Worcester DA Announces Grant for Countywide Comfort Dogs

WORCESTER — The Worcester County District Attorney’s Office has received a federal grant to establish a county-wide comfort dog mutual aid program in partnership with local police departments, District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. announced.

The funding comes through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program and will also support youth substance use prevention programming across Worcester County, according to the DA’s office. The grant will help formalize a coordinated response system so trained comfort dog teams can be deployed across the county during critical incidents and community outreach, while supporting the training and development of new teams within local departments that don’t yet have one.

Several Worcester County police departments already coordinate comfort dog responses, and Early credited those efforts as a foundation for the expanded program. “The impact that these dogs have on people experiencing traumatic situations is unbelievable,” Early said in a statement. “Their presence brings an immediate sense of calm and reduction in anxiety and stress when it’s needed most, helping people feel more at ease during moments of crisis and trauma.”

The DA’s office said comfort dogs help reduce anxiety and support emotional well-being for students, families and community members, and that the funding is intended to ensure departments countywide have the resources to respond when needed.

Southbridge Man Gets 8 Years for Leading Cocaine Conspiracy

WORCESTER — A local man received a sentence om Wednesday to eight years in prison for his role leading a cocaine trafficking conspiracy that ran drugs from Puerto Rico into Central Massachusetts, federal prosecutors said.

Luis Sastre Pagan, 37, of Puerto Rico and formerly of Southbridge, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Margaret R. Guzman to eight years in prison followed by five years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. Prosecutors said he was charged in November 2024 alongside co-conspirators Eric Rivera and Miguel Lopez.

According to prosecutors, from April 2023 through April 2024, Sastre Pagan took part in a conspiracy that shipped kilograms of cocaine into Central Massachusetts from Puerto Rico, directing the activities of co-defendants and other conspirators around Southbridge and Worcester. Investigators seized four packages found to contain cocaine during the probe, and prosecutors attributed between 15 and 50 kilograms of cocaine to Sastre Pagan’s role in the conspiracy.

Rivera pleaded guilty in August 2025 and was sentenced that November to five years in prison and three years of supervised release. Lopez was sentenced in April to six years in prison and five years of supervised release.

Deep-Pocketed Donors Flood the Ballot-Question Field with Cash

by Chris Lisinski, CommonWealth Beacon

The surest sign that the election is fast approaching is the volume of donors and organizations who have begun to open their checkbooks. Yet despite the record-tying field of ballot questions going before voters, the money changing hands has not quite soared all the way up into the stratosphere — at least so far.

Campaigns supporting or opposing the nine measures on the November 3 ballot raised more than $18 million through the end of August, the most recent deadline to submit financial data to state regulators. Including in-kind donations, or work performed directly for a campaign in lieu of money changing hands, the total value rises to more than $21 million.

It’s a massive number, one that reflects the urgent stakes proponents and opponents attached to the ballot-box fights. With two months left until Election Day, the ongoing spending for and against nine different measures might well surpass the record for a single cycle set four years ago.

Yet campaigns so far have only raised about three-quarters as much as their counterparts did through the same point in the calendar in 2022 — an election that featured only four questions on the ballot.

The latest batch of financial data fills in a gap that stretched for most of the year: Under state law, ballot question campaigns do not need to reveal any new information about their fundraising or spending from the beginning of an even-numbered year until 60 days before the election, a blackout period that lawmakers want to change.

Some of the political battle lines are now clearer. Unions are lining up en masse against a business-backed effort to curb state tax collections. Recreational marijuana retailers have coalesced against an attempt to recriminalize the industry. And reform crusaders are willing to put big dollars behind separate but thematically linked proposals to reshape elections and government transparency.

Committees have already spent more than $13.7 million advocating for or against the nine questions on the ballot. Other groups burned additional cash on proposals the state’s highest court tossed from contention earlier in the year, including an attempt to revive rent control and a push to reduce the state’s income tax rate.

Already, each of the nine questions has prompted at least six figures of spending. The spectrum stretches from nearly $5 million in support of changing how primary elections work to a comparably paltry $156,000 behind the Secretary of State Bill Galvin-led push to allow Election Day voter registration.

Several proposals have generated significant financial activity even without much of a fight ahead. There are no formal opponents to questions allowing Committee for Public Counsel Serviceslawyers and other staff to unionize, permitting single-family homes on smaller lots, and earmarking a share of tax revenue for conservation efforts, yet supporters of each measure have already spent at least $1 million.

