Committee Report CR-5
The Housing Committee held a public meeting on September 27, 2006, beginning at two o’clock and nine minutes P.M. in the Sullivan Chamber. The meeting was held for the purpose of discussing follow-up of the roundtable meeting of the City Council and the Affordable Housing Trust, including a strategy for coordinating long-term housing goals.
Present at the meeting were Councillor Anthony D. Galluccio, Chair of the Committee, Councillor Henrietta Davis, Councillor Marjorie C. Decker, Councillor Craig Kelley, Councillor Brian Murphy and City Clerk Margaret Drury. Also present were Robert W. Healy, City Manager, Beth Rubenstein, Assistant City Manager of Community Development, Christopher Cotter, Housing Director, Community Development (CDD), Cassandra Arnoud, Housing Division, CDD, and Zoë Weinrobe, Housing Division, CDD. The following members of the Affordable Housing Trust were present: Peter Daly, Michael Haran, Barbara Shaw, Susan Schlesinger and Florrie Darwin.
Councillor Galluccio convened the meeting and explained the purpose. He stated that the April 12, 2003 facilitated roundtable discussion between the Council and the Affordable Housing Trust (the Trust) had been informative and helpful. Some very interesting issues about changing demographics and long-term housing goals were discussed. He said that he would like to explore how the City Council and the Trust could be more useful to each other. He noted, however, that a more collaborative relationship would require communication between the entire membership of the City Council and the entire membership of the Trust.
Councillor Davis said that she thought that the roundtable was constructive and that there should be follow up in a variety of ways. She suggested that the Trust and the Council have a second meeting and plan on having either one or two meetings per year. The Trust could also respond with more information on some of the topics that were discussed. She asked Ms. Schlesinger for her opinion.
Ms. Schlesinger said that she also found the roundtable helpful and added that the less formal the setting, the better. With regard to the issue of reports, she said that producing reports is a staff function so Ms. Rubenstein and her staff could best respond to that issue.
Councillor Galluccio asked how the participants could turn the sessions into joint goal-setting discussions. He said that he would like to know the reasons for the choices that the Trust makes. For example, if he had known that tax credits are such a substantial source of the funding for affordable housing, and the need to satisfy the requirements for obtaining tax credits is often on of the main deciding factors as to whether the housing will be rental or ownership units, he would have been more understanding and less critical of the ration of rental to ownership units being produced with city funds.
Mr. Healy emphasized the importance of recognizing and understanding the milieu in which affordable housing development takes place. It is a real estate-bound market and the income requirements for the various subsidies make the issue of the income of those who will live in the housing very big, and affects the Trust’s positions on issues like whether to finance live-work space for artists. The Trust does not want to build workspaces.
Ms. Rubenstein said that the Trust and staff believe that there is a city housing policy. She read the following paragraph entitled “City of Cambridge Affordable Housing Policy.”
“It is the City’s policy to preserve the diversity of the community by offering a wide range of housing programs to meet the needs of very low, low and moderate-income residents. Wherever possible such rental and homeownership housing is made permanently affordable, built in areas throughout the city, with particular emphasis on production of units of appropriate size for families with children.”
Councillor Galluccio said that he is not sure that the Council is comfortable with a message of more and more affordable housing with the type of housing being determined just by what type of housing there are subsidies available for. He would like to know that there is still demand for whatever kinds of affordable housing are being produced with city funds. He would like to see the data on demand from the actual application statistics.
Ms. Schlesinger said that right after the end of rent control in Cambridge there was a sharp increase in demand for small, single-occupant units. However, the Trust still stayed with its focus on the production of family units because of the City’s overarching policy of trying to maintain the diversity of the community by offering a range of housing programs with a particular emphasis on production of units of appropriate size for families with children in the Cambridge schools. Similarly, in the recent Garment District Building redevelopment, the Trust pushed CASCAP to have units for families, even though there were issues with creating family spaces there.
Councillor Galluccio said that there are value and policy judgments involved in defining what maintaining diversity means. Ms. Schlesinger added that there are also issues involved in deciding what Cambridge residency encompasses, as was discussed at the April roundtable.
Councillor Galluccio expressed concern about whether the City affordable housing programs provide sufficiently for transitions from public housing rental units to homeownership. He would like to see a family that starts out as tenants at Jefferson Park be able to move on to one of the newer affordable rental units, for example a rental unit at Trolley Square and finally, to an affordable homeownership unit.
Mr. Daly said that the affordable housing agencies have gotten the message on this issue and are now sending lots of information about such opportunities to CHA tenants. Mr. Cotter added that there have been many applicants for the Trolley Square units from tenants at 402 Rindge Avenue and other affordable housing developments.
