Boston Housing Authority

Boston Housing Authority, a not-for-profit public housing agency based in Boston, Massachusetts, receives federal grant funding as a recipient (99% of recent awards are prime grants) from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to operate and maintain public housing serving low-income residents. The Authority's federal footprint is nearly monolithic: of 1,361 total awards spanning 2003 to the present, HUD's Public and Indian Housing Office accounts for 1,338 awards (98% of all funding), with the remaining 1% distributed across HUD's Community Planning and Development office, the Department of Education, Department of Labor, and EPA.

Boston Housing Authority operates as a formula-grant recipient under three primary HUD programs. The Public Housing Operating Fund (CFDA 14.850), which provided $5.701 million awarded in August 2026 and running through December 2030, supplies annual operating subsidies for day-to-day expenses including management, maintenance, anti-crime activities, energy, resident services, insurance, and debt service across the Authority's public housing portfolio. The Public Housing Capital Fund (CFDA 14.872), which awarded $36.142 million in April 2026 through March 2030, funds modernization, development, and infrastructure improvements. A separate Public Housing Operating Fund award in January 2026 of $4.77 million extends through December 2032. The Authority also received $816,750 in June 2026 under the Resident Opportunity and Supportive Services program (CFDA 14.870) to fund service coordinators linking residents to community resources through May 2031, and $529,104 in January 2026 under the Family Self-Sufficiency Program (CFDA 14.896) to fund FSS coordinator salaries, renewed in January 2026 through December 2026.

The Authority operates as a sub-recipient on a limited basis, receiving pass-through grants from the City of Boston and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Sub-awards include rental assistance coordination, an SRO program, adult education and family literacy support (awarded twice by the State Department of Education in July 2025 and August 2026), and a collaborative brain health and dementia awareness initiative with the Boston Public Health Commission awarded in April 2025.

Recent activity has remained steady: 63 awards in 2025 and 64 in 2026, following consistent annual volumes of 66–71 awards from 2022 through 2024. The combined obligated value across the entire portfolio is $1.97 billion. Seventy-five awards face completion within the next twenty-four months, representing the Authority's recompete exposure as formula grants renew on schedule. The Authority's federal relationship is exclusively with HUD's Public and Indian Housing Office—a structural dependency on housing formula grants that reflects its statutory mission as a public housing agency rather than a competitive federal contractor.