No group has hauled in more so far than the Coalition for Healthy Democracy, a campaign committee supporting both a public records law expansion question and a primary election overhaul measure. The group has collected nearly $5.2 million from donations and in-kind contributions, much of it from wealthy private-equity figures. Randy Peeler, a former managing director at Berkshire Partners, has already kicked in more than $1 million, and Andrew Balson of Cove Hill Partners has given the coalition nearly $800,000. (Peeler is a founding donor to CommonWealth Beacon.)

The effort to replace separate partisan primary elections with a single “all-party primary,” championed by Harvard University professor and former gubernatorial candidate Danielle Allen, could reshape the political landscape in . Wary of losing some of their influence, both the state Democratic Party and the state Republican Party oppose it, forming an unusual alliance with some unions and progressive critics of the status quo.

Tax policy is again one of the most potent topics in the mix this time around, a fact underlined by the amount of money already swirling around the debate about the cap on how much revenue the state is allowed to collect.

A coalition of business groups known as the Massachusetts Opportunity Alliance is pushing a question that would tweak the formula for how the annual limit on tax collection is set. If it passes, independent analyses suggest Beacon Hill would owe rebates back to taxpayers much more frequently than it does under the current system, which has only triggered the cap twice in nearly four decades.

The coalition itself has provided in-kind contributions worth $1.9 million since launching the campaign, while the Massachusetts High Technology Council — one of the coalition’s primary members — added another in-kind contribution worth nearly $46,000, records show.

The campaign added big-dollar donations from other noteworthy business groups and investors in recent months, too, including $100,000 from Ray Stata, the co-founder of Wilmington semiconductor manufacturer Analog Devices, and $50,000 from the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.

Most of the financial might marshaled in opposition to the tax cap reforms, more than $700,000 so far, has come from labor unions, many of which represent public-sector employees whose work and the services they provide could be affected if a tighter revenue limit prods state government to pare back its spending.

Meanwhile, almost all of the money for another politically fraught fight — whether to undo the 2016 vote legalizing recreational marijuana — has flowed into Massachusetts from out of state.

SAM Action Inc., a Virginia-based nonprofit fighting legal drug use in multiple states, has pumped nearly $3.2 million into the campaign behind the question. The nonprofit is not required to disclose its own funders, and only a handful of local donors have gotten involved so far with minimal contributions.

In the decade since its legalization, recreational cannabis has become a major industry in Massachusetts, and its members do not intend to roll over quietly. Local shops, industry groups, and other supporters have gathered almost $1.6 million so far in their attempt to convince voters they should keep pot widely available.

Regardless of whether the final financial numbers blast into record territory or fall to earth somewhat short of it, one outcome is certain: Between now and Election Day, a lot more money is about to be spent.

This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Worcester City Manager’s Homeless Strategy: Lock ‘Em Up

Get ready for rampant arrests of homeless people.

City Manager Eric Batista revealed his new strategy (although it is not new and I will address that) with an ordinance that includes a general anti-camping ordinance. Like Gavin Newsome before him, Batista often waxes poetic about trying to help people who are in dire circumstances.

He has given awards and plaudits to the city employees who have been on duty as the homeless population in Worcester surged (just like the rest of the nation). He seems concerned.

Yet, this Tuesday’s proposed ordinance is a direct result of the 2024 Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson. This decision made is easier for cities to criminalize homelessness. At the core of this decision was the ordinance in Grants Pass, Oregon that made it illegal for anyone to camp on public property. This is not a new form of municipal government.

Most studies have shown that this policy has failed in every city it has been tried in . In, ‘Anti-Camping Ordinances, State Preemption, and the Arrest of People Experiencing Homelessness: Evidence from Orange County, Florida’ authors Andrew Sullivan and Jennifer Royce lay out a detailed study showing that anti-camping ordinances have one universal result: arrests of homeless people rise dramatically.

In California, which was a party in the Grants Pass case, arrests surged across the state, as municipalities encouraged by Newsom started enforcing laws like the one our City Manager is suggesting to the City Council. These arrests were not scattered in conservative bastions, they ripple out across all types of political situations. San Francisco saw an increase of 500% in arrests. The news media is covered in quotes like this one:

The people making the case for enforcement argue it’s a type of “tough love” that’s sometimes necessary to get people off the street. If someone refuses multiple offers of help, the threat of arrest might make them finally say yes, said San Diego Police Department Capt. Steve Shebloski.

