Order for a hearing regarding allocating ARPA funds to a homeownership voucher program. On motion of Councilors Worrell and Flaherty, Rule 12 was invoked to include Councilor Bok as a co-sponsor.
05120512. Councilors were all in clarity after the following order for a hearing regarding allocating ARPA funds to a homeownership voucher program. The chair recognizes counsel. Earl. Counsel. Earl. You have the floor. Thank you. President Flint. Can I suspend Route 12 and add. Councilor Bach as. A original co-sponsor? Yes. Having heard no objections, please add counsel advocate as an original co-sponsor. You have the full council rule. Thank you. And thank you to my co-sponsors, Councilor Flaherty and Council. BLOCK As the African thought leader once said, people are not fighting for ideas. The things that anyone said they are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children. We have watched thousands of longtime residents leave Boston because of the rising cost of housing. Our neighbors, who have called Boston home for decades, cannot afford to purchase a home in their hometown and struggle to keep up with the rising costs of rent through the federal Section eight voucher program. We are able to subsidize rent and voucher holders are able to use their vouchers to purchase a home. In addition to expanding Section eight vouchers. We as a city can create our own voucher program. I'm a B, a little bit creative, and I came up with a name for it, but it's called the Boston Priority Housing Voucher , where we have the. Flexibility to define who. Is eligible for the assistance and would be able to create equity applicants like we have done in other programs. This is an opportunity to bring much needed housing assistance to long term Boston residents who are stuck in the middle. I've come across many of our neighbors who make too much to qualify for housing assistance but do not earn enough to purchase a home by layering relief. We will provide our neighbors with a clear path to the middle class as interest rates go up. Borrowing requirements will become more strict to increase homebuyers buying power. It would take more than just down payment assistance. If we are serious about homeownership, let's put Bostonians in the best positions to purchase and make Boston their permanent home and to continue on with Councilor Baker's analogy. Imagine, imagine going to Vegas, rolling the dice, being able to buy everyone in the city of Boston the home. Thank you. Thank you, counselor. All the chair recognizes counsel. Clarity. Counsel, clarity. You have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. That sounds like a chicken in every pot. So. But I want to obviously want to thank the the the lead sponsor for his leadership and partnership. We've been back and forth on this over the last couple of weeks, just trying to pull things together. And I just think it's important to note that our rental and homeownership markets are extremely competitive and are among the most expensive in the United States. And parallel to that is the cost of living in Boston has increased steeply over the last decade. Everybody in this room has heard from a constituent, a friend and neighbor on this issue. And all of us know long term residents and families that are being forced out of the city, a city that they know they love, a neighborhood they love, and to grow up with because they can't meet that. That's that financial crunch. And so I know it's a serious problem. We're quickly becoming the city of the very rich and the very poor. And interesting to note, at a hearing last night, my team and I heard from a landlord that rents to folks in his neighborhood at a well below market rate. And I know he's not alone. It's not an overabundance of it. But there are a lot of small landlords that rent to to their neighbors. And and that happens across the city. However, these landlords are starting now to express their own distress at rising costs in our city, whether it's property tax, maintenance and repair of those properties , and then now having to make decisions as to whether they can continue to do that and and continue to provide below market rents in light of the increasing cost. And and now they're starting to grapple with having to increase those rents so that they don't find themselves going into a hole. This dynamic, it's separate from sort of the focus of this hearing. But I raise it because I think it's important because we do have to stop bullying the small lenders. If they stop doing that, that's only going to sort of further exacerbate the crunch for affordable rental opportunities that give renters a chance to to stay in their communities. And so home homeownership is is the best way to build equity and generational wealth in Boston. That goal is becoming further and further out of reach. And I want to note that the the one plus Boston mortgage program, it works and it's making a difference. Not enough of our lending institutions are participating, and that's a whole other issue that we can address. But I think it's important to note that that program is an incredible program that helps income eligible first time buyers gain buying power in the market. And I think that this is sort of what we were getting at and obviously leaning into this with the lead sponsor and obviously in council box experience here providing direct cash for assistance to fund this to 2 to 4 income eligible first time homebuyers, whether that's cash for down payments, whether that's a cash for it to help with the closing cost, that could be cash to bridge a loan will make the difference between someone getting in a home and or not getting an A home. And so I think that's sort of the spirit of what we're looking to do here. I look forward to a robust discussion about this. Welcome. Any additional ideas and feedback. But we talked at length about the Section eight voucher. And is there another opportunity? Is there another voucher out there that can again, sort of close those those gaps when it comes to homeownership? And and I think that this may be the answer to that. So look forward to working with the lead sponsor and the co-sponsor and all my colleagues to try to make this a reality. No, no different game changer. Nothing will do a better job of creating generational wealth than a person owning their own home. