The city housing agency doesn’t fare too badly in the mayor’s budget this year–and the City Council may add in an extra $2.5 million to boot.

According to testimony presented Friday by housing commissioner Richard Roberts, only 39 staff will be cut next year from the 2,714-person agency. While funding for many programs remains about constant, the programs that provide cash for landlords to perform partial or total rehabs are being upped by 15 percent, to $52 million. And the mayor has put back into his final budget plan some $2.6 million slated for code enforcement that he had cut out of the preliminary budget in January.

On top that, the City Council has plans to add in another $2.5 million dollop for housing code enforcement. The cash would pay for more city attorneys who represent tenants, more building inspectors and more money for emergency repair loans.

To press the City Council to make sure that the cash stays in the final budget, a coalition of housing groups will be holding a press conference on the steps of City Hall on May 17 at noon.