“I hope nobody has to go to jail, and I hope everybody takes services,” he said. “I just dont think that’s the reality of where we’re at with certain individuals.”

Compare this with the paragraph at the bottom of City Manager Batista’s letter to the council supporting the new policy:

“Makeshift encampments in public outdoor spaces pose serious health risks to the unsheltered individuals living there and create public fire risk and environmental degradation. We must act, but at the same time, I want to be clear that being unhoused is not a crime and will not be treated as such. Rather, in the full context of ‘Disrupting the Cycle’ the order will provide an enforcement system with the necessary teeth to make outreach, connection to services, and voluntary compliance more attainable.”

Gotta love that ‘voluntary compliance.’ At least the cop above had the guts to say he knows a bunch of people are going to go to jail because of this. You may have read This Week in Worcester’s article on September 1st where I pointed out that city leaders were not including people with lived experience in this conversation. Present at that meeting were Police Chief Paul Saucier, District Attorney Joe Early, and Sheriff Lew Evangelidis.

If you were planning a new ordinance that would help people get services and not get arrested, why would you have the leader who arrests people, the leader who prosecutes them, and the leader who incarcerates them all at the same table? Could it be that Eric Batista, as he is now known for, just thinks we are all idiots who can’t see through his plans?

To be honest, it makes sense that he would plan for a surge in arrests and that he would include those three men. All three have publicly talked about a new police station and a new jail for years. They think, like most law enforcement people, that the way to convince the public about new law enforcement apparatus is to ‘show’ how much work they are doing. To lock ’em up! The current data (lowest crime in years) doesn’t reflect the need to ‘clean up’ downtown or get those new digs. So, here comes yet another anti-homeless measure couched as a ‘caring’ approach.

This policy has failed everywhere in America it has been applied. Unless, of course, the goal is to make the people go out of sight. In that case, Batista is leading the way.

Nothing to see here. No one to notice. Just lock ’em up.

This City Council will pass this ordinance 8-3 (at least). Not one of the 8 will ask about the fact that this does not work. While it is nice that the City Manager admitted that the policy has not worked for the last 15 years, he leaves out the most important factor: lack of affordable housing. You can’t ‘house first’ without real housing.

In the end, talking at the podium doesn’t work. I will make my dutiful trip to City Hall and say these words, and no one will listen. The only thing that I know works is a non-governmental community approach. Leave them out of it, because they just want the money that comes with arresting the most vulnerable. Believe them when they tell you who they are.

Now, before the cabal comes for me, let me direct and clear: I am not against a new police station or a new county jail. The police station is decrepit, ugly, horribly maintained, poorly designed, poorly located, and majorly unsafe. It needs to be replaced, and so should the other 9 fire stations yet to undergo the process that South Division is now undergoing.

The county jail is an absolute disgrace. It is dangerous for the guards, the nurses, the staff, the volunteers, the families, and of course the inmates. The fact that the state has consistently denied funding because they don’t like Sheriff Lew Evangelidis is a joke, and that joke falls on our local delegation. This is not a new issue.

But the willingness to ride the money needed on the backs of the vulnerable is a bridge too far! Batista’s plan to arrest people and stack legal trouble on them is not only untenable, it is the single worst choice of all the choices he has. It is my opinion that he hates the homeless population, just like the angry hordes of townies. Sure, he will throw a winter coat onto a pile to give away, but to truly invest in the housing first approach involves courage. Courage that he, nor the mayor, have. The cabal wants development, and the homeless are the easiest scapegoat. Who is going to stand up for them?

Well, I will. With facts. This policy approach is riddled with lies, but for the sake of the argument lets look a few cities that have managed to have success.

The Transformational Model

Several U.S. cities have shown that moving people into permanent housing does in fact work. Worcester has failed in this model because it does not in fact possess the housing stock needed, nor is it inclined to convert existing unoccupied spaces at the speed and cost needed to make major impacts in this area.

Two cities stand out: Houston and Denver.

Houston has reduced its homeless population by 63% over the last decade. Several other Texas cities have had similar drops. Notably, they have not employed an ‘enforcement’ model like the one described by Batista above. They utilize a model called The Way Home, a coordination among hundreds of agencies. They have housed 32,000 people since 2012 with a 90% success rate. That rate means that the person does not return to homelessness within 2 years. Almost all models agree that 24 months of being stable leads to long-term stability for the vast majority of all people the system encounters. One of the major accomplishments of this system includes eliminating almost all veteran homelessness, something that Worcester continues to struggle with.

