOP units. So really successful collaborations with the project base. We've tried to get more balance and more of those over time. Some of the vouchers are definitely going to remain and many more.

Thank you. It's going to, we were at 400 and then we were able to ramp up to the 500.

Yeah, there was a, there was simply just that took, you know, how many people you can lease per year and also project-based vouchers. Some of them were awarded, but the, We now have over 500 units leased up under the city voucher program and we are... So we're managing with the current proposed budget structure. I would say we're very much monitoring the federal budget all the time, because the interactivity here is, We don't want under any program that we're working on to serve Bostonians for anyone's voucher to be terminated. And it requires national level advocacy on the Section 8 program for sure. and we administer a smaller set of state vouchers as well.

We monitor across the three programs and look for other and so forth. And then we talk with MOH in terms of what are the priorities? Are there populations that are not yet being adequately served or that are particularly at risk? and many more. We took towards serving formerly homeless populations and with a number of other priorities including You know, people with disabilities, seniors, and a great collaboration with the city on homeless 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. For rent stabilization slash displacement. We know that East Boston has been argued the epicenter of that for a little part of a decade now OHS has been Thank you, Chief, for taking my calls. It's 11.30 at night sometimes to help with some eviction calls that we're getting and emergency situations. We are seeing... The state is lessening the emergency housing assistance in East Boston that has manifested in St. Mary's Crossroads Family Shelter, lessening their beds for women and children. Oh my gosh, my time is already up. All right. I do have a second round. I'm sorry, Chair, but I'll finish this question.

You can finish that.

Thank you. How is that... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. House, some of our most vulnerable.

Yeah. So I think you're referring to, right, St. Mary's Crossroads Shelter. Yeah. I was pretty surprised. That was a very good program. So I was very sad to see that it was going to close. So we are seeing, and the census numbers, we'll be putting them out in the next couple of days, hopefully, we are seeing in Boston lower rates of... Family Homelessness. And there's just not as many families coming into the city 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 right now, but you are right, though, that the Office of Housing Stability continues to get lots of calls every day where people are very scared of losing the apartments that they have. So, of course, her job, your job, everybody's job is to make sure they don't because it is hard to get into shelter right now.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much, Councilor Pepén. Six minutes.

Thank you Mr. Chair and thank you so much for the three of you for being up there as a panel at the Chair of Housing. This is definitely one of my 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 attend your amazing, I don't know what we're going to 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 supported. Thank you so much for the invitation. Thank you for your support.

For me, I kind of want to piggyback a little bit on Councilor Coletta 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, in regards to the budget, because I know there's a lot of demand for that office. Are their 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 HED. I want to give HED a specific shout out who is consistently helping me out. Is that intact? Is that still being? Are we going to be OK with that?

I will hand it over to Rick. I do appreciate you recognizing the director, Danielle Johnson, who's not with us today. She is off today, but she really just never stops. And I just want to thank her for her work publicly. But Rick, do you want to respond?

Yeah, the only impact, well, there's two places where the Office of Housing Stability is impacted in the FY27 recommended budget. is the Access to Council program, which sits within the Office of Housing Stability, but as I mentioned earlier, they contract with Greater Boston Legal Services to provide the actual services. and then the other is a very small $50,000 reduction to the tenant stabilization fund, which is rental assistance for households facing housing instability and eviction. but that still leaves $1.65 million for that program for TSF and the FY27 budget. The need always at strips that we have available, but we make do with what we have and we're glad so 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 in 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. 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 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 planning on supporting building XYZ amount of housings. Do we ever report or track the report of how much return on investment we get from that, especially the ones that MOH specifically supports?

It's a good question. We track very closely when we're making investments in affordable housing. How much we're leveraging on a particular development? Because while we contribute and we're very proud of our contributions, 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 Thank you very much. The need to increase our tax base especially for our operating and we were talking about it earlier that we do Affordable housing contributes to that tax base, unless it's owned by a religious organization or some nonprofits, but most affordable housing even owned by nonprofits is paying property taxes.