Councillor Kelley asked whether the Trust would change its policies if the City Council said that it did not agree with those policies. He said that he senses a shift in the attitudes of residents. People do not want bigger, denser developments. If you look at the use of CPA funds, you will see that none of the funds went to support affordable housing projects in the expensive neighborhoods in Cambridge. He added that it does not make sense to him to talk about affordable housing without representation from the School Committee. The kids who are doing poorly in Cambridge are disproportionately from affordable housing.
Ms. Darwin asked Councillor Kelley what specifically do residents who have talked to him dislike about housing policy. Councillor Kelley responded that they do not like the inclusionary zoning bump up. Ms. Schlesinger noted that the Trust has nothing to do with the bonus units mandated by inclusionary zoning; the inclusionary zoning policy is City Council policy enunciated in the Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance adopted by the City Council and applied to private developments, not projects funded with Affordable Housing Trust funds. Ms. Darwin added that the Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance is the method by which most affordable housing units have been added in West Cambridge.
Ms. Schlesinger said that from the process point of view, it would be useful to categorize the City Council’s housing issues so that the discussions could take place with the staff and organizations that can effect changes in that area. The Trust has a broad policy overview, while the City Housing Staff can speak to tenant selection and management issues.
Councillor Galluccio raised the issue of the need to bring the police and CHA into a discussion about the management issue of kids and young adults hanging around projects at night. He gave the example of housing on Columbia Street. Mr. Daly agreed that there is a strong need for discussion with police personnel to clarify lines of responsibility and ways to cooperate more effectively. Councillor Galluccio said that the owner and manager is responsible for problem tenants and tenant misbehavior and the police are responsible for problems caused by non-tenants hanging around outside. Police need a better understanding of their enforcement powers with regard to non-tenants on the property.
Councillor Galluccio asked what the Trust’s response would be if the City Council were to establish a policy that all affordable housing units of more than 10 units should have live-in building management. Mr. Healy said that such an issue would be an operating cost issue, not a broad housing policy. Ms. Schlesinger said that the vast majority of residential buildings, whether private sector or public do not need on-sight management. Such a management expense would not be contemplated in a 10 unit private building; it is not rational to assume live-in management is necessary just because the residents have less money. Twenty-four hour on-site management is appropriate for large developments or special needs housing, but certainly not for the majority of the projects that the Trust provides funding for. The Trust has established the broad policy that affordable housing units should be equal to and not distinguishable from private market units in the city. Mr. Rossi stated that he grew up in a six-unit private apartment building in East Cambridge. Most of the tenants were quiet and caused no problems, but there were two or three families that were constantly causing problems. Subsidized housing is no different.
Councillor Galluccio said that sometimes it seems to the Council that 90% of the reason for project placement and design is cost. Mr. Daly said that in a recent project developed by HRI, there were 12 different sources of funding and seven of those sources had their won architectural design review.
Ms. Schlesinger said that the State has set an artificial cap of $300,000 per unit for affordable housing projects all over the state, the same cap for Fall River, Springfield, Somerville, Boston, Cambridge, etc. So in high cost places like Cambridge, there is a big problem. The City ends up putting in additional funds, because that cap is just not realistic. Ms. Schlesinger added that it is very clear that at a certain cost per unit, the State would just say that it couldn’t justify putting in any funds. Mr. Haran said that if the City Council were to decide that its top priority was putting affordable housing in areas where the cost per unit for land and construction was $600,000, as it is in parts of Cambridge, the City would be looking at building expensive units without State assistance.
Councillor Galluccio noted that the City Council would be meeting to set its goals for the upcoming fiscal year in November. He asked whether there are clarifications of City Council goals that would be helpful to the Trust in doing its work. The following suggestions were made:
Members of the Trust agreed that they would like very much to know whether the overarching goals of the Trust to maintain the diversity of the city by offering a range of housing for very low, low and moderate-income units with emphasis in production of units for families with children are still the goals of the City Council.
Mr. Haran and Ms. Schlesinger also said that in neighborhood processes and meetings, when there is some controversy about whether affordable housing should be built, it is very helpful when there is a City Councillor who is willing to come to the meeting and stand up for affordable housing. That kind of positive leadership has an enormous effect on the neighborhood dynamic and the outcome of the project.
There was also some discussion of the role that the City Council could play with the State Legislative delegation. Ms. Schlesinger noted that the upcoming elections will bring changes, one way or another, to the executive leadership. It will be a time for reevaluation of programs. There are some parts of the state program that work well for Cambridge, and others that are problematic. This would be a very good time for the City Council to discuss legislative and state housing policy issues with the Cambridge delegation to the State House.
Finally, those present agreed that there should be a follow-up informal roundtable meeting of the City Council and the Affordable Housing Trust in December or January and that there should be at least one and perhaps two such roundtables each year.
Councillor Galluccio convened the meeting and explained the purpose Councillor Galluccio thanked all those in attendance for their participation, and said that this discussion would be helpful in setting the future agenda for the Housing Committee.