Denver has reduced its homeless population by 45% moving almost 800 people into permanent supportive housing. Denver’s population is close to four times the size of Worcester with 740,613. Interestingly, Denver’s budget is only about 1.6 times Worcester’s at 1.68 billion. With a much larger area and population, Denver is able to manage resources well enough to reduce homelessness.

Both of these models focus on using existing housing stock that is underutilized and moving people into those units. Worcester lacks those programs, and in the case of the 50 Oriol Drive project, it has been met with public resistance and a lack of developers with serious capital.

Several other cities like Chattanooga, TN, Bakersfield, CA, Philadelphia, PA, and the State of New Jersey have had serious success in reducing veteran homelessness. These programs all involve including permanent housing and resisting the carrot and stick approach that enforcement models use.

What City Manager Batista avoids in his letter is that the homeless community in Worcester is afraid of the Worcester Police Department and the Quality of Life team. They have visceral fear of city services, and it has created the unfortunately named ‘whack-a-mole’ phenomenon. People are forcibly moved, and their property destroyed and confiscated. They move further into invisibility and further away from the services.

One would hope that there would be a majority of city councilors who would do the bare minimum and read the research available. I know at least one councilor loves Google. The enforcement model is a failure on arrival, and frankly it is just more of the same. The police are being put in a bad position here. As much as I believe in a strong accountability model, this is a poor move by the manager. If I were a police officer, I would resist this terrible, horrible, and very bad policy.

I won’t hold my breath on that hope.

Ex-Northborough Man Pleads Guilty to Steroid Trafficking

WORCESTER — A Las Vegas man formerly of Northborough pleaded guilty in federal court on Thurrsday, Sept. 10, to running a scheme to distribute anabolic steroids and methamphetamine and to illegally possessing firearms, federal prosecutors said.

Mark Taslakian, 52, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute schedule III anabolic steroids, one count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and anabolic steroids, and one count of being a felon in possession of seven firearms.

U.S. District Judge Margaret R. Guzman set sentencing for Jan. 11, 2027.

According to prosecutors, Taslakian and others ordered multi-kilogram quantities of raw steroid powder from China and synthesized it into injectable and oral products, which Taslakian marketed under a brand name he created, “Nex-Gen Pharma.” A search of his former Northborough residence turned up more than $500,000 in cash, a gold bar, jewelry, large quantities of anabolic steroids and methamphetamine, packaging materials, ledgers, and seven firearms stored in a basement safe.

The charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute Schedule III anabolic steroids provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, at least two years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $500,000. The charge of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and anabolic steroids provides for a sentence of no less than five years up to 40 years in prison, at least four years of supervised release and a fine of up to $5million. The charge of felon in possession of a firearm provides a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

Coalition Demands Independent Review of Toomey Crash Response

WORCESTER — A local advocacy coalition is calling for an independent investigation into police handling of a Sept. 2 crash involving City Councilor-at-Large Kathleen Toomey, along with her removal from the council’s Public Safety Committee, arguing the department’s internal review cannot be trusted to police itself.

The Worcester Civilian Review Board Coalition, which has pushed for civilian oversight of the police department, says in a statement that officers’ response to the crash violated internal protocols and a state conflict-of-interest law barring elected officials from invoking their position to seek preferential treatment during a traffic stop. The group is asking the city manager and mayor for a full written timeline of the crash response, unredacted body-camera footage, and documentation of what sobriety testing officers considered.

Toomey struck an unoccupied car parked on Harrington Way around midnight Sept. 2, with her vehicle coming to a stop in front of the car she hit, according to police reports cited by the Telegram & Gazette. Both cars were towed from the scene, and police said there were no injuries.

Police said an internal investigation began the same day as the crash “to ensure that no preferential treatment was provided and that all departmental policies were followed,” a police spokesperson told the Telegram. The department did not publicly confirm the crash until Sept. 11, after a Telegram reporter inquired that morning, and body-camera footage was not provided to the paper until that evening.

Body-camera footage from four responding officers, each about 16 minutes long, shows Toomey remaining in her car for the duration of the footage provided, as the crash’s other driver and bystanders gathered nearby.

