Boston housing committee reviews acceptance of HUD grants totaling roughly $79 million as officials address CoC legal challenges

Boston — The Boston City Council Committee on Housing on Friday reviewed requests for the city to accept and expand multiple U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants that city officials said will primarily fund housing and services for low- and moderate-income residents and people experiencing homelessness.

"Combined these grants total over $79 million," said Rick Wilson, director of administration and finance at the Mayor's Office of Housing, in a slide presentation to the committee. He described five HUD funding streams before the panel: Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnerships, Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA), Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) and the Continuum of Care (CoC) program.

Wilson said Boston's FY27 CDBG allocation is $16.8 million and that the HOME allocation is $4.8 million. He described HOPWA at about $3.9 million and noted the ESG and other entitlement grants together amount to an entitlement allocation described in the presentation as just over $27 million. The committee was also presented with a CoC portfolio the city reported as roughly $52 million in awards that the Mayor's Office of Housing (MOH) administers and largely passes through to nonprofit providers.

Why it matters: These HUD funds support affordable-rental development, first-time homebuyer assistance, repairs, tenant-based rental assistance, street outreach, emergency shelter and rapid rehousing. City staff told councilors the intent is to use the grants to create income-restricted units, assist first-time buyers, and house formerly homeless households through permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing.

What city staff said: Wilson and other MOH officials said the CoC funds are mostly passed through to about 18 nonprofit housing and service providers and that roughly 90% of CoC funding in Boston supports permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing for nearly 2,000 formerly homeless households. "We believe in housing first," Wilson said, describing program priorities.

Legal challenge and status: Councilor Louijeune asked how an ongoing lawsuit and recent HUD guidance interact with accepting the CoC grants. Panelists said jurisdictions nationally had sued to block terms and conditions HUD proposed that would have shifted priority away from housing-first toward shelter, treatment and work requirements. Katie Cahill Holloway, director of supportive housing, told the committee that courts in multiple cases issued preliminary injunctions and that congressional language in an appropriations measure limited HUD's ability to implement some of the proposed changes. "CoC 2025 is being non‑competitively renewed," Holloway said, adding that MOH is reviewing updated HUD notices with legal counsel and provider partners and that signed grant agreements were still being processed.

Numbers and program targets: The presentation listed specific targets the City expects these HUD funds to support in the coming fiscal year: create 750 income-restricted housing units, provide down-payment assistance to 115 first-time buyers, help about 230 homeowners with repairs, deliver foreclosure-prevention services to more than 1,600 people, house approximately 2,000 formerly homeless households with permanent housing and supports, assist 500 people with HIV/AIDS, and provide homelessness-prevention services to about 900 individuals. The Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion said it is planning to help about 1,700 small businesses with technical assistance and provide job training to over 2,000 people.

Council questions and requests: Louijeune and other councilors thanked staff and asked for clarifications. One councilor asked whether any grants fund survivors of domestic violence; panelists said there are "probably four or five" grants targeted to that population across the portfolio and offered to provide written detail. A staff member also clarified a discrepancy between the docket language (which listed a CoC amount of $50 million) and the presentation (which totaled about $52 million), saying the docket used an earlier estimate and MOH had asked the clerk's office to update the record after receiving award notifications from HUD.

Docket and procedural status: The items were presented as messages in order to authorize the city — through the Mayor's Office of Housing — to accept and expand the listed HUD awards (dockets 0792, 0913, 0914, 0915 and 0916A). The hearing recorded no formal vote or tally; MOH staff characterized the session as a presentation and question-and-answer period and asked the committee for support to proceed. Ryan Pratt, the committee's central staff liaison, said there was no public testimony signed up that day, and the chair adjourned the hearing.

What happens next: Staff said they would continue reviewing HUD's updated notices with legal counsel and provider partners, process grant agreements as they are finalized, and provide councilors with requested written details about specific grants (for example, which programs specifically serve survivors of domestic violence). The committee has the dockets before it for authorization but did not record a vote during the hearing.

Sources: Presentation and Q&A at the Boston City Council Committee on Housing hearing, June 12, 2026. Direct quotes in this article are attributed to speakers who identified themselves on the record.