Questionnaire on Housing and Homelessness

The City funded and operated a well-run Warming Center this past winter, but it was not permanent and was not used as a Cooling Center.  

Will you commit to creating and financing a permanent, year-round Center?   If so, what steps will you take first? 

In Davis Square, I spoke with Health and Human Services outreach who told me the mobile showers unit is not servicing and the Somerville Homeless Coalition bathroom is no longer public.   I am sick at heart that these operational shortfalls go unnoticed. This questionnaire makes my heart happy. Sincerely, if interest I've shown to support unhoused through the Poor People's Campaign and the Somerville Human Rights Commission has limited impact or efficacy, this is why I am in the race for Councilor At-large. Since the 'Eviction' exhibit at the Armory where the warming center was and then Cummings School building site hosting winter warming center. I will research this proactively. While some will only argue feasibility grounds--what are we talking about about drawing in expenditures for four seasons in heating/ air conditioning, operation overhead, I want to end discrimination of the unhoused, provide equal access to dignity and care. If elected and assuming it would help defray costs I would happily serve day shifts.

Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) is an evidence-based approach that reduces instability and illness among vulnerable unhoused individuals and families. Public funds are available to cover the costs of supportive services and rent.    

Somerville is far behind other Massachusetts communities in developing this needed housing model.  

What do you see as the primary obstacles to expanding the number of PSH units in the city, and what strategies will you implement to overcome these barriers?

I am in this race to be a lightning rod for frustrations, which, especially coming from this community, I want to ground in appreciation. Political will in my view is an obstacle. The kind of new development I want to see is mission oriented. I pointed to the Aya complex in DC and the Jennings in New York (e.g. for the Aya see https://www.studio27arch.com/project/850-delaware-ave/, for the Jennings see https://www.archdaily.com/969012/the-jennings-supportive-housing-alexander-gorlin-architects). I have seen time and time again that the majority of the work needs to be done--legwork--to court the project--building buy-in from multiple parties, and as a convener, I will use my ability to draw folks together to create trust and bring together a cohort of committed housing activists to draw strength for this kind of development. Second, I know anecdotally about the renters who united when the City had a $33 plus million dollar surplus and pressured the City to give 1/3 of it, like they regularly must do, into affordable housing. The Stabilization fund, I believe, is one of the solutions such activism pioneered, as the Office of Housing Stability grew and supports while the Municipal Voucher Program covers vouchers for 29 families and the modest recommendation to increase it by families was determined on existing funding. Actually, The Somerville Affordable Housing Trust, thanks to the activists received not 1/3 or $11million, but close, $8 million--and the Home Rule Petition, which was an obstacle for there to be the supportive services. Finally, my commitment is on the bedrock of faith. Somerville does care to address these needs on an urgent timeline. The 2021 Housing Needs Assessment showed 6,400 residents live with disability; that 32,800 households would rise by 12% by 2024. With over 38,500 households, and an increase of 40% in the 75+ age cohort's whose acute needs are underrecognized. The forthcoming 2025 Housing Needs Assessment will likely tell us what we know, what you know, waiting for the long arc of justice to bend to care for the most vulnerable and unhoused. 

How will you deal with the unhoused persons living in parks and squares and balance the concerns raised by neighbors and businesses?  

A lot of Davis Square residents need acknowledgement from those of us residents who don't deal with this reality day to day. And East Somerville residents see another kind of neglect when two persons die in an abandoned Broadway storefront. As a resident of the middle, I think there is a tacit agreement where the policing of unhoused persons is to push toward the Davis Square poll, whereas thirty years ago, Trull Street we used to have addicts dying of overdoses on our street. The toxicologists now see that level elsewhere in Everett, I hear, less so in Somerville, but the needles strewn beside the bike path pointedly alarmed neighbors last year in a climate of pushback to the supervised-injection site--which I'm in favor of because its been proven the safest policy--and that's the priority I have. I appreciate the fact that the Mayor made a concerted effort at walk throughs and characterized unhoused persons as community members or former members back to visit their community. On the other hand their was a beefed up patrol schedule--so there was this dual action response. Empathy with restraint. Or so I recall having attended the October meeting in Davis Square--which I documented at length  (http://www.crspicer.net/2024/10/over-capacity-drug-use-syringes-and-sex.html). Door knocking I heard about deaths in an abandoned storefront in East Somerville. And about the encampment beneath I-93 which was a jurisdictional as well as Heath and Human Services juggle. I will never advocate police brute force, but do appreciate the role that community has relied on them to play. The known, familiar unhoused and those rolling in from encampment bustups elsewhere as occurred last year, demonstrates to me the need not to make assumptions, inquire with those on the ground about the context, and to the extent possible, continue outreach, preferably civilian-only supportive units.

Competition for lower-priced rental units in Somerville is fierce, and much of the available lower-cost housing has health and safety code violations.  

How will you protect Somerville residents from displacement, and how will you ensure that renters can live in safe housing? 