Asked by an officer what was going on, Toomey said, “I had an issue. Thank you, sir.” A different officer asked where she was coming from; she said a restaurant. Asked whether she had sideswiped the parked car, she said, “I was driving down the street and that’s all I remember. Thank you.” Toomey then spent several minutes searching for her driver’s license, at one point handing an officer a different card, which he declined, telling her it needed to be her license. An officer had her spell her name for his notepad before she eventually located the license. She does not identify herself as a city councilor at any point in the footage.

Police did not say what caused the crash but said impairment was not suspected.

In separate clips, Toomey is heard asking, “Can you call the chief?” — a request no officer is shown responding to — and saying she was trying to reach Worcester police Sgt. Anthony Petrone. Officers asked her to arrange a ride home from the scene.

The recordings were muted at points, including while officers spoke among themselves, and continued as police directed traffic around her car until a tow truck arrived, where the footage provided to the paper ends; it does not show Toomey leaving the scene.

Toomey’s attorney, Michael Wilcox, told the Telegram that the car she struck had been illegally parked on the sidewalk. Asked what caused the crash, he said Toomey may have had “an issue” while driving but declined to elaborate, citing an ongoing insurance claim. He said his client had been cooperative with police and was thankful no one was hurt. “There is nothing to this story but a woman driving home alone late at night,” Wilcox said. “There is nothing nefarious about the situation, it was simply an accident.”

The coalition also drew a comparison to a July crash involving a UMass Chan Medical School campus police lieutenant, which it says involved a supervisor overriding a standard arrest protocol; that incident has not been independently verified for this article.

Toomey has chaired the Public Safety Committee, which oversees matters involving the police department, since 2016. The coalition’s demand follows a Sept. 9 City Council vote rejecting the creation of a civilian police oversight board. Toomey, who opposed the measure, said at the time that Worcester should pursue an oversight system that is “independent, transparent, timely and grounded in professional expertise while preserving due process for our officers and protecting the public,” rather than a new review board.

Worcester to Add 22 EV Charging Ports at Five City Sites

WORCESTER — The City of Worcester announced on Monday, Sept. 14, that it will add 22 electric vehicle charging ports at five municipal sites by the end of the year, a roughly 75% increase over its current network of 30 public ports.

The new Level 2 chargers will go in at:

• 69 Sever St., four ports;
• Russell Street near Elm Park, four ports;
• Providence Street near Vernon Park, four ports;
• 98 Woodland St. at Oberlin Street, four ports; and
• Great Brook Valley Park, six ports.

Once complete, Worcester’s public charging network will total 52 ports. The city said the work is funded mainly through state grants, with limited use of municipal funds; Worcester has previously drawn on Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and Department of Environmental Protection programs for similar charging projects. Each site will carry a charging fee and an overstay fee, both to be posted on-site.

Construction begins the week of Sept. 14 and is expected to wrap by the end of December. Four of the five sites require work in the public right-of-way, meaning parking, sidewalks and traffic will be temporarily restricted near each site. The city will post no-parking notices posted 24 hours ahead and pedestrian detour signage the day of construction.

The most disruptive phase at each site is expected to last one to two days. The Great Brook Valley Park site sits within a parking lot and won’t affect the public.

“Expanding EV charging access is a major goal of our Green Worcester Plan. Transportation accounts for nearly a third of Worcester’s community-wide greenhouse gas emissions, so this work is one of the most direct ways we can address climate change while making the city more livable,” said Chief Sustainability Officer John Odell. “These new stations will make it easier for residents, especially those without a driveway or garage, to choose an electric vehicle.”

New stations will be listed on the PlugShare app and the federal Alternative Fuels Data Center’s charging locator once operational.

Worcester Weighs Camping Ban as Part of Homelessness Plan

WORCESTER — City Manager Eric Batista has asked the City Council to adopt a strategic framework called “Disrupting the Cycle” for addressing homelessness in Worcester, along with a new ordinance banning unauthorized camping on public property, according to documents submitted to the council this week.

The city council will take up the camping ordinance at its meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 15.

The framework, developed by the city’s Department of Health and Human Services under Commissioner Seema Dixit, rests on three components.

• a citywide camping ordinance;
• expanded shelter capacity; and
• stronger data-sharing and coordination among the roughly nine municipal departments and outside agencies involved in homelessness response.

Batista wrote that after a decade of pursuing a Housing First model and expanding seasonal shelters, “government has ultimately failed” to solve the problem, though he credited those efforts with helping many individuals.

