Boston Council Weighs Steering Up to 80% of Community Preservation Funds to Affordable Housing

A Boston City Council committee will hold a hearing at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday on whether the city should devote a larger share of its Community Preservation Act money to affordable housing, according to the council's hearing notice and order.

The Community Preservation Committee currently sets a goal of 50% of CPA funds for affordable housing and 20% each for historic preservation and open space and recreation, with the remaining 10% flexible, according to the order filed by Councilors Brian Worrell and Miniard Culpepper. State law requires at least 10% for each of the three categories.

The order notes that Boston devoted more than $240 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to affordable housing and that those funds end at the close of 2026. It cites a Boston Municipal Research Bureau estimate that spending 80% of CPA funds on housing from 2018 through 2025 would have produced $65.8 million more for housing. Cambridge already directs the maximum allowable share to housing, the order says.

"In 2025, using a formula that allocated 50 percent, about $19 million of a total of $40 million went to affordable housing, leading to the creation or preservation of approximately 350 units," Worrell said, according to the Bulletin Newspapers.

Boston funds the CPA in part through a 1% surcharge on residential and business property tax bills. The hearing is before the Committee on Community Preservation Act, chaired by Councilor Enrique J. Pepén, in the Iannella Chamber at City Hall, and is open to public testimony.