Environment
Order for a hearing regarding a City-level Conservation Corps for Boston
Filed with Councilor Wu
Accelerating climate-focused capital projects with a Conservation Corps workforce is a way to help get Boston on track to be carbon neutral by 2050, while creating good-paying jobs for Bostonians in urban forestry, green stormwater management, and green construction. By founding a city-level Conservation Corps and building career pathways for residents, we can grow our green economy with economic opportunities for all, particularly our Black and Brown communities. That’s why securing funding to launch a city-level Conservation Corps for Boston was one of my top FY22 budget priorities. Along with advocacy from many of you, I achieved this, and secured a new $4 million to lay the groundwork for a city-level Conservation Corps to employ Boston residents in urban forestry, green infrastructure, and building retrofits.
Philadelphia’s Power Corps serves as a useful model. The program provides comprehensive support, job readiness, and training for Corps members and consistently adapts to the City’s and private sector’s employment needs to ensure the program serves as a career pipeline. Power Corps also expands Philadelphia’s capacity to complete green stormwater infrastructure, solar, urban forestry, and other projects. Boston should commit to scaling up its green stormwater infrastructure, urban forestry, retrofits of municipal buildings, and green construction while also training and hiring Boston residents to complete this work (see our recent working session on how we may adapt this model for Boston). We already have a number of exceptional SuccessLink youth programs that are beginning to introduce our young people to this work (see this recent hearing), but we need to build a real supported pipeline into city jobs and serious careers.
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Order for a hearing regarding Green and Social Bonds
Filed with Councilor Wu
We need to utilize every tool we have to make Boston a more affordable city and build more affordable housing on public land. We can achieve this by working with the BHA to build up to the Faircloth limit for public housing units, building affordable housing above public assets like libraries, investing in housing cooperatives, and maximizing the City’s use of green and social bonds to build deeply affordable, energy-efficient housing for Boston residents.
By maximizing the City’s pioneering use of green and social bonds, we can build a more equitable, sustainable, and climate-resilient Boston with homes for all.