Worcester County’s homeless population reached a record 3,110 people in the count conducted in January 2025, according to the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance, before falling to 1,187 in this year’s count — a decrease of about 62%. Batista’s letter to the council cited a different, lower 2025 figure of 2,862 and described the decline as 56%; the city’s own attached report elsewhere cites the 3,110 figure, consistent with the housing alliance’s published count.

The proposed ordinance would bar camping, sitting, sleeping, or storing personal belongings on public property, streets, sidewalks and other public rights-of-way. It would also prohibit living in a parked vehicle on a public way for more than 24 consecutive hours.

The city would be required to conduct outreach and offer shelter or services before clearing a campsite, then post a notice at least 72 hours before removing tents, belongings or other camp materials, except in emergencies. Violators who don’t comply with a notice to vacate would face a $25 fine per day.

Enforcement would be led by the health and human services department, with police, fire, public works, and parks and inspectional services also authorized to act.

Batista’s administration pointed to a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision, City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, as the legal basis for the ordinance. That ruling overturned the Ninth Circuit’s 2018 decision in Martin v. Boise, which had held that enforcing camping bans against people with no access to shelter violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The Grants Pass decision cleared the way for cities nationwide to enforce public-camping restrictions regardless of shelter availability.

Dixit’s memo states the ordinance is “not intended to criminalize” homelessness and instead aims to prioritize voluntary compliance and service connections.

Worcester currently has 197 permanent shelter beds year-round, according to the city’s report, supplemented by temporary winter shelters that added 136 beds last winter. The framework calls for expanding shelter capacity, building a real-time bed-availability dashboard, and creating a “coordinated entry” system to standardize how people are referred to services.

Independent research on the effects of clearing encampments elsewhere has found mixed to negative health outcomes for displaced individuals. A 2023 study published in JAMA modeled the effects of encampment sweeps on people who inject drugs in Massachusetts and found that sweeps resulted in more deaths and fewer people retained in treatment than leaving encampments in place.

A separate study of Massachusetts drug users published in the Journal of Urban Health found that people who had been relocated after a sweep were more likely to report worse mental health symptoms and difficulty accessing health and social services afterward.

Other researchers, including at the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, have linked encampment displacement to increased hospitalizations and overdose risk, while some city officials have disputed those findings as based on limited data.

AGs Drop Suit After HUD Concedes on Fair Housing Funding

BOSTON — A coalition of 16 state attorneys general, including Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, has agreed to dismiss a lawsuit against the Trump administration after federal housing officials agreed to drop contested funding conditions, Campbell’s office announced.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development confirmed it will no longer seek to impose or enforce the conditions, which applied to Fair Housing Assistance Program funding for state and local agencies that enforce fair housing laws. HUD also said the conditions will not apply to fiscal year 2026 funding and will not appear in future guidance, prompting the coalition to drop the case.

The coalition sued in March, arguing HUD’s fiscal year 2025 funding guidance for the program could limit state and local agencies’ ability to enforce fair housing protections, including by restricting reimbursement for certain complaints and threatening agencies whose protections extend beyond federal law.

“Stable housing is an essential need for any family, and this victory ensures that the Trump Administration cannot withhold or place unlawful conditions on funding that helps us protect our residents from housing discrimination,” said AG Campbell. “Federal funding should never be used as leverage to undermine our civil rights protections, and I will continue to stand up for residents and preserve the integrity of our fair housing enforcement system.”

Attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia joined Massachusetts in the lawsuit.

U.S. Sen. Warnock to Keynote UCC Conference in Worcester

WORCESTER — U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., will deliver the keynote address at the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ’s annual meeting Sept. 26 at the DCU Center, conference organizers announced.

Doors open at 3:30 p.m. for the 4 p.m. keynote, which will also be available via livestream. Tickets for the general public cost $35 and include either in-person admission or the livestream link, available at sneucc.org/warnock-tickets. Warnock will preach at a separate worship service the next morning at 10 a.m., which is free but requires advance registration due to limited space.

Warnock, senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, became Georgia’s first Black senator after winning a January 2021 special election and was reelected to a full term in 2022. He grew up in public housing in Savannah as the 11th of 12 children and has served on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, where he helped shape provisions in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act addressing housing supply and affordability.

Rev. Darrell L. Goodwin, the conference’s executive minister, said the moment calls for reflecting on shared responsibility and the future communities are working to build together.

The Southern New England Conference includes 556 churches and more than 100,000 members across Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Image Courtesy of the office of Sen. Warnock