The meeting, a press event held on Pleasant Street in Fall River, Massachusetts, on March 26, 2024, focused on the announcement of over $1.6 million in federal funding secured by Congressman Jake Auchincloss through the fiscal 2024 congressionally directed spending program. Mayor Paul Kougan, along with state representatives Carol Fiola and Alan Schmid, and Congressman Auchincloss, detailed how this funding would revitalize the Flint neighborhood. The project is set to include repaving roads, installing sidewalks, trees, streetlights, and signage. It will also complement other revitalization efforts, such as drainage improvements at Stafford Square, rehabilitation of historic storefronts like Gilberts and White Rose Bakery, and a two-year community engagement program. Speakers emphasized the critical role of federal, state, and local collaboration in securing these funds and improving the quality of life for Fall River residents. During a subsequent Q&A session, Congressman Auchincloss articulated the federal importance of Main Street revitalization, advocating for urban design that prioritizes pedestrians and small businesses over car-centric infrastructure. He also addressed the recent Baltimore bridge collapse, expressing condolences and calling for a thorough investigation and significant federal investment for its repair. State Representative Fiola and Mayor Kougan then discussed the state's emergency shelter system, the high costs associated with migrant housing in Massachusetts, and the broader affordable housing crisis. They highlighted the unsustainability of current expenditures and the challenges faced in Fall River due to agencies placing individuals without adequate wraparound services, which had led to unsafe living conditions and serious crimes. Both officials stressed the urgent need for greater oversight and accountability from these agencies and continued inter-governmental collaboration to resolve these complex issues.
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Council
Public / Other
uh obviously we're here tonight today to talk about what's going on on Pleasant Street in the city of Fall River and very big things are happening um I want to acknowledge a few people that are here before I go too far uh Sarah from the RDA Mike Dion from Community Development and uh obviously we're flanked by a number of strong supporters of this entire project um representative Schmidt representative Fiola uh Morin
0:31neus is here representing Senator uh Rodricks All State partners that helped us a lot with this but the uh person that really was able to um deliver this in Washington DC was our Congressman Jay Goshen Claus he does a lot of great work with all of us in the city of Fall River and um he's one of the reasons we're here today and of course I want to thank him and the representatives for doing
0:54this along with members of our city council the over 1.6 million that Congressman Asen loss was able to secure through the fiscal 24 congressionally directed spending progress will change the landscape in the Flint uh we also want to make sure we acknowledge uh Senator Mary and Senator Warren who are also key pieces in bringing this home these improvements are going to include repaving of Roads sidewalks insulation
1:19of trees street lights and signage the project will dovetail with other efforts to revitalize the F the Flint including a drainage project to prevent Flooding at Stafford Square the complete Rehabilitation of several historic storefronts this being one and a 2-year Community engagement program that will involve residents and several Community organizations I also want to thank my
1:44partners in in the city whether it's the DCM the far Police Department or the fire for their efforts and trying to make sure we keep do our best to keep the residents of the Flint safe uh and as I I want you to know that these Partnerships that we work on in areas like the Flint are very important because it involves everyone in the Flint our urban renewal plan we did for
2:06this whole stretch is going to lay out the road map for how we're going to Pro provide the residents of Flint with a more livable walkable friendly Community all the way up and down Pleasant Street and of course the streets that spin off it whether it's jenss or uh barns off Eastern Avenue some of these other areas we're going to go right up and down as many as we can and it's so it's in very
2:28very important we do plan on taking a little walk afterwards but I do want to acknowledge the work particularly of my good friend uh Congressman Asen Claus he's been a friend of mine since he first announced um and I appreciate his efforts to shepher this through Congress so we can do the necessary things to improve the quality of life in one of the major sections in the city of for
2:49River so with that being said I would introduce my partner in government Jake a good afternoon thanks for being being here I appreciate the gracious introduction Eric hugan and the partnership of state representatives spola and Schmid and uh uh representative Sylvia as well who unfortunately couldn't be here but I know wishes he could and of course Senator Rodricks and really this is teamwork and action for the
3:16infrastructure and economic development improvements for Fall River every year for the last uh three funding cycles for the federal budget I've been able to Direct Federal monies towards specific projects uh across the 35 cities and towns that I represent and I've always been in close collaboration with the Fall River uh mayor and with the state delegation as well because really uh it needs to be uh
3:42it needs to come from uh the community itself what their priorities are and what I have tried to support has been economic development for uh the Waterfront in Fall River with significant funding for um parking and and water infrastructure there and then of course for here in the Flint for walkability and streetscape improvements that are going to be the platform for economic development for this
