Boston Mayor Michelle Wu appeared at the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance’s office in Dorchester yesterday to tout her proposal to spend $60 million in federal COVID aid on affordable homeownership programs.

The money from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, money, would be paired with city funds allocated in Wu’s fiscal year 2023 budget, announced earlier this month.

“Homeownership is crucial to building generational wealth and long-term stability for families,” Wu said in a statement released by her office. “We have an opportunity to transform what homeownership looks like in Boston. These investments will support existing programs for first-time homebuyers, build generational wealth for Boston families, and help bring Boston one step closer to becoming a Green New Deal city.”

Advocates are pushing policymakers to prioritize helping minority and lower-income Massachusetts residents buy homes which they can use to build equity and begin to close the state’s yawning racial wealth gap. This has often taken the form of increasing funding for down payment assistance programs, to help first-time buyers compete in the state’s expensive housing market, and requests to multifamily developers that they consider adding affordable condominium units to their projects in Boston.

“We are thrilled that Mayor Wu and our city councilors understand the needs of thousands of MAHA members and graduates,” Symone Crawford, executive director of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, said in a statement provided by Wu’s office. “And I’m proud of our MAHA community leaders who have worked so diligently to make this happen. This is an amazing accomplishment and a strong foundation for all of us to build on.”

Wu’s office said that the $60 million in ARPA funds will be spent in three ways:

• Helping fund the production of affordable homeownership units.
• Funding down payment assistance programs, including for first-generation homebuyers.
• Expanding the ONE+Boston Mortgage program, which offers lower-income buyers lower interest rates on mortgages in cooperation with numerous area banks.

Wu’s 2023 budget includes $3.4 million for homebuyer assistance programs, which her office said would add up to a planned total of $10.2 million over the next three years of her term.