Revere board allocates $50,000 for senior home repairs, flags access and equity issues

At the July 8 meeting, Joe Gravalese, chair of the Revere Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board, reported the City Council and Mayor allocated $50,000 to the Trust for a senior home repairs program that DPCD will administer.

Gravalese said the previous year’s program was manageable and effective but identified access issues, chiefly that some seniors lacked help obtaining contractor estimates. He proposed exploring partnerships with nonprofits or curated lists of contractors to provide estimates or low-cost assessments while cautioning against creating barriers that would prevent seniors from using trusted local contractors for small projects.

Board members suggested options used previously — for example, partnering with local small-business lists or an organization associated with the senior center that could offer free estimates. Gravalese said the program previously accepted online applications (time-stamped) and also provided in-person assistance through digital navigators at the senior center; he proposed scheduling navigator appointments to coincide with the opening of the application window to avoid disadvantaging in-person applicants.

Brief updates included the FENO project’s referral to the North Suburban Consortium for funding consideration (the board expressed support but did not commit funds) and a status report from Dean Harris that a housing authority master plan will be presented to the housing authority board for ratification next Wednesday. The meeting ended with a motion and unanimous consent to adjourn.