4:06neighborhood and I'm going to continue to be strongly in support in close collaboration with the state delegation and the mayor on how we can turbocharge fall River's Economic Development it starts with infrastructure Investments um but it doesn't stop there and uh Flint residents and Fall River citizens can can continue to count on me to have their back in Washington thank you uh and if you can see from the pictures
4:35uh this is what this storefront is going to look like here at Gilberts going up for three or four storefronts and then we have one further up at the White Rose Bakery I also want to thank the costers Gil and his mom they've been here for a number of years they own this block but our partnership with them will make the Flint definitely look better it'll be one of the first areas we spruce up and
4:54as I was talking to Mike on the way down here we're almost ready to go but I do want to give the opportunity to the two Representatives they each have half of uh Pleasant streets so we'll let them both say a few words first of all um my good friend Carol Fiola let her come up and say a few words about this project thank you mayor um great to be with you
5:13all Congressman uh from the day you kind of knocked on my door uh probably a year before your election uh and convinced me that you were going to be the guy for Fall River or the best person for Fall River um you have kept your word along the way uh and what does that mean keeping your word in this business with what we do here whether it's on the city
5:36side with the mayor State side with our delegation not any one of us but all of us the senator and the Reps and then on the federal side with our congressmen and our Senators you know people want immediate change they want immediate uh the vision to be immediately implemented um so does every other city in town in the country uh so what we do is fight every day and ask and request for our
6:01share and if all the spokes in that wheel are not in the same moving in the same direction it's not going to happen and so if you don't think it matters who is representing you on every level it does because this is what gets delivered you know it's 1.6 million here couple year and a half ago or so I I forget time now since Co you can't remember time too well a million dollarars uh at
6:29the Senator lead here from the state we were able to bring down here to the Flint CDA adds their money the Attorney General adds building blocks money we just keep adding those funds the Redevelopment Authority taking the lead on projects it's a complete collaboration no one gets full credit today we're grateful and honored that our Senator delivered for us uh but together we create this uh you know
6:56these improvements so I'm really proud to be a part of this and with that I'm going to turn it over to my colleague because we're really sad we're going to be losing him and um I'd like to bring on my uh half of the Flint representative Schmid oh representative Fiola it's it's been a real honor to uh serve with you uh particularly here in the Flint I think we all remember uh the
7:23way the Flint used to be it actually used to be everybody used to say it's the second downtown you know when you w when up the Flint you found everything you could want restaurants uh movie theaters stores shops and then when the Mills uh closed up those a lot of those jobs went away a lot of the shops went away and only the very very strong like Gilberts uh stayed on and we are so
7:51appreciative of them so rep fola and I and Senator Rodricks have been fighting for years to bring Focus here uh on the Flint and we did that with a number of administrations and it really wasn't until mayor kougan uh who came along and said yeah I want to do something about it too and when he enlisted uh the help of a congressman that's when that partnership that you spoke about that's when that partnership
8:27really started to click and so we are so appreciative uh of the focus of the mayor of the congressman and for his colleagues in the Senate uh who had part of that uh and we really look forward to uh the Flint shining again uh the way it used to so thank you very much um small steps small steps does anybody have any questions I do for the congressman why is it important ferally for a a Main
9:09Street like this to be on your radar well it's it's People's Community and it's it's how they Experience dayto day and one thing we know I'm on the transportation infrastructure Committee in Congress and one thing that's so apparent is that the postwar way of building infrastructure that was entirely predicated on the car on single occupancy vehicle ownership and we built highways and we expanded um state roads
9:40and we we kind of hollowed out our downtowns to make way for the automobile and what it's done is it's one it's been bad for the environment two it's been bad for our downtowns and the walkability of our downtowns and three is it's it's hurt our local businesses and Retail and what I see here with this project is a way to try to put the pedestrian and the small business owner
10:01front and center and how we do Urban Design and transportation Investments uh in the 21st century and stop putting the vehicle front and center and that way we can help knit together our communities again we can create more foot traffic for business owners we can create safer streets because actually more feet on the street is a safer Street uh and we can also be more environmentally resilient with better storm water
