Fair Housing Commission Questionnaire Responses

 

Fair Housing questionnaire for candidates, 2025

Responses by Christopher Ryan Spicer

Question 1: Have you ever seen or personally experienced discrimination in housing (either in renting, buying, or getting a mortgage)? What did you observe, how did you handle it, and how did you feel about it?

Last year I saw the impact of precarious housing compounded by an ICE detention which divided an East Somerville family. At the request of the remaining parent, I brought over documents for spousal visitation at Plymouth Jail. I often think of that family and the cramped basement housing conditions of their home. Some places have holes in floors, or rent dirt floor basements. Blatant code violations. If Inspectional Services Department (ISD) comes and issues a fine, it is likely a landlord may retaliate by escalating rents. So I know that dilemma of a housing ally or conscientious neighbor, whether to call ISD or overlook the landlord’s gross exploitation. Likewise, David Gibbs, Executive Director of the Community Action Agency of Somerville, during the Human Rights Commission focus group, describing the shocking living conditions of undocumented residents who are being exploited for their rent.

The second part of the question: No, I have not personally experienced discrimination in civilian housing. I am assumed to speak English fluently and to be a U.S. citizen. Like a third of Somerville residents I own housing; in my case, I am beneficiary of intergenerational wealth to do so. In fact, when I think about the offer letter I wrote to the owner about being a young family hoping to raise our kids in the schools here, I was fishing for prejudice. There’s no letter a formerly incarcerated person can write that will help. And then you have the fact that a criminal record can block someone from public housing. I have seen conditions of penal housing that make me an ardent advocate for supportive housing. For instance, I have lobbied the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to grant $9 million toward targeted housing assistance, along with a measure requiring IDs to be provided for “returning citizens” upon release.

 

Question 2: What do you think are the most common forms of housing discrimination in Somerville?

 In the 2017 Somerville Housing Assessment 44% surveyed said arrest record was cause of discrimination. Housing discrimination is most often seen in exclusionary practice: what happens when background and credit checks are used in the criterion of ‘good’ tenants.  Broker services to find ‘ideal’ renters make automatic exclusion of potential tenants with vouchers.

66% said race. In the 2021 Housing Assessement, it was reported anecdotally that many long-term Somerville landlords who bought their properties decades ago tend to use informal, limited networks to fill vacant units. Such owners for the most part are white. Fair Housing law extends recourse to those who have experienced discrimination members of protected classes race/color and/or country of origin. So we have to ask why the City’s Latino population is particularly concentrated in portions of East Somerville and Magoun Square.

44% said disability. Fair Housing Law, Massachusetts. General Law chapter 151B is the state Fair Housing Act which prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, children, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, public assistance recipient, gender identity, genetic information or physical or mental disability. Beyond the Americans Disabilities Act of 1990 which included persons living with a disability as a protected class, The Fair Housing Act of 1968 sets most private housing requirements for accessibility. In Somerville, the stock of accessible housing is extremely limited because of a lack of zoning incentives. 

Discrimination in Somerville because of presence of children in household is also common. The realtor doesn’t want to hear if someone is pregnant. Families with young children don’t get rental applications accepted because of aging housing and lead remediation.  The $1500 Massachusetts Lead Paint Removal Tax Credit was designed to improve compliance with Fair Housing law, because many landlords refused to take applicants with children under six. Family or relationship structure was added in 2023 to protected classes in Somerville and does not fall under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) but may appear in the forthcoming assessment.

Seniors are discriminated against in housing when renting, buying or securing finance for their home. Poor elders are most likely to miss rent and tax payments, making them subject to ‘just-cause’ eviction.

General unaffordability is a structural barrier. For instance, in 2021, there were 4960 households carrying extreme housing cost burdens with below 30 percent Area Median Income (AMI). The trend of that burden on the poorest was increasing, but we await update from the forthcoming 2025 Housing Needs assessment. The forthcoming 2025 Feasibility Study was required to “determine how and under what conditions the City could create units targeted to residents at 30% of AMI and what tradeoffs or additional resources would be necessary to allow projects to be financially feasible with this requirement. What tradeoffs or resources would be necessary for 10% of units be affordable to those at 30% AMI without reducing number of units in other tiers.”  

As listed above, in Massachusetts, it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of source of income (section 8 or receipt of public assistance or hourly wage). Only 28% of section 8 mobile vouchers were used in Somerville, as of Sept. 2023 data from Somerville Housing Authority. Discussing this finding, The Anti-Displacement Task Force report validated the assumption the rest were used in other cities and towns because while there is a limited amount of time that they must be applied, they were unlikely to find Somerville landlords who would rent to them, and if they had tried and failed to find housing those rejections were discriminatory. However, none of the four backlogged Somerville cases filed at MCAD as of January 2024 involved discrimination based on source of income.

