Good evening.

This is the committee for housing and community development and equity.

I am City Councillor at large, Kristen Strasso.

Today is Wednesday, April 15th, 2026.

And it is 6.02 p.m.

We are broadcasting this meeting live in person, hybrid setting.

And a link post meeting to order.

All right, this is real quick.

Council Say.

Council link.

So do we wonderful?

Can we do the please scale fifth?

Counseling link is craft in your indeed.

Okay, hopefully we have a little bit.

So the RCA in the area where you can't access these text of all one of us with the property lecture.

So pursue into chapter two of the access five city council committee will be conducted for posting money, then you're reporting transfer for other proceedings as soon as possible.

And for the meeting on the city is the website and the role.

So uh our first item is the pitting minutes or item two six zero.

Three six six January 28th, 26th.

Also six or three so four of the community scores.

So our first item piece is item 2650.

Thank you.

Always thank you very much, madam chair.

Um sure.

Uh I'm gonna go through briefly some of the data that I presented in memorandum that should have gone out last week.

Um, but to update you on where things are um with the opposite task disability and the issues that we look at.

So first we just recorded some OHS case data.

Um I wouldn't know if this document the last time we came in here and we spoke with you to update you.

Data was through September of 2025.

So this period that I'm talking about now is a five-month period from October 2025 to the end of February 2026.

Um, and during that five-month period, we had 505 new um new requests for assistance with 471 unique households, meaning not 25 of them repeated, but we're not fixed that five-month period of time that we're looking for assistance with um with some kind of housing security services.

So we have about 94 unique new requests for assistance each month.

Um data about this is that um 37% of those households or 186% of the of those referrals were at risk of displacement, and if those at risk of displacement, 94 have already received the notes to quit or some of the classes complete, um, which formed the starts of the process.

About half of these um residents spoke a language other than English, which as you know is is disproportionate to the populations in the city of Somerville, so it does tell us that a lot of the housing instability um is greatest in our living communities.

Um, and we also had um in addition to that, about a quarter of the households that we'd have to services for us requested assistance to pay for over.

Um moving on in terms of rental assistance.

Between all three programs, CAS, the homeless coalition, and RAF, which is the state rental assistance program during this five-month period.

We paid out 485,000 approximately in rental assistance, both for startup costs, rental assistance careers, and prospective rent on behalf of Somerville residents.

And what I thought I would do is just do a little comparison of this five-month period with those were last year.

I think probably everybody who knows that we are looking at a tough financial situation in the city here.

So we had in the past about 2.1 million dollars in funding annually for rental assistance.

That money is scheduled to be depleted in the fall.

I think the mayor and the city council, I hope everybody will do their best to figure out sources of funds to have a robust program going forward.

But in anticipation of this, we have tightened our criteria a little bit.

So we're trying to figure out how tightening of criteria may or may not affect the number of evictions that we'll see.

So in the period of January of 2025 through September of 2025, we paid out an average, we paid out 259,000 a month for rentals.

In the last five months, it is now less than half.

So it was $97,000 a month, which is again a little bit less than half the amount we had been paid.

And I'd say a couple of things about that.

One is that we have tightened criteria.

So where there are people that are coming back again and again and again.

We look at what their housing stability plans are.

We try to look at what we can do to move them into permanent affordable housing, but we've been a little stricter at saying here were the four things that you're supposed to do, and maybe they did them and maybe they do.

So some changes due to that to the criteria.

Also, there were periods where either CAS or SHC were closed, particularly around the holidays at the city because this getting, you know, this goes over December or part of January.

So I think some of the reduction in number amount of money paid out was due to staff closures or people closing down intake, sort of between I'd say the you know, December in December again.

So we'll see in the next report where we are and how much we're spending per month going forward in rental assistance.

Um, and as you'll see, it doesn't look yet like this is impacted on the eviction data, but I want to be honest in saying that if we're giving out less rental assistance at some points, it is inevitable that there will be some increase in the number of evictions based on the amount of money that's available to folks for rental assistance.

And just turning to the eviction data for a moment, you can see um we there were in this five-month period 105 summary process cases filed, and non-payment of rent, 86% of those cases are not.

So we can show you again, as I say directly, the rental assistance is so clearly linked to the overall number of people that are likely to find themselves with executions for being evicted.

Um, in this time period, though, the number of executions were 22, and the rate actually has stayed fairly constant.

So in the year in the full year of 2025, we had an average of 4.2 executions.

And just for the audience, and if anybody doesn't know, um an execution is the piece of paper that allows the sheriff to move somebody's stuff out or the constable to move their stuff out.

So it's the very end stages of eviction, but not every case where there's an execution do people actually lose their housing, mostly because of rental assistance.

That if we find somebody, even if they didn't get to us all the way until after their court process and after a judgment against them.

Sometimes if we can pay up the rearages, and the landlord doesn't think the same thing's going to happen the next month because they just don't have enough money, we can sometimes resolve these cases even at that late stage where this issue.

