Steve Meacham, an organizer with City Life/Vida Urbana, and Elena Blanco, a Jamaica Plain activist, led a small rally last Wednesday in Jamaica Plain to protest cuts to affordable housing and other programs.

As Boston faces an almost 80 percent cut in affordable housing funding, activists last week peppered city and state leaders with questions about whether they would support rent control and protect the state’s affordable housing fund.

They also vowed to bring back a new rent stabilization plan, even though a similar proposal from tenant advocates and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino failed last November.

“We’re not afraid of saying very loud that we need some form of rent control,” shouted Steve Meacham, an organizer with City Life/Vida Urbana, a nonprofit group in Jamaica Plain. Meacham led a small rally outside the John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Jamaica Plain prior to a forum that featured state and city leaders.

The rally and forum came hours after Menino unveiled the city’s budget for fiscal year 2004, which featured $73 million in cuts. The sharpest cuts appear to be in neighborhood development and affordable housing. Menino’s proposed budget includes a $3 million cut to affordable housing – or 77 percent – and almost $2.3 million in cuts to neighborhood development. The City Council will be holding budget hearings and must vote on the mayor’s spending package by the end of June.

City Councilor Maura Hennigan criticized the drastic budget cuts, saying the city’s growth revenue from property taxes has actually been on the rise. “To have that kind of cut, it’s clear ….[affordable housing] is not a priority,” said Hennigan, who last year supported the rent stabilization proposal pushed by tenant groups.

Hennigan was joined by City Councilor John Tobin, who represents West Roxbury and parts of Jamaica Plain, and Democratic Reps. Elizabeth A. Malia and Jeffrey Sanchez. Organized by City Life, the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp. and the Hyde Park Task Force, the forum enabled neighborhood activists to question officials about what they plan to do in the face of such cuts.

‘Crystal Clear’

Richard Thal, executive director of JPNDC, said advocates want to challenge state and city leaders, particularly Menino, who has been a national leader and vocal advocate of affordable housing as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, to continue supporting housing efforts.

“It’s clearly not the time to say, ‘Oh well, nothing can be done for affordable housing,'” said Thal.

Advocates questioned Sanchez and Malia about their commitment to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund – a $100 million fund established in 2001 to provide $20 million for five years to create and maintain affordable housing. Gov. Mitt Romney slashed $7.5 million from the fund as part of his budget-balancing efforts earlier this year. Advocates are pushing for lawmakers to restore that funding and fund the full $20 million during the next fiscal year.

Sanchez, calling it a “public housing fund,” said he supports it, noting, “It’s made a difference here in this district.” Meanwhile, Malia took swings at Romney for committing what she called a “fraud.”

“Our governor promised us he would cut taxes and not cut services,” said Malia, who said that she would fight to raise taxes on the rich.

“Most elected officials in this room are going to vote the right way on most of the issues you care about, but what we can’t do is change the mind of the [governor],” she said.

Both state and city leaders were also questioned about whether they would protect tenants who live in so-called expiring use housing developments from rising rents. Such housing developments, built with federal funding, include below market-rate rents. But rents can be increased at the owner’s option once the mortgages are paid off.

Several cities, including Boston, have attempted to pass home rule petitions to cap rents at such expiring-use developments. The Boston City Council unanimously approved a home rule petition in 2001 that would have allowed an established board to set rents at expiring-use properties. Supporters maintained the measure would protect roughly 8,000 units in the city that are at risk of being converted to market-rate units and keep elderly and low- and moderate-income families from losing their homes. Such petitions haven’t been successful at the state level in the past.

Attention was also focused on reviving rent control in Boston. Last fall, Menino, spurred by the Boston Tenant Coalition, filed a home rule petition for a “rent stabilization plan” that would have allowed tenants to appeal rent hikes of 10 percent or twice the increase in the consumer price to a board of mayoral appointees. The proposal would have put restrictions on evictions as well.

After strong lobbying from real estate leaders who said the plan would chill new apartment development in the city, the City Council rejected the proposal. Earlier this year, Menino, who had previously promised to pitch the plan again, indicated he would not reintroduce rent legislation. Now, advocates are meeting with councilors to draft another proposal.

Tobin, who voted against the proposal last year because he thought it was “poorly crafted,” said he was meeting with tenant leaders to “craft good legislation.”

A new plan would feature extra protections for small property owners, said Meacham. Advocates have blamed the Small Property Owners Association for frightening landlords who own only a few housing units into believing that their properties would have been affected under the last rent proposal. Last year’s proposal exempted single-family homes, two-family homes and owner-occupied three-family homes.

“We think the plan gave protections to small property owners,” said Meacham. “This time, we want to make it even more crystal clear that small property owners won’t be affected.”

Meacham added that advocates are confident that Menino would support a new plan. “I don’t think there’s a question the mayor will sign it,” he noted.

A coalition of activists, including Meacham and Thal, initiated a campaign last year to get 1,000 affordable housing units created in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury over five years.

Aglaia Pikounis may be reached at apikounis@thewarrengroup.com.