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, counsel. Clarity. The Chair recognizes counsel for counsel. You have the floor. Thank you so much, Mr. President. And this is another thing that I'm excited to have come to the Code Recovery Committee and be part of our conversation there, because I think it's exciting that the administration is proposing in their proposal to have the most money going to affordable homeownership than that we've ever done in the city. But I think that when I talk to colleagues on the council and there are so many advocates of homeownership that I'm hesitant to start naming them, but Councilor Louis Jen, Councilor Fernandes, Anderson, Councilor Brady, I mean, we talk about these all the time. And I think part of what I've heard coming from Councilor Warrell is whatever we do for affordable homeownership, we've got to make sure that it's actually hitting the right people, that programs are actually that the folks who we all talk to, who we know need them, that especially they are first time homebuyers of color and first generation Omar, that these are actually the programs that serve that group and fit that middle. And so I think there's been a bunch of interesting suggestions proposed on the affordable homeownership. Run by councilors. Councilor Royle's proposal is that it's the one that's before us today. I think the idea of really putting those side by side with what the Mayor's Office of Housing is thinking and really drilling down and making sure that homeownership money is well targeted to hit that missing middle and keep folks in the city is a really important role for this council. So I'm looking forward to being able to have this conversation side by side about that funding allocation. So thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilor Borg. The Chair recognizes Councilor Braden. And Councilor Braden, you have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to also thank the world for taking this initiative and bringing this forward. Homeownership, someone mentioned recently, is the most reliable way to control your rent because you have a if you have a 30 year mortgage, you can predict your housing costs for the city in the way out. And it's it's a way to build generational wealth. Sadly, we are seeing our neighborhoods been impacted by folks who've grown up in the neighborhoods. Even folks who've had their families have owned a home in the neighborhoods. The next generation cannot see a future in which they will be homeowners in our city and in many of our immigrant community are leaving the city because their rents are just sort of unaffordable in relation to their earning capacity, that they're relocating to other other cities and are further out like Brockton and Framingham, etc.. So one of the big issues that we're faced with, a lot of potential folks who want to buy a home are competing with investors who come into our neighborhoods with $1,000,000 in cash and put the money down before the house. Can even the two family home that come even come onto the market and then they rent out those homes, those two family and three family homes, $1,000 a bedroom, that's those. And that's generating $55,000 a month from a from a unit in a two family home. Working families can't afford that housing. Folks work together. Young professionals or students can group together and pay up. But this is a totally unsustainable way to go for housing going forward. So not only do we need to think about this type of a voucher program to help homeowners folks get into the homeownership and and have a home have a home to build generational wealth. But I also think we need to really seriously look at the mechanisms to try and disincentivize this speculative investment that is driving families out of our city. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Braeden, the chair, recognizes Councilor Fernandez Anderson. Councilor Fernandez Anderson, do you have the floor? I think this is an amazing idea, right. Especially since I file something extremely similar to it. So I'm wondering in how we can work together to merge the two so that we can make it work. I think there's room for us to do work together. And so if I file something and this looks super similar, then we should work together. And I'm wondering then if how how we create the space to do that same points using using alternative ways to create home ownership, especially with low aims, qualifying them through different vouchers assistance programs. Same point. So I just I just think that great minds think alike. I appreciate you, Brian, and I respect you. I think we have we want to fight on the same side. And I want to work with you and see how we can merge the two ideas. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Fernandez Anderson. Would anyone else like to speak on this matter or add their name? If you please, Regi. Raise your hand, Mr. Carr. Squeeze out Council of Royal Councilor Baker, Councilor Braden, Councilor Fernandez, Innocent Council Ora Councilors and Council on the Here Council. Council and the Chair. Dark 0511 will be referred to the Committee on Boston's COVID 19 recovery. Mr. Clerk, please. Re Docket. 05130513. Counsel is me here, and Laura offered the following resolution in support of the Out of Hospital Birth Access and Safe Act. 2341 The Senate 1519 in recognizing Black Maternal Health Week in the city of Boston.