Five core issues new Worcester City Manager Eric Batista says residents are concerned about

Mass. Newsmakers: Part of an ongoing series talking to those with unique insight into the issues and concerns Massachusetts communities face.

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Eric Batista was inaugurated as Worcesters city manager on Jan. 6. That same day he identified five core issues residents have raised with him either during his time as acting city manager or the community listening sessions he held after securing the gig permanently.

Affordable housing; homelessness; transportation; diversity, equity and inclusion and trash are issues that come up in every space that he goes into, Batista told MassLive during a recent visit to its Worcester offices.

The issues dont stay within Worcesters borders, either, according to Batista, who noted newly sworn-in Gov. Maura Healey mentioned transportation and affordable housing at her own inauguration on Jan. 5.Read More: Eric Batista sworn in as first Latino Worcester City Manager

Batista said having former Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll serving as the lieutenant governor will benefit Worcester.

She was a municipal employee, she understands municipal government, so its going to be a little bit easier for her to understand the needs of municipalities and then some of those challenges, Batista said.

He specifically saw the relationship with Driscoll as a way to secure the necessary funding to address the issues.

He said in the next couple of years the biggest challenge the city will face is where it goes to get funding and how it applies that funding if and when it gets it.

The city has already received some funding and put it toward the issues he raised. In 2021, it established the Affordable Housing Trust fund with $15 million of the American Rescue Plan Act funds it received.

Applications for the fund opened in October, but Batista said the fund has received less interest than the city had hoped, estimating only three to five projects have submitted applications.

In this current climate, with high-interest rates and the supply chain and cost to build, people are a little bit more hesitant to want to build or put themselves in that position, or sometimes these people cant get financing at this moment because the equation doesnt work, he said.

He expressed hope, however, that more applications would be submitted in the coming months.

As rents in the city rise, Worcesters unsheltered population jumped 50.6% in November compared to the previous year, with 226 individuals identified as unsheltered compared to 150 in Nov. 2021.Read More: Work at Worcesters Union Station to add center platform on track for end of year completion

The city currently has 201 available shelter beds. A shelter that opened at Blessed Sacrament Church on Pleasant Street in Dec. added 60 beds to that total.

Batista said the city is working with another agency to create an overflow shelter, but there hasnt been an immediate need because the existing shelters havent been at full capacity.

But that hasnt stopped us from moving forward with the other agency to make sure that they have a space ready to go, so that when it does (reach capacity) we can be ready to move people into that, Batista said.

The city has come under fire within the last year for its handling of diversity, equity and inclusion issues. In March, the city announced Chief Diversity Officer Stephanie Williams was resigning, marking the third resignation since the position was created six years prior.

Williams indicated a lack of support in the role as her reasoning. Then in September, the results of a racial equity audit of the citys Human Resources and Health and Human Services departments revealed a toxic culture for people of color.

The audit found there is a lack of opportunity to advance for people of color within the city, there are pay disparities among people of color compared to their white counterparts and communication about racial equity is almost nonexistent.

Workers of color shared their experiences of feeling excluded, ignored and fearful.

Most recently, the joint venture company that built Polar Park was fined $1.9 million by the Massachusetts Attorney Generals office for overstating its use of women and minority-owned businesses.

The chief diversity officer position hasnt been posted, Batista said, because hes going to bring a full restructuring of the department in front of city council.

He called what hes bringing in front of council a full report that has taken several months to develop.

The restructuring will include changing the position itself by adding elements to strengthen the authority and influence the position has.

The city will be posting a request for proposals for a national search firm to fill the position.

But I needed to restructure the department, build what that is, so that I can write that into the scope of the service of the bid, Batista said.

He wants to build the department, he said, because the biggest things that diversity officers said when they left was the support wasnt there, the structure wasnt there.

I dont want to bring in somebody for the same kind of status quo situation, Batista said. I want to challenge the status quo.

As for the percentage of diversity hires at developments receiving tax cuts, according to Batista, the city is trying to put attention on the businesses behind the developments and really tackle that.

To help do so, the city is going to provide technical assistance and training to the community to help create more minority and women-owned businesses in the city.

Batista said the city received some of the $1.9 million the developer was fined and will use those funds to help provide that technical assistance and training.

Batista is the first Latino and person of color to serve as city manager in the citys history. He was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Worcester when he was 7 years old with his family.

People have been coming up to him in public and telling him in Spanish that theyre so happy he represents them.

You can clearly see that theres pride and the fact that theres many people in our community who fought to make sure that theres representation in city government, not only for the Latino community, but also the black community, Batista said.

He said city residents should be proud that it achieved what it has been working toward and advocating for many years.

He described his background as low-income and said hes a first-generation college student.

I come from that kind of lived experience, that Im going to try to do things differently in Worcester, Batista said. And hopefully that helps to kind of drive the next generation of what we do and who we are as a city.