10:22management and other types of Investments so this is really about knitting together a downtown again and as as representative Schmid said said um helping to restore it to to what it was um when there was Stronger employment and better transportation design anything else go ahead Joe sorry this is off topic but Baltimore Baltimore you have anything to say about Baltimore it's a tragedy and
10:51I'm keeping those who are the subject of the search and rescue in my in my thoughts um and and those who are doing the rescuing as well which is dangerous work right now I it's unclear what happened it looks like it the the best estimate right now is that it was a mechanical failure of the cargo ship and that the cargo ship had called Mayday and and they were looks like they were
11:12able to save lives by stopping some of the vehicular traffic over the bridge um clearly it needs to be investigated thoroughly and there needs to be accountability and and potentially updates to the regulations for how those Port those ships go in and out of the port which is very busy um but right now the focus needs to be on search and rescue and then there's of course going to have to be a federal state and local
11:33plan for getting that bridge repaired which I'm very very familiar with because that's been a big focus of mine for Rhode Island uh I'm keenly aware of how much the Rhode Island bridge failure affects my constituents in Southeastern Massachusetts um you know I was saying earlier today I I was speaking to an educator this morning at a school whose commute she lives in Rhode Island Works
11:52in Fall River her commute has doubled since the bridge and she's thinking about getting a new job uh so this buiness and there's a lot of small business owners in sou eastern Mass whose businesses are being affected in Rhode Island um so we're going to need I think a a a sense of urgency and a significant Federal investment probably above the 80% that's standard for Island and probably for Baltimore too thank
12:17you I have a question since we're drawing off topic um that's okay um just last week Senator Mike Rogers had announced um to constituents that uh the cost to house a migrant family here in Massachusetts is pretty high it's about $2,500 per week um what's your thought process on the sustainability of that um we're in a Blue Collar city right now where a lot of people are struggling
12:42with finding housing that's affordable um how do you speak to that to the local residents here who are struggling to find housing and then what what do you think the timeline is for individuals to transition away from Emergency Shelters to sustainable housing well the state house and the governor have made some pretty substantive changes to the shelter system and the timelines and I
13:03can let my state colleague speak to that as appropriate um I will just on the federal perspective um I would add two things one the state needs more housing period uh and just a couple months ago we passed in the house an expansion of the affordable housing tax credit which is an important way that we can stimulate more production of housing because that's really the biggest challenge facing Massachusetts is lack
13:23of affordable housing period regardless of who's living in it um H and then number two is Congress needs to pass immigration reform it's it's congress's fault and Congress has not done so since I've been alive I am a sponsor of both the Senate's bipartisan border security deal as well as The house's version which is a comprehensive immigration reform deal both of them entailed significant compromises from Democrats
13:49and significant compromises from Republicans which is what we know is going to be required to do immigration reform and I continue to have really make that the number one thing that we have to do in Congress um in addition to funding Ukraine is securing the border and and um passing immigration reform and I'm I'm here to vote on it do you want to speak at all to the state shelter system um yeah I
14:13will I know Jess you you've reached out uh we've just been pretty crazy but um you know this is a a big concern for everyone um you threw out a number 2500 I think you just took the gross amount divided it by number of families but there was a lot that went into that that I don't think that such a simple formula like that but nonetheless it's a lot of money and something we did not
14:34anticipate didn't plan for and as the congressman said is a lack of action on the border uh Massachusetts has done what it can it's done what it needed to do I mean the biggest cry right now I'll be very candid as people say change the right to shelter because that is the issue no the people are going all over this country they're not just coming to Massachusetts and changing the law isn't
14:57going to stop a family with a child and a pregnant mom and tell her no you can't you know you got to just sleep in the airport or on the street uh we do have a humanitarian issue to deal with as well uh having said that we realize it's we have pretty much I'll use the word Hemorrhage money it's it's it's it's it is overwhelming and everyone should be feeling that way as we do in the
15:19legislature um but until we see some results until we are able to um well we've made some changes we you know we've responded a you know as we've moved along where are we at and what do we need to do and so we put some limits and those limits are being negotiated right now between the house and the Senate the governor announced some changes yesterday in terms of length of stay and and activities that have to
15:45happen as a result of being afforded emergency assistance and I would just Echo what the senator said I mean what the congressman said housing production is really at the root of all this and if you gave me an hour I'd talk a little bit more about 40b 60 years ago the statute 40b and how maybe out of 351 cities and towns possibly up to 70 have even implemented that you know been a
