Housing advocates ask Boston council for $4 million boost to city rent subsidy, propose rolling pipeline

Housing and tenant advocates urged the Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means on April 22 to expand the city rent subsidy program by $4 million and to avoid cuts they said would harm extremely low‑income residents.

The request came during a public testimony session on the council’s FY26 budget. Advocates said the current mayoral budget recommendation reduces funds for housing programs and risks shrinking the city rent subsidy pool that helps people remain housed.

Michael Caine, representing the Mass Alliance of Attendants, told the committee, “The need is still as dire as it was before for additional subsidies for extremely low income people.” He said advocates met with city administrators, including Sheila Dillon, Kenzie Bach and Cairo Shen, to press for program improvements after seeing fewer project‑based vouchers in use than a year earlier.

Caine and other speakers described two staffing and program changes the city agreed to during those meetings: allowing proposals from developers for city rent subsidies on a rolling basis so funds are not turned away, and opening the city’s memorandum of understanding so the Office of Housing Stability can access additional units. Caine said city staff also agreed to consider offering city rent subsidies to inclusionarydevelopment (IDP) developers so subsidized households could be placed in IDP buildings.

“I hope that you can support this program so that I don't have to sleep on concrete mattresses anymore. I don't feel safe,” said Domingo Cintron, a longtime resident and Vietnam‑era veteran who testified about his housing insecurity.

Jason Lee, a tenant organizer with the coalition, said the group’s formal ask is a $4,000,000 increase to the program and warned that a proposed cut in the mayor’s FY26 recommendation could reverse recent gains. “Our ask is $4,000,000,” Lee said.

Advocates noted that the city rent subsidy program has housed hundreds of people: Caine said 552 low‑income people who were homeless or near‑homeless have been placed through the program to date. They also described a procedural problem they said had blocked project‑based awards in the past—city funds being advertised only once or twice and then the pipeline being closed when applicants did not meet that short window. The proposed rolling process is intended to let the city accept proposals as developers are ready.

The Committee on Ways and Means is scheduled to continue departmental hearings before a planned budget vote on June 4. The council’s next public testimony session is set for May 28 at 6 p.m.