So it would be good to start sort of keeping track of that. We 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 having conversations in Hyde Park, now working with the community there, where it's like, all right, how can We also look at this as in what new housing could bring to the area and to the city. So that's something that I would love to continue.

And then there's things that we don't measure, right? So a lot of new residents, they're shopping locally. What does that mean for? Just having more of our residents safely housed, the benefit to that is just immeasurable. So we'd love to think about what else we should be measuring to tell the affordable housing story.

I just say really quickly, Councillor, 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 home ownership A wonderful and conspicuous one, but also at BHA, like family self-sufficiency, we track things like escrow that people can generate when they're and many more.

Phase 3 of the parcel developments that are happening. There's a specific parcel in Readville that is supposed to go for, I think it's a duplex, two family each. Two separate ones and that's just, that has 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 a two-working family household. So it's just, thank you so much for keeping an eye on that thing. And I wanted to publicly thank you for that. But that's it for me, Councillor. Okay.

Thank you very much. Councillor Worrell. It's six minutes.

Thank you chair. I thought I had more time before me. But the $2.3 million in housing vouchers, you said it would not impact the amount of housing vouchers that we're able to distribute. Can you explain why?

Yep, so thanks for the question, Councilor. So 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. It just means that there was a little bit from last year's funding that we can put towards this year's program. So the math does work on that. It just means the annual, we can balance the budget because it's rolling in some of the prior year's funding. Got it.

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 have increases in the budget over time. We try to, again, go after any opportunities to demonstrate also increased vouchers in other programs or non-city funded ones as well. I think we're tracking this particular question very closely not just with rental increases and what that projection is but also again the federal atmosphere around budgets and who we may be asked to serve in an emergency. Yes, we're tracking that closely for future years. OK. And then?

I believe we had 90 households displaced by fire. 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. 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, the fire victims unit and ONS, and if it's very large, MOH, lands on scene. and Red Cross, as you may know, provides vouchers depending on family size and severity of fire. They are our first line of defense and they fund typically two, three, sometimes a little bit more nights. During that time, it's a good time for and the Office of Housing Stability staff to call every resident that has lost their home either permanently or temporarily to sort of see what their plan is post 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 If it's a single person, they may need to go into adult shelter, which is never desirable. 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 the dollar amount? I'm trying to confirm this right now. I'm being told $650,000 so far this fiscal year.

And then when it comes, going back to the voucher question, Joel, And I don't believe we do wait lists, but how many applicants do we get yearly on those who want to access city vouchers?

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. We would have to go to the individual developers there. For the tenant-based ones, 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 because it's not administered in a waitlist, it's hard to say this is the applicant pool. I could tell you the demand on every category that we serve, there are more people who need housing supports for sure. But it's not structured in a way where there is a... You know X thousands pending here because we don't we don't go to the city or nonprofit partners on this one and say send us ten thousand people or send us a thousand people or send us a hundred people we say look roughly

In that particular partnership. So, I hope that that's clarifying. I know it may not give exact metrics for you.

Yeah, just kind of wanted to see what the demand was and I guess also trying to get an idea of How many people are aware of the city voucher program?

I will say we have 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've been trying to incorporate more of those over time. 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, that are sort of sitting there at present because the program is sort of at capacity.

Awesome. The city has a housing strategy plan. I believe it goes from 2022 to 2025. That's correct. 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 to be preserved by 2025. Were we able to reach that target goal?

Yeah. So you're right, the first housing strategy term one concluded. We posted, I think we've posted all of our accomplishments online. We are now in conversation amongst ourselves and with many, many, many people about what we should be doing in term two. And it's how do we continue? I think the biggest question for us is how do we continue and many more. Thank you. A lot of new development that funds affordable housing development. But 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.

So the preservation, we only have, that I'm aware of, one project that is 140 units that we weren't able to preserve yet. It's Forbes in Jamaica Plain. We haven't given up hope. It's a really important project to preserve. There's a lot of very, very vulnerable residents there. We're working with the owner. Things have gone slower than we would have hoped, but we have resources and the state is holding resources. We were hoping that that would have been accomplished by now. That's the only preservation project I'm aware of that has been stalled.

