Community groups urge reversal of proposed MOCD cuts; legal aid, gender‑based violence and youth programs singled out

The Budget and Appropriation Committee on April 23 held a hearing on proposed funding recommendations from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOCD) that would reduce local general fund support for several community development portfolios. MOCD recommended preserving some priority portfolios — including immigrant legal services, eviction prevention and gender‑based violence programs — while proposing cuts or reallocations in other areas because of constrained local general fund resources.

MOCD Director Dan Adams and Deputy Director Julia Sabore presented the division’s RFP process and described the difficult tradeoffs that produced the recommendations. Sabore said the RFP, issued in September 2024 with proposals due in November 2024, drew more than 300 proposals requesting about $198,000,000 — nearly twice the funding available. She said MOCD had initially faced an $11,000,000 reduction and had reduced that exposure to roughly $5,000,000 through personnel reductions and shifts to off‑budget resources, but that the division recently received an additional roughly $2,000,000 departmental reduction target.

“Many of the programs MOCD funds are particularly vulnerable to general fund reductions,” Sabore said. “When MOCD receives a local budget reduction mandate, it is applied to our general fund allocation — approximately 38% of our total grantmaking portfolio for FY 25‑26 — which makes difficult tradeoffs unavoidable.”

Community reaction and examples of impact

Hundreds of community members…