Complainants can seek injunctive relief with Suffolk Law School’s Housing Discrimination Testing Program. Under existing contract with the City of Somerville, De Novo Center for Justice and Healing can represent tenants in fair housing cases. And the City’s Housing Division can provide informal advocacy.The Affordable Homes Act signed into law July 2024 created an Office of Fair Housing

Question 3: What is the most important thing that Somerville landlords, property
managers, real estate agents, or owners selling their homes need to know to further Fair Housing in Somerville? What would you do to increase compliance with Fair Housing law?

First, SomerVIP (Voucher Incentive Program) offers one time incentive payments, money for necessary repairs, and technical support to landlords and realtors who lease Somerville properties for the first time to Somerville residents holding vouchers and other mobile tenant-based programs. Second, Landlord tenant mediation and foreclosure prevention is available through the Somerville Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development. Third, Fair Housing in Somerville depends on equal access to the market, something many unintentionally blockade. Equal access to housing accommodations, facilities, services and financial aid depends on sec 7-42 enforcement powers ordained to the Fair Housing Commission, an effort I will continue to support and expand if elected. I would support a strengthened Fair Housing Commission to both investigate complaints and enforce penalties on findings of discrimination.

 Question 4: What do you see as the link between affordability and Fair Housing in
Somerville?

The link is established in Fair Housing law, Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 40B, the law that directs communities to supply affordable housing. I see the linkage in terms of human rights. People need housing. They just do. People suffering from mental illness, substance abuse, and intellectual disabilities,  homeless individuals and families--all need housing and wraparound services, especially low-income immigrants. Only strategic intervention can keep market-rate housing affordable. I applaud our evidence-based approach which includes setting aside for long-term investments to steadily increase inclusionary housing. But immediately, more families below 30 percent Area Median Income (AMI) need services and support from Somerville Affordable Housing Trust Fund. More families between 30 percent and 60 percent of AMI need affordable housing period. The 2020 Affordable Housing zoning overlay acknowledged there is not enough public housing in Somerville, which fell 114 units short of the law mandated minimum requirement. Somerville residents, unless eligible for emergency housing, cannot get priority housing anywhere outside of Somerville. 

This City just molts, every house bought by a shell company with a private capital firm behind it, destroys itself to the bones, a dumpster taking up station for a year, then rebuilds, and another year goes by. The four generation family home becomes two units--and this is what it means for Somerville to ascend the urban hierarchy--that’s planned. Somerville has accrued it’s educated outlook without retention. Resident’s support for political process, said to be the positive side of gentrification, means looking beyond narrow interests to better serve those aging in place. The Condominium Conversion Ordinance requires a five-year notice period and housing search assistance for elderly, disabled or low- and moderate-income tenants, and a one-year notice for all other tenants. The amount of relocation assistance a landlord must provide to each tenant increased from $300 to $6,000. I will value the link of affordability and Fair Housing on principle. Because to deprive people of their territory, their community, and without re-placement, cannot be a process called governance of the people, for the people.

In last week of July my three daughters and I attended the State House hearing in support of rent stabilization. Should Somerville explore some method of rental control to protect the tenant but also provide protections to the landlord owner who has increasing expenses and needs to remodel and improve his rentals? The Anti-Displacement Task Force recommends capping rents subject to rent stabilization at Consumer Price Index plus 2% up to a maximum of 5%. For example, an increase of $100 on a $2000 rent. The Home Rule Petition (HRP) includes authorization for Somerville to grant application for extraordinary expenses like converting to electric heat pumps or deleading. Rents remain stabilized on turnover. Just-cause evictions. Rent Restricted housing with rents based on income exempt from regulation and owner-occupied exempt from regulation. If the City is granted HRP there will be further opportunity for community input on the administration of a rent stabilization ordinance.

Is Somerville an elder-friendly community? The most prevalent housing problem of the elderly is housing costs. What about the elderly disabled? In 2021 approximately 6,400 Somerville residents live with a disability. That total has dropped but those living with disability and poverty have increased. I am a proponent of housing policy rooted universal housing design, the framework for accessible entrances, hallways, bathrooms, kitchens, outlets, and plywood backing to install grab-rails. I learned about its principles from my mother, an occupational therapist, and the car full of medical assist bars. Her work carried out the mandate of the Older American Act of 1965, which provided program funds for elderly people who live in their own homes to make adaptations in the physical environment, and the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, requiring physically accessible housing but only called for “reasonable accommodations” for persons with disabilities. The rent control that some Cambridge refugees remember lasting there until the 1980s, providing a means of affordability to historically marginalized people, in Somerville had been abolished in 1970. Progressive municipal agency is curtailed. The exception is provisional rent stability, won by home rule petition, allowing Somerville a role to keep market-rate housing affordable to low-income. One measure of success preventing displacement is applying such tools preventing evictions. 

