Mayor's Blue-Ribbon Task Force on Tenant Displacement - Meeting #4 Minutes

Mayor’s Blue-Ribbon Task Force on Tenant Displacement Monthly Meeting
Tues, Apr 23, 2019, 5:30-7:30pm
Sullivan Chamber, City Hall
795 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge MA 02139

Task Force Members in Attendance: Councillor Sumbul Siddiqui, Chair; Sonia Andujar; Jessica Drew; Betsy Eichel; Iram Farooq; Larry Field; Beth Huang; Alexandra Markiewicz; Maura Pensak (arrived before 6:00pm)

Task Force Members Absent: Patrick Barrett; Teresa Cardosi; Sean Hope; Kuong Lee; Maura Pensak; Cheryl-Ann Pizza-Zeoli

City of Cambridge Staff in Attendance: Sarah Stillman

City of Cambridge Staff Absent: Wilford Durbin

The meeting was called to order at 5:42 pm by Sumbul Siddiqui, Chair.

An overview of the agenda for the meeting was given by Sumbul Siddiqui, Chair.

Chair Siddiqui introduced Mr. Cliff Cook, Planning Information Manager, and Mr. Chris Cotter, Housing Director, both members of the City’s Community Development Department (CDD) staff, who presented the CDD’s data analysis of eviction complaints in Cambridge. [See attached slide presentation.]

• Half the complaints are filed against people who have been through the process at least once already, sometimes multiple times. February and April are lowest months for complaints, a striking difference.

• Noted drop off in 2015-17 when the great recession hit home in 2011, but by 2013 economy was getting better.

• Housing court comes in to play in 2018 - small number of filings in housing court vs district (which court you file in may depend on what your desired outcome is)

• Judgements under 500 dollars are generally only for court costs.

• East Cambridge has high number of market rate evictions (noted example of particular building with a particular policy)

• Black Box: this is as far as CDD can get with the data gathered, not knowing as much about eviction complaints as we do with foreclosures. We have more info than we’ve ever had on eviction complaints in Cambridge, but the challenge is knowing if what we’ve gathered is accurate with the case files (just because a complaint is filed does not mean someone is evicted); where are the points of action?

• Intern will fact check and dig deeper into the data we’re gathering; look at sample of case files from beginning to end in the two courts to survey what actions and outcomes we have in the city.

• CDD is hoping to put all of this in to an annual report and update this periodically.

The data may not show the full picture; having an eviction filing on your record will impede your ability to move forward with housing etc.

The Task Force members asked questions regarding the data presented, and a discussion followed, including input from Ms. Ellen Semonoff and Ms. Maria Melo of the City’s Department of Human Services. Chair Siddiqui thanked the presenters for providing this update and for the data presented.

Chair Siddiqui provided an update on the status of the hiring process for City’s Housing Liaison position:

• After a sizable first round of applicants, unfortunately the City has not yet completed its search and the job has now been reposted. Ideally looking for someone with CAE management experience and solid understanding of the issues, a very strong collaborator, and with broad enough experience to both properly address policy issues and deal with emergency situations. The person who steps in to this role will need to understand what’s happening and do some best-fit work between all the departments that touch on housing.

• Chair Siddiqui said that she will share the description with the Task Force.

Chair Siddiqui requested Mr. Cotter share the City’s plan for its upcoming “2019 Affordable Housing Action Week of Action”:

• This year, the CDD decided to shift to a month of events as opposed to one week in May - starting this Sat, Apr 27th, with the “Affordable Housing Fair” at the Community Arts Center on Windsor St, 11:00am-2:30pm. This is also in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust.

• Chair Siddiqui said that she will share out the calendar of events for the “2019 Affordable Housing Action Month of Action.”

Chair Siddiqui introduced the following Task Force Working groups—Tenant Education Legislative and Policy Agenda and Funding—to provide progress updates to the Task Force at large and present any pending questions or needs.

Tenant Education Working Group
Plan for a series of workshops on different topics is laid out (resources for tenants, familiarity with fair housing laws, preparing for inspections, etc.)

• Main question: would this plan be led by Task Force, or would it be passed off to someone from City to implement and institutionalize?

• Chair Siddiqui confirmed the latter (would make sense to have this passed to Liaison once hired).

Other ideas discussed:

• Task Force “Open House” – holding open house to invite residents into space, highlight what we’re collecting and the work we’re doing on displacement.

• City of Cambridge ordinance to protect tenants – a “Tenant Organizing Ordinance” – what would this look like for Cambridge, what will be the process; is this a home rule situation?

• Tenant Association / inclusionary tenant advisory group - TBD (Chris Cotter said CDD is looking at coming up with better process for residents to give us input).

Legislative and Policy Agenda Working Group
In process of reviewing different ordinances passed between 1998 and 2019: Boston, Somerville (just passed an ordinance on March 21), and policy considerations

• Following how Somerville’s ordinance plays out; will get sense of parameters (what lawsuits and challenges that may come up, etc); asking, ‘if Somerville is doing an 11/10, what is our 10/10?’

• Questions to investigate: If we were to propose some recommendations, what would they be and what kind of impact could they have? Will there be any effect?

• Working Group is planning to hold a meeting and involve the Assessor’s Office; Councillor Siddiqui will be joining as well.

Funding Working Group
Investigating how to both increase the funding resources available and use those we have more effectively.

• CASLS providers are dealing with recurring issues of how to source/cause/manage payments of damage (e.g. tenant with a disability damages apt with bumping wheelchair)—costs of these can be significant, especially when a tenant is on SSI; if a tenant owes a landlord thousands of dollars and can't pay it, that is a threat to their tenancy.

• How do we use funding specifically geared to damages?

• Increasing rental assistance cap? What is outcome we are expecting?

• Chair Siddiqui said she can put in request to the City Manager.

Advocating for push to generate revenue- new revenue; more fruitful to identify what we are looking for funding for (versus just how funding can be increased).

• Reaching out to organizations in Cambridge that give lip-service to improving quality of life in city and may have funding to give (e.g. Kendall Square Association, Science Cares); major institutions provide funding for a variety of things.

• Could write a letter of interest to inquire, and/or set up a meeting to discuss.

Options might include:

• Vouchers for getting people to housing court

• Volunteer Action Fund for Affordable Housing (as California is trying to set something like this up).

Chair Siddiqui thanked all the Task Force members for their updates and announced that for the last 15-20 minutes of the meeting the Task Force would break out in to these Working Groups and discuss next action steps.

Chair Siddiqui and her legislative aide, Ms. Sarah Stillman, met with each of the groups during this time.

Chair Siddiqui adjourned the meeting at 7:40pm.