Newton Zoning Panel Approves Sending $3.5 Million HUD Housing Plan to Washington

NEWTON — April 28, 2026 — Newton's Zoning and Planning Committee voted to send the city's Fiscal Year 2027 Annual Action Plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, unlocking roughly $3.5 million in federal block grant funds for affordable housing and emergency services. Housing Program Manager Shalen Davis-Ianako presented the plan, noting confirmed allocations of $1.8 million in Community Development Block Grant funds, $1.49 million through the Home Investment Partnership Program, and approximately $163,000 in Emergency Solutions Grant dollars. Davis-Ianako cautioned that the administration's proposed FY28 federal budget would "zero out" all three grant programs, though Congress has continued authorizing them in previous years. One committee member abstained from the vote citing a potential conflict of interest tied to the plan's fair housing testing partnership with Suffolk University Law School, which conducted 140 paired discrimination tests across the 13-community West Metro Home Consortium and won at least one MCAD enforcement action resulting in a $10,000 penalty against a real estate agency. The committee separately tabled a proposal to allow raised garden beds within zoning setbacks, rescheduling a public hearing to June after a computer error prevented the required public notice from publishing, and held two Village Center Overlay District items pending a planning-department portfolio of completed mid-rise transition projects.