City Council support of S1022/H.1559, An Act to maintain stable housing for families with pets, and H.4835, An Act to codify pet-friendly elderly housing policies and ensure pet parity across housing authorities

How it started

Mar 12, 2026 · Proposed by Councillors McGovern and Sobrinho-Wheeler: a formal request from the Council to the administration. Joined at the meeting by Mayor Siddiqui and Councillor Simmons, added from the floor by motion.

What happened

Mar 16, 2026 · ✅ Order adopted as amended (voice vote, 7 present · two absent)

Voted yes (7), unanimous

Ayah Al-Zubi
Burhan Azeem
Tim Flaherty
Marc McGovern
E. Denise Simmons
Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler
Sumbul Siddiqui

Absent (2)

Patty Nolan
Cathie Zusy

Roll call of Mar 16, 2026 · from the council’s minutes · photos: City of Cambridge

What’s next

⌛ No response on the docket: nothing has been filed back under this request's number. Answers sometimes arrive as other items; this ledger tracks only this one.

The document Agenda item attachment · 2 pages

🏛 The city's agenda for this meeting: Mar 16, 2026the city publishes no page for a single item: this one is a row on that agenda📄 Download original PDF

1022/H. 1559, An Act to maintain stable housing for families with pets, would help ensure that responsible pet owners are not unnecessarily displaced or denied housing due to reasonable pet ownership; and H.

4835, An Act to codify pet-friendly elderly housing policies and ensure pet parity across housing authorities, would establish consistent and humane standards so that seniors living in public housing have fair and equitable access to pet companionship; and No one should have to choose between a well-behaved pet and their home; now therefore be it RESOLVED: That the Cambridge City Council hereby expresses its strong support for S. 1022/H. 1559 and H.

4835 and urges the Massachusetts Legislature to enact these bills to protect stable housing and promote humane, pet-friendly housing policies across the Commonwealth; and be it further RESOLVED: That the City Clerk be and hereby is requested to forward suitably engrossed copies of this resolution to the Cambridge State House delegation on behalf of the entire City Council. In City Council March 16, 2026.

Adopted as Amended by Affirmative

Vote of Seven Members:-

Attest:- Paula M. Crane, Interim City Clerk A true copy; ATTEST:- Paula M. Crane

Interim City Clerk

🗓 The meeting where this was taken up: Mar 16, 2026