Awesome. Thank you. Okay, I have to digest that. Yeah, people ask, you know, there was supposed to be construction and renovations and that's not happening, so that's... It's still happening.

It's just moving slowly. Okay.

Louijeune. Yeah, we have six minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to Sheila, to Chief Dillon, and your team for all the work that you do. I guess my first question is, this is an incredibly important hearing. Housing is the number one issue that we get from residents. I know that your work would be much more amplified if you were able to get revenue from the state, such 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. But what is the biggest, what has taken the biggest hit this year to your budget given the decrease that your department is experiencing?

With operating or more of external funds, Councilor? Both. Okay. I'm going to hand this over to Rick. I think I know, but I think it's ARPA, but external.

Yeah, I mean, the biggest... Oh, no, no, no.

I don't mean external funding in that sense. I mean, like, 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. I know that it's hard. Okay, very good.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, the biggest impact is the voucher program, which we just talked about, Joel just talked about. The other big reductions that I went over earlier were a million dollars the Affordable Commercial Assistance Fund, $450,000 for access to council, 400,000 to- What was the one that you said before, access to council? Sorry, the Affordable Commercial Assistance Fund. So that was a million dollar line item in our budget to support commercial space and mixed use affordable housing developments We had the application posted for a few years. We funded a handful of projects. We think it was a good program, but it wasn't getting the traction that we had hoped.

Why not?

You know, I think it was targeted at projects that were kind of ready to lease up and it was an exchange for a commitment to rent up a low market rent to small local Businesses, and we had no applications in hand at the time that we were asked to identify reductions to our budget. So in speaking with the budget office, we felt like we really wanted to prioritize our core housing programs over that program. Not that it's not an important use. It is an important use. But just on balance, in the effort to help balance the city budget, we identified that as a potential reduction.

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

Yeah, Just Bookish. We wrote down Travis Lee's project on Dorchester Avenue, Dorchester Street. I always get this mixed up. But Just Bookish, Portia and Bing's bookstore. So we were able to write down the rents in that, I think for five or six years while they got their feet under them. And that's a very good example of how it was used.

Okay, that's aside on that. Can you talk a little bit more about the Tenant Stabilization Fund and how much was expended and what it was used for?

Yeah, the budget for TSF is $1.7 million this year. With the recommended budget, it's $1.65 million. So it was a $50,000 reduction to the budget. The demand is strong and we continue to get applications for that program.

But it's not direct assistance for a rearage.

It is, yes.

For whom?

for households facing eviction, yeah.

Outside of the RAF program, outside of... Outside of RAF.

We do really encourage folks calling to go to RAF first, but sometimes the resources need to be combined if the rearages are really large. Sometimes they don't qualify for RAFT and so they come to us or sometimes it's just it's 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 audience. Get the two. But we can provide the two, Councilor.

Okay. I have two, well, two questions, additional questions, I think. You talked about the continuum of care funding and that lawsuit and Amicus Briefing was happy to Help on that. You mentioned housing for domestic violence victims. And I just want to know generally what are we doing as a city to provide more support for survivors and those who are trying to leave abusive situations, but housing is a huge barrier. What are we doing? Talk a little bit about the priority for those who are facing domestic violence.

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

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

Sure. So we are funding through the Continuum of Care, and we can get you the exact programs, but I know that we are funding several programs through Casa Myrna. So we are funding nonprofits that are really, that are doing a lot of work with domestic violence, both residentially and programmatically in support services through the continuum of care. But I can get you the exact programs and the amounts.

Through 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. Absolutely, we can get you that.

Just in a sentence or two, the BHA has had an admissions priority related to DV for some time. And then under the city voucher program, I believe one of the referral pathways coming out of the state shelter system supports in that way. It's small number vouchers.

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

Yes.

And within COC, what I have in front of me, we have $4 million worth of our COC funding goes to survivors of domestic violence, 125 households. That's the minimum number of households served through those programs. Thank you. And I also have the, thanks to Kathy up there, I have the average tenant stabilization fund grant is about $3,800 is the average award under the tenant stabilization fund for households. $3,800, okay, thank you.

