A communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager, relative to an additional response to Calendar Item No. 1 (POR 2023-97) of June 5, 2023, requesting that the City Manager work with the Law Department and Human Rights Commission and all other Relevant Departments to Provide Comments on the Draft Amendments to the Cambridge Human Rights Ordinance and the Cambridge Fair Housing Ordinance

1 Date: November 6, 2023 To: Yi-An Huang, City Manager Fr: Carolina Almonte, Acting Executive Director, Cambridge Human Rights Commission Re: Additional Response to Calendar Item No. 1 (POR 2023-97) of June 5, 2023, requesting that the City Manager work with the Law Department and Human Rights Commission and all other Relevant Departments to Provide Comments on the attached Draft Amendments to the Cambridge Human Rights Ordinance and the Cambridge Fair Housing Ordinance. I write in follow up to my original response, dated September 8, 2023, attached as Exhibit A, to the above referenced policy order. In preparing this additional response, I discussed the proposed amendments and my recommendations with the Cambridge Human Rights Commission (“CHRC”) during our monthly meeting on October 5, 2023. Overall, the CHRC was in favor of my recommendations. When discussing the recommendations, Commissioners recommended adding “lawful” in the definition of “Relationship Status” and “Family Structure” to make clear that unlawful relationships, such as polygamy and incest, are not protected under the City’s Ordinances. Another Commissioner asked if these changes will protect pregnant women and households that include a grandparent and child. I explained that pregnant women fall under “Family Status” discrimination complaints. “Multi-generational households,” including those with grandparents and children, would be covered under “Family Structure” discrimination complaints. Lastly, a Commissioner raised a concern about current staffing levels since the Commission will be the only enforcement agency to handle these types of complaints in Cambridge. I explained that the Commission is looking into hiring additional personnel. Furthermore, CHRC has no objection to using “non-nuclear” in place of “non-traditional” in the definition of “Family Structure,” as proposed by a local advocate. We agree that this change provides for greater precision and inclusivity. As part of the Commission’s grant funding from HUD for its enforcement efforts, changes to the Fair Housing Ordinance must be reviewed by HUD and found to be “substantially equivalent” to the Federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) before HUD will approve the proposed changes. The proposed amendments to the Fair Housing Ordinance have been reviewed by HUD and HUD has indicated that the proposed amendments do not impact HUD’s prior finding that the Fair Housing Ordinance is substantially equivalent to the Federal Fair Housing Act because the proposed amendments are simply adding additional protected classes. In sum, based on input from the CHRC and advocates, I recommend the following revised edits to the proposed draft amendments to the Human Rights and Fair Housing Ordinances, as proposed in POR 2023- 97, which was Calendar Item No. 1 of June 5, 2023, for the full City Council’s consideration. Please see my attached redlined edits to the proposed recommended amendments as Exhibit B. The redlined amendments were accepted by the Ordinance Committee on September 12, 2023, and I recommend the further highlighted amendments, as explained above.

2 REVISED EDITS TO PROPOSED AMENDMENTS As shown in the attached redlined ordinances, each category would be added to both ordinances under CHRC’s jurisdiction. The new proposed definitions are as follows: 1. “Relationship Status” means the actual or perceived involvement or lack thereof of an individual in a lawful, intimate personal relationship or relationships including but not limited to interpersonal relationships between two or more consenting adults that involve romantic physical or emotional intimacy. 2. “Family Structure” means a single person, or two persons, or a lawful consensual non- monogamous or lawful consensual multi-partner family structure which may include one or more parents, stepparents or legal guardians of a minor child or children and/or two or more consenting adults in a multi-partner and/or multi-parent family structure, including stepparents, multi- generational and/or other non-nuclear families. Very truly yours, ______________________________ Carolina Almonte Acting Executive Director Enc.