If elected, my focus will be on the 30 percent AMI rents in response to reported demand. I very well could get a call that about a basement apartment situation where the landlord is exploiting undocumented renters, describing how a woman and her baby are sleeping in a rocker within a circle of pest control poison desperately tolerating living conditions. The person on the phone admits a catch-22, if they call Inspections, landing a violation, then the landlord will just raise the rent. If not, they're tacit complicity with the exploitative landlord. I heard this very case. Continuing in my current position as Human Rights Commissioner, I will envision a solution along the lines of gathering public political will to address displacement. There is so much needed follow up to the recommendations of the Anti-Displacement Task Force, including countering the narrative that this isn't winnable. My priority is for programs that alleviate cost burdens for extremely low-income rental households; studies show such programs forward equity further than those designed for low or middle-income households. Addressing protocol and culture is a soft compliment to this policy. Here the key is training city employees to support renters living in safe housing. I will take my cue from the Community Action Agency of Somerville to authorize funding for sensitivity training for employees of the Inspectional Services Department who enforce building code, just so they have further tools to assess the human situation.

Somerville's traditional affordable housing stock of 2- and 3-unit owner-occupied homes has diminished through condo conversion or sale to investor-landlords.  

How will you encourage/incentivize preservation of this important housing resource?  

The 2019 zoning ordinance sought to protect and reinforce the character of these neighborhood. Over half of Somerville's 34,802 housing units are three- or four-units and the perservation vector by implication requires a candidate deeply invested in the neighborhood, like my family, which built an extension as our family expanded, rather than leave Somerville. Yes, I count it a blessing to live in Magoun Square on a street with the city average of 33 percent owner occupied homes. But the 8--unit owner-occupied are becoming 2-units. Clearly, less from locavesting neighbors, but more and more remote owners--in some instances, 3,400 miles away. And it's a question of the social contract. If we are talking about encouraging preservation, then we're saying we will offer an alternative to the irresistible cash offers. Otherwise the three-four generation families sell as the inheritance. The Trull Street case study I made shows multiple shell companies backed by capital investment firms. I do expect that preservation of 2- and 3-unit owner occupied will need an outspoken advocate. Please see www.ElectSpicer.com and vote Spicer on September 16 and November 4.

What concrete steps will you take to accelerate the production of NEW affordable housing in Somerville?  

The supply of affordable housing must be spurred intentionally, in partnership, especially to create and preserve housing for extremely low and very low-income residents. The reservation of nearly 900 luxury rental units marked 'other vacant' was flagged in 2021 as a contributing factor to the shortage of affordable housing. Critical funds should be raised by real estate transfer fee. Strategic, short-term rental excise taxes can offset funding losses caused by reductions in federal support. And I will pursue regulatory techniques like inclusionary zoning.

I want to listen better. It will most help me to act if I can help communicate the story of our extremely-low income residents, elevating who they are, what they look like, how they sound, what they feel, what hopes and fears they harbor. Otherwise, the work is abstract--addressing the housing crisis---a national concern according to the GAP report of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. MA has 44 affordable homes available per 100 extremely low-income renter households. I support the policy goal of increasing deed restricted affordable housing from 10% to 15%. In order to reach that target within two budget cycles the Council would have to come to consensus not to advance majority popular budget requests until the priority were locked down. To even make the ship turn, the prevailing attitude in the administration has to shift. That is, I stand quite contrary to the idea that new affordable housing won't be built without the promise to developers of it going market-rate, an odd-duck attitude the current administration insisted on being embedded in the anti-displacement report. My bias is that the production of new affordable housing after World War II happened when for a brief period there was a 90 percent marginal income tax. I do not doubt that within our progressive Somerville the political will is capable of the shift, but I would expect a lot of pushback. But if enough stories of extremely low-income renters--can be vocal, we can clear the needed approvals for production 'acceleration'.   

What do you see as the single most important initiative that you will launch and champion to address the housing pressures in Somerville?  

Large households need a scaled intervention to alleviate their housing burden.  Without this, displacement only creates further costs, re-orienting, moving costs, transportation, lack of social survival networks. The housing pressure in Somerville is pervasive, but the needs of extremely low-income have disproportionately increased. Overcrowding is estimated at 375 units, mainly rental properties. Single women with related children comprise 66 percent of families below poverty in Somerville, and 12 percent of adults over 65 live below poverty, according to 2021 needs assessment. My initiative will address households of 5 or more people. According to the 2017 needs study, 52.4 percent of such households experienced (versus 40.8 percent of families regionally) at least one of the following: incomplete plumbing facilities and/or kitchen, more than one person per bedroom, or cost burden greater than 50 percent. This initiative can begin as any collective action--we're talking about decent, dignified housing as a human right. With grassroots support to implement the initiative, residents who live below poverty have greater freedom to age-in-place with new hope of making home improvement. Modeling the initiative on available green retrofits included in the New Homes Act, which the Governor recently signed, I look forward to setting aside greater funding with matching state funds to give extremely low-income residents access to home renovations.

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