Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Saturday a new $50 million investment for the East Side of Buffalo to help lift up the community in the wake of the May 14 massacre at the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue.

“Let’s go big, let’s be bold,” Hochul said she told her staff as they looked for ways to help the residents of the East Side.

She wanted them to explore “what’s happening at the human level? What are the other needs that are unmet?”

The money includes $36.5 million for housing and social services.

She said more than 1,000 homeowners struggling to keep their houses in good shape will receive about $10,000 each in grants to fix their homes.

There will also be $3 million in state aid set aside for an East Side Resiliency Center where people can go to seek help for everything from housing to mental health resources.

She made the announcement at the Apollo Theatre on Jefferson Avenue, just two blocks from the Tops supermarket, shortly after she marched in the Juneteenth Parade along Genesee Street. The festival, which celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people, is taking place this weekend at Martin Luther King Jr. Park. It returned for the first time in-person since the pandemic began in 2020.

“This is my home,” Hochul said, vowing a long-term commitment to revitalizing the East Side. “This is deeply personal to me.”

Hochul also announced a plan to establish a 5-14 commission that will be headed by Mayor Byron Brown to explore how best to memorialize the 10 victims of the Tops massacre.

“This will be a community-driven effort,” Brown said. The commission will be made up of family members of the victims, survivors of the massacre and residents and business owners in the neighborhood.

“This will be done right so it is a fitting and lasting tribute to the 10 innocent victims of the mass shooting,” Brown said.