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

Oh, yeah. Land Trust. Hold on. Let me pull up my update that I got here. So the, you know, Land Trust is not a line item within our budget, but we do work with Land Trust in a number of different ways. We've funded some AOP projects with Land Trust, Airport Community Land Trust at 364 Harvard Street and the Commonwealth Community Land Trust at 3 John D. Court. That's not Commonwealth. That's, yeah, Commonwealth Community Land Trust, right? Three Johnny Courts, or AOP, Welcome Home Boston. We're working with the Boston Neighborhood Community Land Trust on a Welcome Home Boston project for six units. A few years ago, we gave B... Boston Community Land Trust Network, $2.1 million to establish a revolving fund. And then using ARPA funding, we also gave the Land Trust Network a million dollars to help with acquisitions, and we can get you Thank you. Those are my questions, Mr.

Chair.

I'm out of time.

Okay, thank you very much. So I have a couple questions, then we're going to go to public testimony. So I guess for just to go back to access the council for a minute. I think we had it funded at $450,000. Based on your experience, money not being an issue in terms of funding, is that adequate? You know, meet all the needs of that particular group. I know in New York City, their right to council, access to council program is 100 million, you know, sort of, and they're working their way up. 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?

And Danielle's not here, but 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 council, and we have access to council, which is, you know, we would We have supported right to counsel legislation at the State House now for many legislative sessions. So the program is incredibly successful because we're able to target BPS families and families. And there are, as you know, I'm just stating the obvious, there are many low-income housing insecure families at BPS. So the idea that we have resources. but not only do we have a resource, there was a mechanism 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 a system that's working well.

So schools were identifying, family aid was meeting with them, seeing what they needed, and then if they needed legal services, they were being transferred over to get legal services. I think we really need those very, very thoughtful supports for our families and have them not get lost in the system, but having resources that are identified just for them. It's very, very special.

And just in a world where we had more resources, are there other populations that you think that we should also look at who would benefit from that sort of program. I mean, there's a right to counsel where everyone gets an attorney, just like you go to criminal court, you know, the resources. But in a world where we have to build it up. In New York, they didn't start with everyone. They started, I think, with zip codes and then went to seniors or they sort of. Is there some other group that you think...

I mean, there's... I think we're very much in agreement that everybody should have access to council going into a housing court or having legal issues with their housing. So that's, you know... I think when we were designing this with you several years ago now, we identified that our older adult population too is getting Notices, it's hard, it's confusing, they're scared, they sometimes don't have any of the support, so I would say certainly older adults. and a lot of our newly arrived immigrant families too that have language barriers and have to navigate Wouldn't that be ideal as well? So I almost can't think of a population that isn't deserving, but those three probably come to mind. Families with school-age children, older adults, and families or individuals that have Language or Cultural Barriers.

That's what I was thinking. And just for my colleagues, I know Councilor Louie-Jen, Practice and Housing Court, probably Councilor Culpepper also. But just in a few visits, I remember seeing a senior from Boston who spoke Chinese and didn't speak English and you didn't have an attorney and you had a judge saying, Like, well, are you familiar with this case from the SJC? It's like this person, you know, is not represented by counsel, and you're citing cases that just seem crying out for legal representation. Okay, and then in terms of, so I just wanted to nail this down. I think Councilor Worrell was asking about city housing vouchers You know, amounts that we added in amendments that aren't going to be there next year.

I mean, how much do we, when we think about families, number of families, and I think, You're saying the same number of families are going to be covered next year on less money, but can we attach a dollar figure to a family in terms of numbers? What should we be thinking about?

Around $2,200 per month. 22 okay yeah that helps one family yeah yeah so okay and then also a question about BHA

We had funding last year for youth programming at Mildred Haley. I don't think that is being funded. I'm not sure. Do you know anything about that, how we can fund? Youth Services, there's like 500 kids there and there's no full-time youth programmer. I know our state rep, San Montano, and Senator Liz Moran have gotten funding in the state budget, but how the city can support those kids.

