Boston City Council Scrutinizes Equity Cabinet's FY25 Budgets at Ways and Means Hearing

BOSTON — April 25, 2024 — Boston City Council's Ways and Means Committee pressed five Equity and Inclusion Cabinet offices Thursday on staffing shortfalls, legal capacity, and the pace of accessible infrastructure repairs during the first FY25 budget hearing of the season. Committee Chair Brian Worrell opened a review process scheduled to run through June, with a dedicated public-testimony session set for May 22 at 6 p.m. The Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement, led by Executive Director Lena Nguyen, sought $3.4 million — up about 2 percent — to serve a community representing one in four Bostonians, including a doubling of its civic-academy cohort to 40 participants and service to more than 1,200 immigrant youth. Boston Fair Housing Commission Executive Director Robert Terrell, whose office closed 74 investigations in FY24 and was ranked most productive fair-housing agency in New England by HUD, told councilors the commission remains one of the only such agencies nationally without a general counsel, calling the gap a serious structural weakness. Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson raised a specific case of a migrant mother stranded in City Hall for more than seven hours with no food, pushing Language Access Director Jennifer Vivar-Wong on after-hours service failures.