Funding boost needed to tackle appalling public housing conditions

The conditions described in the Jan. 12 Metro article concerning infestation of a public housing apartment in Boston are appalling and should never be tolerated (“State sues BHA over an infested apartment”). The true cause of these conditions is the decades-long failure of Massachusetts governors and legislators to provide adequate funding to maintain our state-funded public housing.

Research undertaken as part of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization Housing Justice Campaign found that if the Commonwealth paid for the routine operations — which include pest control — of state-owned public housing at the same per-unit-per-month level as the federal government does, it would provide $290 million per year rather than the meager $107 million in the current state budget.

The cost that we calculated of addressing the unmet capital needs of our state’s public housing is far larger at an estimated $8.5 billion. Governor Maura Healey’s recently submitted housing bond bill takes a serious step in this direction with a debt authorization for public housing of $1.6 billion over five years, more than double what was in the last fiveyear bond bill.

Let’s give housing authorities the resources they need to provide and maintain safe and decent housing, and then we can really hold them accountable for producing results.

CHARLES HOMER

Legislative co-lead GBIO Housing Justice Campaign

BURNS STANFIELD

GBIO president Boston

Homer is affiliated with Temple Sinai in Brookline and Stanfield is pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, Boston.