Thank you for your support of the young people in your district and at the Haley specifically. We have, to your point, gone to every source possible there. We've managed that with the city. It's been through different departments over the years, but I think it's now technically situated at or through the Health Commission, if I'm not mistaken. I think we would love to see continued and stable support there. I can't speak for the city departments, but I can say that we've made a lot of progress there. through the mix of city, state, and philanthropic support, including the Boys and Girls Club coming in and opening up a space there. So if there's specific questions in terms of household serve or the funding needs there, we can follow up on that.

but other than that we're grateful for what's been there and are really trying to every every you know budgetary opportunity we try to put in a little bit more for to keep that moving okay well thanks I think we'll be talking about that

at least my office and BHA Office of Housing in the future. Okay, so I'm going to go to public testimony before we go to our next round of questions. I've got some folks here who signed up if anybody Daniel Andrews Annabelle Rabayam, I'm sorry, I'm gonna mispronounce that, Mark Winter, Olivia Martin, Let's stop there. For public testimony, very good, Danielle. And you can be here or you can be over there. First, we'll start on the left. I'll point to you. Two minutes, let me get the timer started.

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

Thank you. 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. I consider myself a grower, but I'm 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 miner. 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. Don't we have 30 seconds left? It goes very quickly. I'm just going to skip a whole lot about

I'm going to 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 for us has been a way of really Just had this huge multiplier effect in terms of being able to reach so many more gardeners. And so I just want to say that we just really feel like the The thinking of this is very short-sighted, and this budget does not balance the books and unbalances our neighborhoods. And I hope councilors will reconsider and push back on this budget.

Okay, thank you very much. Yeah, for anyone testifying, it's two minutes, it just goes by very quick. My advice is just to lead with your best shot, and then you'll be done before you know it. So, is it Annabelle? Okay, sorry, so I have Annabelle, then Mark Winter, then Olivia Martin, Lisa Evans. Okay, so I'm going in the order. 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 the folks who are your own person. So, Annabel, two minutes.

Hi, I'm Annabel Rubia. I'm a Boston resident, and I help support the network of 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 grow food for over 20,000 people. which doesn't account to other donations of food that come from those gardens and we engage up to 12,000 people in educational and family programs. and I wanted to speak to the importance of Grow Boston's grant funding for our support of the garden. The Supply Grant every year offers important infrastructure support for all the community gardens, including sheds, tools, and other equipment to grow all of the food that they grow, which they otherwise can't afford.

and another important piece I want to touch on is the fact that I know that a lot of these budget cuts were trying to avoid cuts in staff and Labor, but actually grant funding, especially Grow Boston grant funding allows me in my role to hire A lot of contract labor of community members, including the Urban Ag Ambassador Program. It's a really important workforce development. 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 The gardens and urban farms are as Danielle mentioned have a lot of returns They're really important for our public safety. They're spaces for people to congregate in safe ways.

There's an immense $1.2 million value of food that's grown every year. Many of our gardeners Thank you very much.

Mark?

Hi, I'm Mark Winterer. I'm 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 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, Thank you. Thank you. Providing healthy food and getting people to look outside at nature. And that's an 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 it's not just about food security but it's about mental health and wellness 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 I think Grobotson needs more money and not less. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Olivia? Yes. And then Lisa and then Matthew Allison.

My name is Olivia Martin. I'd like to know who has the Juris District over Boston Housing, Metro Housing. Ms. Dillon, look at me, please. I've been to quite a few of your meetings on the five-year plan at the Copley Library. Young lady at the end, I've gotten your cards, haven't been able to get in contact with you. Mr. Flynn is gone. Someone need 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 $2,100. 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 Housing. Ms. 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

But November 2025, I'm able to relocate. That's after Metro Miss... Are we allowed to call out names? Are we allowed to say people names?

You can say people's names I would say 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 Delia, 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 come out so they can get. I live on this side of Massachusetts Avenue. And I know that those two yellow lines in the middle of Mass Ave, when the mayor is talking about Boston, 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. Wayman. I'm gonna stop.

Ms. Martin, I'm sorry. So I hear you. I think Chief Dillon probably has somebody here or Chief Dillon herself can talk to you about this issue.

