Boston Council Opens FY26 Budget Hearings With Broad Public Demand for Housing, Jobs

BOSTON — February 18, 2025 — Boston City Council opens FY26 budget season with lengthy public testimony session dominated by housing and jobs demands. Committee on Ways and Means Chair Brian Worrell convened the hearing on February 18, outlining a timeline that includes a mayoral budget submission on April 9 and a council vote on June 4. Advocates from the Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants and the City Rent Subsidy Coalition called for a $5 million increase to the city's rent subsidy program, noting the council had added $1 million above the mayor's figure the prior year over a mayoral veto — enough, organizer Michael Caine said, for "about another 400 people to get permanent housing." Youth organizers from Youth Justice and Power Union presented data showing the city funded only 1,123 of 30,685 requested community school-year jobs, and demanded year-round jobs at $18 to $24 per hour. Emergency management professional Christian Cunney warned that 86 percent of Boston's Office of Emergency Management budget is federally funded through FEMA grants now at risk, and called for the city to build a dedicated emergency operations center to replace what he described as a storage garage on Bragdon Street.