Coalition calls for shift in city's budgeting priorities

Housing, immigrant support and food access are among the top areas where Boston residents would like to see increased city investment, according to a survey conducted last year by the Better Budget Alliance, a coalition of Boston-based nonprofits.

According to the survey, 75% of the 681 Boston residents who participated would like to see the police budget decreased to help fund city departments they believe better serve the needs of their communities, the survey found.

Members of the alliance polled people at gathering places including festivals, farmers markets and youth job sites as well as through online surveys. The group focused on residents of predominantly Black, Latino and Asian American neighborhoods in Boston such as Dorchester, Roxbury and East Boston.

“We really wanted to get an idea of what makes our residents feel safe, so we did ask, ‘What do you think of increased funding for housing, transportation, food, education, all these essential programs?’” said coalition member Kendra Patterson. “‘Will this increase your safety and wellness in your community?’ And overwhelmingly 93% said, ‘Yes. This is what safety needs to me. This is what a safety net really looks like.’”

The coalition’s push for a more participatory budget process echoes past efforts where Boston residents have called for funding to shift from policing to crime prevention programs and city departments that support community residents. In the current survey, the coalition found that 78% of respondents believed that increased funding would not make their communities safer.

Community activists and Black and Latino elected officials have over the last two decades pushed for reinvestment of public safety funding into community services. Five years ago, as activists across the city were protesting police killings of Black people, city councilors, including now-Mayor Michelle Wu, eked out some modest reductions in the police budgets, noted coalition member Eliza Parad. But under the Wu administration, the police budget has increased even as violent crime has plummeted to the lowest levels in decades.

“What we’re trying to demonstrate is that even though there aren’t thousands of people taking the streets on that issue, there are multiple crises that people are dealing with now from immigration to housing to food,” Parad said. “There’s still the same desire by residents, and we’re trying to build that people power again to demonstrate that the same demand, the same desire continues to be there in communities.”

In the Better Budget Alliance survey, 68% of respondents cited housing as a top concern, 44% cited health and mental health, 40% immigrant support, 33% help with monthly expenses, 30% food aid and 28% environment. Ninety-four percent of respondents said investments in those areas would increase safety and wellbeing in their communities.

The Better Budget Alliance is also pushing for 1% of the city’s budget $4.8 billion budget to be included in the city’s participatory budgeting process, through which community residents get to vote on how certain city services are funded. Currently the city includes just $2 million in its participatory budgeting process — less than half a tenth of a percent.

“As far as the reach of the impact, $2 million isn’t nearly enough for the large projects and ideas our residents have to make large impact,” Parad said. “It’s minuscule in comparison to what it could really be if it was fully resourced.”

In the latest round of the city’s participatory budgeting, residents chose to channel $2.2 million in city funding to eight projects: Immigrant Legal Defense Fund, Neighborhood Fresh Food Access Initiative, Bridging the Gap: Assistance for Housing Stability, Immigrant Career Pathways: Bridging Language and Employment, Green My Block, Workforce Training Programs Focused on Trades, Youth Financial Literacy and Empowerment Workshops, and Small Business Development Resource Program.

The mayor releases the city’s budget in April. City councilors have the power to make line-item vetoes to the budget, although Wu in 2024 overrode most of the Council’s changes to her budget.

The largest item in the city’s budget is the Boston Public Schools. This year, in the BPS budget released in January, the Wu administration is proposing $1.71 billion in spending — a 4.5% increase over last year. The Boston School Committee, which almost never votes against the superintendent’s recommendations, will vote on the budget March 25.

Last year, BPS claimed 38% of the budget, while public safety, including the police and fire departments, claimed 16%.

This article was originally published in the Dorchester Reporter.