The 2025 Aging Needs Assessment showed that age was the highest factor causing residents to feel excluded in Somerville, followed by race. The most prevalent housing problem of elderly is burden of housing costs. One scholar (Michael E. Stone, Shelter Poverty, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993, ch. 2) defines affordability based on whether individuals or families have enough money to pay for necessities such as child care, food or medical care after paying for housing, calculated on a sliding scale based on household size and income. The 2025 Aging Assessment reported: “Over a third of Hispanic or Latino respondents and 41% of Black or African American respondents disagree or strongly disagree that they have adequate resources to meet their needs.”

“Similarly, respondents of color cited greater frequencies of concern and uncertainty with respect to running out of food before having enough money to buy more, compared to white non-Hispanic participants (Figure 27). Only 10% of white non-Hispanic selected often true or sometimes true, and 2% selected “I don’t know” in response to the statement, “In the past 12 months, I worried whether my food would run out before I got money to buy more.” In comparison, 20% of Asian respondents and 24% of respondents of other racial identities reported this level of worry. Moreover, a third of Hispanic or Latine respondents and 41% of Black or African American respondents reported often or sometimes true. Access to food, in relation to financial security, is a concern for Somerville residents, particularly among those from a minoritized identity.”

In sum, Somerville is not securing basic protection under the law when the burden of housing is so cumbersome that food insecurity is such a major concern.

 

Question 5: What steps would you take to continue to support fair housing in light of the Trump administration’s weakening of HUD and attack on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rules?

 A weaker HUD spells erosion of the right to housing.  I see it as a matter of rescuing stranded delivery. Since passage of The Fair Housing Act in 1968 recipients of HUD funds have been required to avoid active discrimination, but also affirmatively work to undo the damage of segregation and build more inclusive communities. Here in Somerville, inclusionary housing is 15% of Somerville’s public housing stock and 251 unites were in the inclusionary zoning pipeline as of 2023. On average, in FY 2023 a market-rate sold 3.6 times a comparable inclusionary homeownership unit.

To continue fair housing and prevent the desertification of the elderly it is critical to have flexible programmatic funding supporting the housing burden that falls most disproportionately on the very low income. The Suffolk University Housing Discrimination Testing program is a potential partner.  Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing Plans typically provides for a lottery and active marketing of inclusionary units to households with Section 8 vouchers. Without continued intervention of the 100 Homes Initiative and the Early Acquisition Fund, gentrification of Magoun Square, Duck Village and portions of East Somerville is all but annihilating options for moderate-income. It's a new and darker day than those that closed the Clarendon Hill redevelopment, and accepted the proposed development of 299 Broadway. The rental stabilization group composed of representatives from the City's Office of Housing Stability, Somerville Housing Authority, and other actors such as the Somerville Homeless Coalition which administers eviction prevention fund dispersals. Fair Housing criterion will ensure that reductionist, income-only factors are not the only determinate of qualifying recipients.

Take a feasible program and consider the legal difference between ‘may’ and ‘shall’. A mortgage insurance program capitalized by the housing trust may provide insurance for loans. In 2017, Somerville a similar program distributed 130 loans to whites, but only a handful to people of color. Whites compose roughly half the total number of low income persons but Shall the mortgage insurance program benefit those facing interlocking oppressions of race and poverty? Affirmatively furthering Fair Housing rules means it shall. Furthermore, as boomers seek to come back to the city while simultaneously downsizing, market predictions suggest a squeeze on housing stock, causing values of traditionally perceived starter homes to soar. We have to do better for first-time home buyers of color.

A resident I talked to blamed the fact sidewalks had not been repaired on policies supporting immigrants. When sewage overflow filled his basement and he had no recourse from the City to pay for cleanup, his response was to entrench in conservative ideas. He said, “We should only spend on what is necessary.” By that he meant municipalities should divest from direct services. He echoed a politics that produced a rollback in the early 1990s. For instance, The Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 authorized spending for a service coordinator program. That sounded good, and was based on success, but in practice it meant funding was not available for direct services but only less intensive support, the equivalent of deflecting constituents to Somerville Cambridge Elder Services. The resident also echoed a challenge to Somerville Affordable Housing Trust Fund in 2019, blocking the purpose of SAHTF to provide supportive housing. In 2024, State Rep. Christine Barber’s office led a push for a Home Rule Petition to expand the purposes of the Somerville Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The HRP will allow Somerville to provide direct services connected with suitable housing. I fully agree that aging society needs suitable housing linked with services.

