Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) applauded the inclusion of the $850,000 in the Senate’s Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations for the completion The Pryde, the first affordable housing development for LGBTQ seniors in Massachusetts, developed by LGBTQ Senior Housing, Inc.
In a discriminatory move against the LGBTQ community last month, Congressional Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee targeted The Pryde, along with two LGBT community centers in Pennsylvania, by cutting the funding from the House’s 2024 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development spending bill.
But, as the Congresswoman noted in her Aug. 2 press release:
Pressley worked closely with Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Edward Markey (D-MA) to ensure the funding was included after Republicans callously stripped it from the House bill last month. The news was reported by GBH News on Friday.
“While Republicans continue their hateful, anti-gay crusade, we remain undeterred in our fight to affirm the dignity and humanity of our LGBTQ+ neighbors,” said Rep. Pressley. “I’m grateful to Senators Warren and Markey for working in partnership with me to get this critical funding for The Pryde into the Senate appropriations bill. Our LGBTQ+ elders in the Massachusetts 7th deserve this affordable housing and community space, and we’ll keep fighting to get this funding over the finish line.”
Rep. Pressley championed funding for The Pryde in this year’s Community Project Funding process. The project – which despite Republicans’ bigoted ideological opposition to it – met the requirements for Community Project Funding and will support the conversion of a former Boston Public School building into 74 units of high-quality, service-enriched affordable housing for seniors in Boston. The project will also include 10,000 square feet of community space and help close the gap between the capital funding secured at the launch of this project and the increasing cost to complete it.
More: pressley.house.gov; read the GBH report here.
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