The Boston Housing Authority is seeking a one-time $4 million allocation from the city to keep public safety officers in buildings that house the elderly and disabled.

The money would fill a federal funding gap and for one year cover the wages and benefits of 56 unarmed officers who check in guests and patrol the buildings, said Bill McGonagle, the authority’s administrator.

“We will use this one-time funding source to allow us to sustain this critically important public safety function in fiscal 2017 and allow us to fight another day,’’ McGonagle said at a council hearing Tuesday.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh is pressing the City Council to approve the funding. The council’s Ways and Means Committee considered the matter Tuesday. The council is expected to approve the request Wednesday.

The money would come from the surplus property distribution fund,which traditionally has been used for — though not limited to — capital projects, said Katie Hammer, the city’s budget director.

Over the years, the city has offered the housing authority help to fund public safety. In 2007, the previous administration of Thomas M. Menino allocated $2.15 million as a one-time midyear budget supplement to the authority, Hammer said.

And the Boston Redevelopment Authority also directed some of Winthrop Square Garage parking proceeds to the housing authority for public safety. That ended in 2013, when the garage was deemed structurally unsound and closed.

Samuel R. Tyler, president of the fiscal watchdog group Boston Municipal Research Bureau, said he understands that the housing authority needs funds for public safety. But he said allocating $4 million from the surplus property disposition fund would be imprudent, since that fund is generally reserved for capital investments.

“The city’s own budget is tight and it doesn’t have, on an ongoing basis, the ability to subsidize the Boston Housing Authority,’’ he said.

He said the city has a better alternative: It could appropriate the $4 million from the budgetary fund balance — or as it’s called, “free cash’’ — which is an operating revenue intended for one-time expenses.

The suggestion that the council reject the authority’s request irked McGonagle.

“Do they think that we should not provide public safety for our elderly, the poorest and most vulnerable people in the city?’’ he said. He then answered his question: “I really don’t care what they think.’’

McGonagle said his agency will continue to explore ways to effectively and permanently deal with its funding crisis, such as merging its small police force with the Boston Police Department.

Boston police officials said Commissioner William Evans has briefly discussed a possible merger, though nothing formal is in the works. There are complexities, they cautioned, including the fact that the housing officers are not part of civil service, a Boston police requirement.

McGonagle contended that he does not find it unusual that the city is being asked to provide public safety funding for the authority’s residents.

“They are our residents and our residents are [in] the city of Boston,’’ he said in an interview. “They deserve the same kind of public safety attention as any other resident of this city whether they live on Beacon Hill or Orchard Gardens.’’

McGonagle said that he began briefing Walsh about the perilous state of federal funding after Walsh took office in 2014. The mayor promised to help, he said.

Since 2013, he said, the federal government slashed the operational budgets of housing authorities across the country to about 86 percent. Federal funding for public safety stopped.

The cuts forced the authority to trim 125 positions over the past several years, McGonagle said. The authority has tried to generate private funding, but those efforts have not been enough, he said.

“In spite of these steps, we still struggle because of these federal cuts to balance our operating budget,’’ McGonagle told the councilors. “While we have significantly reduced personnel as a cost-cutting measure, we have not reduced or laid off any front-line public safety or blue-collar maintenance personnel.’’

The authority owns 63 housing developments, including 36 designated as elderly/disabled developments, its website said. Another 27 are designated as family developments.

The authority has a public safety budget of about $6.8 million; its overall operating budget is $123 million, which includes federal and state subsidies and revenue from the authority’s rental income, McGonagle said.

The $4 million the housing authority is requestingwill pay the wages and benefits for 56 unarmed officers who carry radios on their patrols. The agency also spends another $3.1 million for 17 armed officers and about a half dozen dispatchers, McGonagle said.

Nearly 30 violent incidents involving the elderly and disabled were reported from January through July, according to data the authority provided.

Meghan E. Irons can be reached at meghan.irons@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @meghanirons.