Black community leaders push for investments in housing with federal funds
With Massachusetts flush with cash after receiving a once-in-a-lifetime $5.3 billion windfall from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan, Black community leaders are encouraging the state to invest in housing, with an additional emphasis on education and workforce development.
“If there’s ever been a time that the country and the Commonwealth needs to center Black people, it’s right now,” said Bishop Talbert Swan II of the Springfield Spring of Hope Church of God in Christ and an associate White House liaison. “We’ve had 400 years of history that led to the events of 2020, when Black people died from COVID-19 and suffered the pandemic’s economic consequences in horrifyingly disproportionate numbers.”
Swan argued at a roundtable held by Rep. Bud Williams, who chairs the Joint Committee on Racial Equity, Civil Rights and Inclusion, that Black Americans have never benefited from government recovery efforts. Even after economic downturns, they were shut out from initiatives like Social Security after the Great Depression and the GI bill after World War II, and faced redlining when buying homes.
He advocated for the state to make strategic investments in housing, workforce development, health and neighborhoods. He added that the state should engage the private sector to “institute more equitable business practices.”
Housing emerged as a theme throughout the discussion, with Secretary of Development Mike Kennealy listing it as one of the five goals for the state’s economic recovery strategy, along with supporting small businesses, innovation, investing in downtowns and getting people back to work. He cited the Baker administration’s Housing Choice zoning reforms and the CommonWealth Builder program as examples of the administration’s housing efforts.
He said Baker wants to “do more of what we know works” to spend ARPA funds. He outlined Baker’s proposals, which include spending $1 billion of the funds on housing, with about a 50/50 split between producing affordable rental units and promoting homeownership through down payment assistance and other programs.
Gordon Pulsifer, CEO of a real estate development company in Western Massachusetts, pushed back, arguing that homeownership programs wouldn’t be enough.
“We have several thousand tenants in the city of Springfield alone, average incomes 14, 15 $16,000 a year. How is it possible that any of these families will ever be able to buy a house at these levels?” he asked. He noted that the city is littered with vacant lots fit for affordable housing, which could then be awarded in a lottery.
Other speakers at the roundtable pushed for equitable investments in education, workforce development, transportation, student loan forgiveness, health and broadband access.
Although Tanisha Sullivan, president of NAACP Boston, proposed many similar investments with the ARPA funds, she said “the devil is in the details” with how they’re used. “We got to get to work, because we’ll never have this opportunity again.”
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3jlbA7D
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