No, I want to know who has the Juris District so that I can bring... No, Metro send you to Boston Housing. Boston Housing is the public administration plus an 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 fund, diaries, pensions, and all of that that they're putting money in and not putting it for other people. Let's open up some of these and see where 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. Ms. Dillian, you know I put documents in your hand every meeting.

that I attend to at Copley.

Okay, Ms. Martin, thank you very much. I think there's somebody from Chief Dillon's office. I have your email. I'll send you my information, and we can talk. Also, there's... Well, 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 going to take me. Why? Because on the corner of Mass Ave and Harrison Ave, the Bureau of Homelessness is at 715 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 understand. Let's see if they can do anything to help you. I'll be in touch. So Ms. Martin, thank you very much for your testimony.

They're going to help me. Help me with money, not conversation with us. Even Ms. Deliano said we'll talk later.

I don't want to talk later.

I want to play stupid.

They're going to talk to you right now. Hopefully they can do something. If they can't, we'll look for something else. I know the Mayor's Office of Housing has helped several of my constituents who are facing imminent homelessness. Thank you very much for your testimony. Next up is Lisa Evans and then Matthew Ellison.

Good afternoon. My name is Lisa Evans, and thank you for giving We Grow Microgreens, a small urban farm in Hyde Park, the opportunity to testify. I am also a resident of Roslindale, as is my business partner, Tim Smith. Our farm has benefited from grant funding from Grow Boston. in the way of hydroponic grow towers for growing leafy greens, a smart plant, a smart flower which is a retractable solar panel array, that generates solar energy for the farm, an electric loader that allows us to move 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 USDA defines a farm as any place that produced and sold at least $1,000 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, 9,254 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. The City of Boston by Supporting Urban Farming.

Can you wrap it up? We're over two minutes.

The City of Boston, by supporting urban farming, is helping to cultivate a new generation of farmers. and supporting farms. 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. Be very careful.

I'm sorry, we're well over two minutes. Can you really just... Yeah, I'm almost done. One more sentence.

The end result will be that the vast majority of food will be quietly moved to being grown in Brazil. These little urban farms have importance and value in their exemplary models and their ability to train the future farmers of America.

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 the 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 agriculture, access to healthy food, as well as community well-being in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan. We know firsthand how important the access to healthy and nutritious food is, especially culturally relevant food in our communities, and Grow Boston has supported this mission through their Raise 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 tastes 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 with these great beds, and people hoping to get a taste of home and grow things like callaloo and hot peppers and the things they really like to find that they can't find elsewhere. Grow Boston has also supported a monthly Grow series that we run that provides educational workshops, opens to everyone who wants to learn how to grow their own food. Combining access to growing space with educational support empowers residents to grow a season's worth of fresh vegetables in an 8x4 bed that they can do in their driveway, in a spare alleyway, a place where otherwise the soil isn't sufficient to grow food. Cutting funding for programs like this would dramatically impact the health and access to people of food, especially at a time we all know Food continues to increase in price. Accessibility continues to be harder and harder. We really support the continued funding of Grow Boston.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Does anyone here also want to testify? No. Sign in, okay. Online, we have... 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. You have two minutes.

Thank you, Council. My name is Joy Gary. I'm the Executive Director of Boston Farms Community Land Trust. We build productive ecosystems in and throughout the Boston area and make them available to farmers within our city. Five farms in our tract to build to six. 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 building Boston's first urban farming incubator program, giving farmers access to land and the training that gives them the key features to be a part of the local economy. 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.

But it's vitally important 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. Continuing to invest in these programs creates the types of infrastructures that are leading to economic 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 food insecurity problem to a problem of starvation. Yes, revenue 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 this city, but also for its people. as the city council leaders to reconsider the budget and add back the much needed funding for Grow Boston, the Office of Food Justice, and the funds that support MOH, and the community land trusts within the city. Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much. So before we go to a second round of questions, I guess, you know, We heard Olivia Martin. I mean, when somebody is experiencing, under threat of eviction, losing their home, You can't just put that to the side. And when we hear that, I'm sure when you hear that, and you hear it more than we do, because And I guess, so with the operating budget going down 9%, which is more than most and other departments. I mean, how do we explain that or justify? How are you going to be able to help people like Olivia Martin,

Facing problems we may not be able to solve all these problems but when we hear it you know you saw all the councillors jumped up and you know Because, you know, anyway, it's such a basic human need to have a roof over your head. So I don't know. What do we do when we're talking to the Olivia Martins of the city?

