About half of the state’s 47 mayors got together Wednesday morning in Brockton to compare notes on some of the most pressing issues facing Massachusetts municipalities – homelessness, housing and the use of federal COVID relief funds. Brockton Mayor Robert Sullivan hosted 20 of his counterparts from around the state at the city’s War Memorial, where Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy provided a keynote address on housing for the Massachusetts Mayors’ Association monthly meeting.

The meeting also included a presentation on homelessness from Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness Executive Director Linn Torto. After the presentations, the mayors dove into a roundtable discussion on prioritizing the use of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding. About $7 billion has been made available to municipalities over the course of the pandemic to respond to and recover from COVID-19, including $3.4 billion in direct support from ARPA.

Thanks to Sullivan, the mayors who attended Wednesday’s meeting left with City of Champions-themed swag bags. Inside, municipal leaders found Brockton Beer Co. beer, candy from the nation’s oldest family-owned candymaker F.B. Washburn and souvenirs from W.B. Mason, which is headquartered in Brockton. The mayors in attendance, according to Sullivan’s office, included Kassandra Gove of Amesbury, Michael Cahill of Beverly, John Vieau of Chicopee, Carlo DeMaria of Everett, Paul Coogan of Fall River, Michael Nicholson of Gardner, Greg Verga of Gloucester, Roxann Wedegartner of Greenfield, Joshua Garcia of Holyoke, Dean Mazzarella of Leominster, Jared Nicholson of Lynn, Arthur Vigeant of Marlborough, Ruthanne Fuller of Newton, Gina-Louise Sciarra of Northampton, Linda Tyer of Pittsfield, Brian Arrigo of Revere, Kim Driscoll of Salem, Shaunna O’Connell of Taunton, Jeanette McCarthy of Waltham and Scott Galvin of Woburn.