After GOP Callously Stripped Funds from Earlier House Appropriations Bill, Pressley Teamed Up with Warren & Markey to Advance Funding & Pass Into Law
Watch Pressley Blast GOP & Affirm Her Support for The Pryde in House Floor Speech
Washington (March 27, 2024) - Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) applauded the final passage of $850,000 in federal community project funding for The Pryde, an affordable housing development for LGBTQ+ seniors in Hyde Park. The funding was included in the most recent series of government funding bills and was passed after Senators Markey and Warren and Congresswoman Pressley worked closely together to secure the funding after Republicans callously stripped it from a House appropriations bill last summer.
“We have a moral responsibility to ensure everyone has affordable and safe housing, including vulnerable community members such as seniors and LGBTQ+ people,” said Senator Markey. “I am proud to have secured this $850,000 in funding for the Pryde, Boston’s first LGBTQ senior housing development with Congresswoman Pressley and Senator Warren, which will support the safety, security, and wellbeing of all residents. These investments are critical in supporting elders aging with dignity, grace, and surrounded by community.”
“With this funding package, we sent a clear message to Republicans – we won’t let them get in the way of the LGBTQ community getting the resources they deserve,” said Senator Warren. “Senator Markey, Representative Pressley, and I fought hard to bring this funding to Hyde Park. Our LGBTQ seniors deserve affordable housing that embraces their identities with dignity and compassion.”
“Republicans did everything they could to target, attack, and dehumanize our LGBTQ+ siblings and deny our communities the resources they deserve—but we made sure they didn’t have the final word,” said Congresswoman Pressley. “With the cost of housing skyrocketing and one-third of LGBTQ+ seniors living in poverty nationwide, this project will help LGBTQ+ elders in the Massachusetts 7th get the affordable housing and community space they need while affirming their dignity and humanity. I promised our community that we wouldn’t stop fighting for them, and I was proud to partner with Senators Warren and Markey to reject Republicans’ cruelty and get this done.”
“This Community Project Funding will help us keep our promise to our future residents, as well as to the Hyde Park community and the LGBTQ+ community of greater Boston, that The Pryde and our Community Center will be richly resourced, joyful, caring and welcoming places where our elders and the community will be embraced, supported and celebrated,” said Gretchen Van Ness, Executive Director of LGBTQ Senior Housing, Inc. “In other words, where our elders will be home. Our community could have no better advocates than Congresswoman Pressley and Senators Warren and Markey. Congresswoman Pressley understands the critical need for LGBTQ-affirming senior housing, programs and services, and despite enormous backlash, she has never stopped fighting for The Pryde and our LGBTQ elders.”
In November 2023, Congresswoman Pressley delivered a floor speech in which she slammed House Republicans for advancing a housing appropriations bill that excluded critical funding for The Pryde and affirmed her support for the project and the LGBTQ+ community writ large.
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.
In 2022, Rep. Pressley delivered remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony for The Pryde in Hyde Park. Full video of the ceremony is available here and photos are available here.
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