16:08part of that statue which is shameful and maybe we wouldn't be in such dire straight today if more communities had Embrace building affordable housing and I'm not just speaking lowincome housing I'm speaking affordable housing and there are very clear differences in each one so U we could go on and on but there's a lot of issues with this Jess and it's not as simple as you know it's
16:29so much per family and what are we going to do we're all in this and we're all feeling the same way about it it's difficult right now thank you and I'll if I may just add that the uh house leadership uh as well as the local delegation is very glad to see the uh Governor put some limits on the stays and and I'm sure there'll be uh further uh limits it's
16:54unsustainable we know it and uh we'll fig fig it out but it will include more limits to be clear we're not just talking about immigrants we're talking about Americans who and and the Harold News just did a story today about a a St Francis St Francis and half of it was an unsafe it was an unsafe situation right I was just addressing the migrant issue but you're right Joe the housing issue emergency
17:23shelter issue since you know it's here in this conversation it was growing prior to the migrant crisis okay so it was growing we started seeing tents we started realizing there was more of an issue you know than they had ever been and then as we were starting to deal with that more and more the migrant crisis happened so there are two separate issues um I we have been very deeply engaged in hearing
17:48what happened here in Fall River and understanding uh how agencies and I've had conversations this morning with housing uh up in Boston how an agency who is recipient of millions of dollars to help emergency shelter residents because isn't that what we talk about one hand people say why are people on the street the other why are you helping them it's kind of an interesting dichotomy of what we get however this
18:13agency in particular and maybe others we're going to find that out you know directly just ship people here to a landlord and arrange situation with a landlord and we find out some of the living conditions alone just the physical living conditions were not up to stand there were no wraparound Services we had a murder as a result of one of those and then another uh person who was accused of very serious crimes
18:39very serious crimes and that can't be the case if you're going to be in this business of providing wraparound services and emergency assistance you've got to follow the loop and and and communicate with the communities and and do what your as I understand your contractural obligations are provide those wraparound services so what kind of oversight do you think that this the House of Representatives and the Senate
19:04and and the governor will now put in place I had I had meetings with my chair Ways and Means a conversation this morning I've had conversations with people from the executive office of housing Mobility there's a new name to it now it split off housing and emergency assistance and uh very specifically since we finally have more accurate information of what happened again we react and then we have to get
19:28the facts right so now we've got some facts we're working on that I'm expecting some specific information as to what exactly are the regulations in place now for emergency shelter I had that conversation about an hour and a half ago what I'd like to have you get back you I'm understanding I should hear back by the end of the week what exactly are these agencies obligated each funding pocket has different you know
19:53there's a there's rapid response there's there's raft there's lots of different programs and buckets of money that agencies receive and each one of those come with various obligations so we're looking at that and once we find out where that you know um Loop missing pieces we're going to try to fill it as soon as possible uh but I think every Community um deserves to um understand if criminals are being sent here and
20:20left dropped at the doorstep and uh safety Humanity all of those things uh play into to it so we should have some answers um and try to work on that as soon as possible I don't if anybody else may you've been knee deep in this as well we've been talking three times a day about this for the last week and a half yeah it it is something that was sprung
20:43on us only because of a unbelievably uh negative event which cast the city in such a black eye and as you walk into it you find out what's going on on the first tier on the second tier on the third tier uh we are still working our way through this we uh we we got some addresses yesterday we're going to be looking at it is uh it's kind of uh something nobody expected to happen I
21:06mean uh a house on the end of a dead end street is just full of people and all of them have zero and I want to say that zero connection to our city some were sent here in cabs here take a cab from Boston go to Fall River they didn't even know where they were going and no Services provided so in my initial conversations with St Francis House they're already looking to modify
21:28programs and how we do this going forward but there's a lot more questions to answer before we get to the bottom of this and we're going to we're going to keep at it and I as um as the representative said I do stay in close contact with them because you a lot of this funding is State money but at the same time it's part of the partnership we all talked about earlier the federal
21:47state and local level all have to work together to get this stuff straightened out because we can't put people at risk and have situations like that and I guess that's going to conclude are we still going for the walk a walk Let's Take a Walk Let's Take a Walk let's take a walk but I want to thank everybody and I want to thank the Costas again for hosting us