You know, I think the, you know, we are familiar with Miss Martin, and of course, folks were 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 call over and we'll see what the status is and try to work with her as best we can. So that's what we do and this happens with frequency. So we do the best we can and we always do to make sure that we cobble together resources or a solution for people that are housing insecure. You know, it's... Every year, I think we are looking at how to spend our money wisely. 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.

And I think it was interesting when Kathy said that the average back rent is $3,800. So we always need to find enough money for those For those relatively inexpensive, I don't know Ms. Martin's situation now. We'll have to get an update. So it's continuing to build affordable housing and permanent supportive housing that people with physical or mental health issues, they need. and at the same time dealing with the crises before us. So it's just every day I got a hand to Rick, 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 what does the state have? What do the feds have? What do we have? What our private developments have? And each year we get through it. 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 a relatively decent solution.

Yeah, I will say, when I get calls from people in situations like that, I reach out to Daniel Johnson. And then 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, those are the hardest calls to take. Absolutely. Whether somebody's going to lose their housing.

Absolutely. I will say, I say it now more maybe because I've had a bird's eye view for, 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. 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 would be a different place.

Okay, second round. I have one more question. Yeah, yeah, I'll give you 45 minutes.

Yeah, sorry to keep you guys, I know everyone's busy. I guess, well, with the Grow Boston testimony that we've heard here today, and I apologize that I didn't get it earlier, how much is being decreased from Grow Boston?

$430,000 total decrease to Grow Boston grants, leaving $320,000 of city funding. Grow Boston also gets CDBG funding primarily for their grassroots program, which creates community gardens, food forests, other open space projects.

Okay, so they have $320,000 left for the year, so it's over a 50% budget reduction. That's tough. I have made it a priority through the environmental justice lines of trying to have urban gardens everywhere and I've actually been to the BMC rooftop garden 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 tough cut. And what is the makeup of the cut, the $430,000?

It was three grant programs, although, and Shani Fletcher, who's the director of Grow Boston, sitting right over there, I'll confess, I chatted her right after I gave my last answer to Councilor Louijeune 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 there were three grant programs that were extensively included in that reduction, education grants, capacity building, and a design fund. Shani and her team, every year, look at the funding that they have available and try to, you know, and so on, to ensure that it's being used for the best possible purpose. So, you know, it's not to say, like we, looking at FY27, they may have done something different with those grant funds based on what they were hearing from the community and from the organizations that they work with. But yeah, it is a reduction. We are going to look if, you know, again, we understand the situation that the city is facing. and the belt tightening that had to happen to balance the budget.

If these reductions stay in the budget, we will look Thank you for that, and I appreciate the philanthropy.

I know the Boston Foundation 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. talked about it because it is something that's important to all of us, right? 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 the office over the last couple of years, if it has changed?

Sorry, can you just like percentage? I'm sorry.

Sure, the share of how much money we're getting from the state to help with local Boston.

Home ownership?

Yeah, home ownership and rental if we get money as well.

So I think we might have to follow up on like the last year, two years, you name it. We can get you on each project and we can total. like how much we're putting in versus the state and other resources. We look at that a lot. I just don't have it here, but we can. Home ownership is certainly more expensive for us because there's and many more. It's not public yet, but they just had a round and we received the majority of that funding round. So it's good. So we continue to work with them on homeownership. But I will get you Certainly a breakdown of what we're putting in, both home ownership and rental, and then what the state is providing.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Okay, and for the other advocates who showed up, somebody who had a plot at 60 Paul Gore Street for years and is looking to get back in there, I know how... It's hard to hear that those programs are being cut as well Thank you for being here. I don't see anyone else. I just want to thank everyone who showed up today and gave their testimony and for the panelists for being here and for the really vital work they're doing. The people of Boston. With that said, this afternoon's hearing is now adjourned.

Thank you.