Since 2013, MAHT co-founded and anchors the City Rent Subsidy Coalition (CRSC), which successfully advocated for the creation of the City Subsidy program by Mayor Walsh in 2020 as a $5 million/year pilot program. Administered by the Boston Housing Authority, the City Rent Subsidy is a flexible rental assistance program that provides project based rental assistance that allows developers to create and maintain units as affordable housing, and mobile vouchers that allow extremely low income (ELI) and/or homeless families to find permanent housing. Thanks in part to successful follow-up advocacy by Coalition members, the program has been consistently renewed and expanded each year, resulting in a budget of $12.7 million for 2025.

MAHT & CRSC serve as an advisory committee to the BHA to implement the program. Current campaign goals include continued expansion of the program in FY26, and the marketing of the program to developers to encourage the creation of permanent, mixed-income housing that will house Boston's ELI and/or homeless families.

Timeline

2024:

A total of 205 extremely low income (eli) and/or homeless families have been housed in 11 developments receiving project-based city rent subsidy rental assistance from the city/BHA. An additional 418 families are or are planned to be assisted through mobile city rent subsidy rent vouchers, including voucher to homeownership program. The 205 project-based apartments in 11 developments cost $14,873 per unit per year to maintain vs $26,344 per unit per year for mobile, tenant-based vouchers under lease.

For FY 2025, Mayor Wu has requested a $1 million increase to cover a recent budget shortfall. The City Rent Subsidy Coalition urges the city council to add $4 million to the Mayor's request to serve an estimated 270 more extremely low income and/or homeless households for FY 2025

2022:

The final Boston budget approved in June, 2022 increased the City Rent Subsidy Program to $9.75 million/year!  This is a major victory for the coalition and MAHT—we had advocated to increase the $5 million pilot program, by doubling it this year! 

Mayor Wu had originally requested $7.5 million/year in her budget, an increase of $2.5 million but short of the CRSC goal. On June 6, the Council voted to increase this, to $10m and offset the extra cost with cuts to the Fire and Police Departments. The Mayor vetoed the police cuts and responded back with a $9.35 million offer.

At the beginning of June 2022, the Council voted—unanimously--to override the Mayor's veto for the City Rent Subsidy Program, by adding back $400,000 above the Mayor’s offer.  The new total is $4.75 million more than the original pilot program—enough to provide permanent housing for up to 975 extremely low income and/or homeless families!! Full update here.

2020:

After years of advocating for renters across the city of Boston, MAHT celebrated a major victory January 7, 2020, at Mayor Walsh's annual State of the City Address. Acknowledging the ever-growing housing crisis, the mayor announced Boston’s first ever city-funded rental vouchers so more low-income families can be stable and secure. The program is a 5-million-dollar pilot that will save the homes of many across the city! Full coalition press release here.

2016:

A delegation of the Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants, Save Our Section 8/City Policy Committee, the Boston Homeless Solidarity Committee, City Mission, Mel King and others, met with Mayor Walsh to urge inclusion of a $5 million pilot program for Housing First Subsidies, as proposed by nine City Councilors, in the 2016 city budget submission.

In our meeting, we proposed a flexible rental assistance program, modeled on the successful Local Rent Supplement Program in Washington, DC. The DC program dedicates $37 million from the regular city budget annually to fund 3,248 low-income families and individuals through a mix of project-based and tenant-based rental assistance, similar to the federal Section 8 program. As in DC, we proposed that the Boston Housing Authority administer the program locally; the BHA currently administers approximately 11,000 mobile Section 8 certificates and 2,500 “Project Based Vouchers”, the latter ensuring that low-income renters can live in new mixed income housing developments. As in DC, we proposed that priority be given to currently homeless or near homeless Bostonians, to provide the “Housing First” called for in the Mayor’s Plan to End Chronic and Veterans Homelessness. As in DC and Cambridge, we proposed that Boston’s program pay 130% of FMR for mobile vouchers, to better enable recipients to find housing in the city. 

Mayor Walsh did not include the $5 million for a pilot program to house 350 to 400 individual residents and families experiencing homelessness in his 2016 city budget submission citing the lack of a sustainable funding source. He suggested the Community Preservation Act (CPA) and since then we have advocated for the CPA, which passed in November 2016, and identified four other sustainable funding sources.