HUD never fully took on responsibilities for assisting residents aging stay in place. A commonly expressed goal of older adults is to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible. Enjoying familiar community settings, with supports as needed, as opposed to moving to nursing homes. By aging in place, older adults can retain their independence, as well as maintain valued social relationships and engagement with the community. According to the 2023 Somerville census, there are 8046 residents 65 years and older. A third of those 65-75 remain in the workforce. Many elderly are concerned that City leadership does not recognize enough the knowledge of the city that elderly bring. With 1436 residents ages 75-84, and, 1492 residents over 85 years old, Somerville’s old-old need city leadership to take a step closer to listen. I agree with residents who have proposed an elderly liaison in City Hall to help navigate. In addition, I will advocate for progressive local property tax policies, zoning, or other regulatory changes to advance fair housing goals in Somerville. For instance, I support City revenue allocation to the Affordable Housing Trust fund, such as amendments to the Article 15 of the Somerville Zoning Ordinances (Linkage Zoning) project mitigation contribution for affordable housing. 

Question 6: Do you have any new programs or incentives to help small landlords maintain housing?

First home buyers often take on fixer-uppers. Small landlords face unexpected needs for repair. August 6th 2024 Governor Healey signed into law House Bill 4977 “An Act Relative to the Affordable Homes Act.” Now we can support landlords to make accommodations that optimize energy efficiency and weatherize their properties, sure the costs won't be offset onto tenants. Granted the City has a Climate Forward plan to address infrastructure neglect and anticipate storms in magnitude and duration we have not yet seen. Further liability is necessary to plan for. For homes vulnerable to sewage overflows, Municipal assisted disaster cleanup should be ordained as authorized emergency spending.

Second, nearly a quarter of Somerville households include someone age 60 or older--and their needs for transportation and health care are changing. According to the April 2025 Aging Needs Assessment, about half (54%) of survey respondents need home repairs to continue living in their residence safely. A third of survey respondents would prefer a senior independent living community if they had to move in the next 5 years due to health or physical ability; 23% would prefer a condo or townhome. in Somerville 19 percent of men over 65 are veterans suggesting the eligibility of many for programs based on their military service or that of their spouses. The Assessment gives a portrait of anticipated demographics essential to bear in mind for any new programs or incentives:

“According to projections generated by the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts, a consistent share of the older population in Somerville is expected in future decades. Donahue Institute projections suggest that by 2045, about 15% of Somerville’s residents will be age 60 or older—12% of Somerville’s population will be between the ages of 60 and 79, with an additional 3% age 80 and older.”

 A local program for those aging in place has a steady population forecast. Keeping the aging in our neighborhoods means we can benefit from their varied lived experience, skills, and interests.

Somerville can ill-afford unexpected costs such as the $20 million Cambridge recently incurred assuming demolition costs when a 66-unit condominium was deemed a threat to public safety. Somerville has not seen a surplus in several years, and tighter margins will put pressure on City Council to increase the tax base as it has through relinquishing affordable housing constraints on development. Unless we elect greater creativity. So here is my off-the-wall idea to include in negotiations for a future Community Benefit Agreement. I would love to see in Somerville a combined tool library and resource center for salvaged housing parts. Small landlords who want to maintain their housing would receive City incentive to join as members. These benefit from recycled furnishings, cabinets, sinks, toilets, tubs, doors, doorknobs--all that and more can be salvaged from homes marked for demolition. A nonprofit Carey Company Inc. which made its first home demolition salvage using a repair-micro grant, now has been able to repurpose 30percent of demolished home property. This makes sense for our reputation as innovative gleaning residents. Somerville housing is so valuable that most owners are able to realize a return on improvements, but at the same time, in 2021, there were 4960 households owners with below 30% Area Median Income carrying extreme cost burdens. Some of these households become subject to Inspectional Services Department mandated demolitions. My idea is for a repair-micro grant to help ease the cost of making renovations for these households and ultimately that spares Somerville tax-payers.  

If elected, I pledge support to increase opportunities for minority homebuyers, renters, and people with disabilities in neighborhoods where they are noticeably underrepresented. Let me share an instance that gives me hope here. As many proudly know, our local Community Development Financial Institution is the Somerville Community Corporation (SCC), which administers millions garnished in the Somerville Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Even more, grassroots power has made such change possible. Renters organized and challenged the Mayoral administration back when it had a surplus, a few years ago, of $33 million. They figured the City should do like when they get a check, Renters put at least a third of their income down. So should the city; renters called for an investment of $11 million for affordable housing. The City put in $8 million. Often, being an effective City Councilor means insisting on upholding our values no matter the expected weather and applauding what is working.

 

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