In December, we had meetings with leaders in each of our Housing Quality and Health Equity Initiative’s second cohort of Gateway Cities. Leaders in Lynn, New Bedford, and Worcester met to further refine goals for how MACDC can support local housing quality and health work. The full groups will be meeting next in March, with working group meetings taking place in February. 

On January 14th we hosted our biannual gathering of leaders from our Housing Quality and Health Equity Initiative’s first cohort of Gateway Cities. Leaders from Brockton, Springfield, and Holyoke had the opportunity to connect within and across cities to discuss the progression of local housing quality and health work. 

MACDC’s Health Equity Committee met on February 2nd. We welcomed Denise January from the Environmental Justice Network Assistance Network (EJAN) to share about the ways that CDCs can connect to EJAN's work. Also, Joella Orozco, our new Health Equity Intern, shared about how her academic and professional background led her to MACDC. Our next meeting will be April 6th at 2pm. 

MACDC’s Director of Health Equity, Elana Brochin, attended A Critical Moment for Supportive Housing at the State House. This event  was held in order to help legislators and policymakers understand the significant impacts of potential changes to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Continuum of Care funding implications on thousands of people currently living in permanent supportive housing across Massachusetts. Among presenters at the event was Just A Start’s Carl Nagy-Koechlin.