Um I did provide you guys with a chart to compare the rates of executions from the different cities and towns that are near us for this five-month period.

Um, the one I'm really baffled about is Medford because they were had a high rate of executions last month.

But as you can see, ours in Somerville is our rate of our executions per 1,000 households in poverty.

We didn't want to, we wanted to make sure we were looking at apples to apples as we compared how we're doing to how other cities are doing.

So we're looking at the number of executions for evictions for every thousand people.

So you can see from this document that we have about a third the rate of evictions or executions as Malton.

We're very similar to Cambridge, about three, we had 311, they had 302.

And Waltham, you can see is almost double the rates of addiction.

Again, I'm gonna say execution.

I can't know how many of those folks actually would work at homes, but the number of executions.

So we're still doing about parallel to Cambridge, which really makes sense because Cambridge also has robust rental assistance programs, legal assistance programs, it's kind of similar to what we are doing here in Somerville.

So those numbers, and as you can see, the rates of execution for addiction are way lower than in some of the other neighboring meets.

And the only other thing, and so again, at this point, the lower amount of rental assistance, I think it makes sense that lowering amounts of assistance would not catch up to numbers for a while still.

So I think we have to wait at least another quarter or two quarters to see how things shake out in terms of if are we achieving sending out less money for rental assistance but still keeping people in their home, or are we losing just a significant number because we're unable to continue the rentals for as long as needed folks in housing until they get independent affordable housing.

Um, and then the last thing, and then obviously love to hear any questions.

I did just want to tell people a little bit about the federal context.

I know that that there's just been a lot happening in the housing world.

Um, and the first thing just to let you know was that uh, well, first of all, SHA, Somerville Housing Authority is what we called any shortfall, which means they're spending more money than they have on their Section 8 program.

So the Somerville Housing Authority has already made a decision that they're gonna try to deal with this shortfall through attrition.

So they're gonna try not to have to take any Section 8s away from repo because they're overextended, but they won't be reissuing a number, they won't be reissuing these vouchers until their spending is back down where it needs to be.

And I think you may remember, but the housing authority increased its payment standards a lot because the rents had gone up so much.

So now it's easier for folks with Section 8 vouchers to find a place to live within the rental ops, but the rents had gone up so much that it is causing them now to have to not have quite as many vouchers.

So there's a real trade-off between giving people enough money to allow them to lease Somerville effectively, and then using the overall numbers that very few are being given to families.

So it's it's it is what it is.

Um, and that's that's the situation, an important situation to know, which is very different than four years ago, where there were constantly vouchers being issued, and it was always in you know a good path for let's say my office to get somebody permanently housed.

Um, and two other federal updates I wanted to give.

One was that HUD sent a notice to all the housing authorities saying that there were families with discrepancies between them being in federal housing and the documentation of their eligible immigration steps.

So they identified, had identified 50 families that they said were there was something missing in their documentation that they wanted the housing authority to go back and re-verify and recheck everybody's immigration status to see if those 50 families were actually eligible for housing.

And the good news, the bad news and the good news, um, two things came out of that.

There were fortunately one we know of and possibly only two families that were found to be completely federally ineligible for the program.

All of the rest were found to still be eligible, but some additional families, and I'm waiting for some data on this from the Somerville Housing Authority.

Some families had their rents go up significantly.

So if you had two immigrant eligible people in a household of four, and they checked the verification and they say, Oh no, only one person really qualifies, and you have three people that aren't really eligible, the rents would go up.

So there were about I'm waiting for data still, but maybe about five families that have been impacted in that way, in that once they rechecked all the verifications, their rents went up significantly.

Um then that one for now we have we have worked with two families that we were able to get fully re-verified and to help through the process of this to make sure their rents did not go up.

We'll see some of them.

There may be nothing we can do about whatsoever, but we were able to show that the data that they had was not accurate.

The bigger issue, which I'm sure you guys have heard about is this proposed HUD rule on mixed immigrant status households, which, if implemented, right?

This came out in February.

The comment period goes to April 21st.

If this becomes effective, this rule, what it'll mean is that there's 34 mixed immigrant households in Somerville that are either in SHA federal housing or have section eights.

Of those 34 families, what they will each be told is either they have to kick out any person in their family who is not immigration eligible.

That could be a parent, it could be a child, a minor child, which might, in some cases, if they did that, either force them to leave or force a child into foster care.

They might divide up married couples or couples with permanent long-standing relationships, or the whole family loses their housing.

So this is the you know, pretty catastrophic like situation that we're in.

I did, I think I you all may have received them.

I did submit comments to HUD on this, um, and Jasmine was helpful to me in this, but there is you know a movement statewide and nationwide to try to get as many comments in as possible because HUD actually has to respond to each unique set of comments, um, which could take some time, if nothing else.

Um, but I think as a city, I'm just putting this on the radar because I think we're really going to just be having to think about whether there's anything housing authority can do anything we can do.

Is there just for example, might we look at some of our programs like our municipal voucher program or inclusionary program and say we should give a super priority to these families to go to the top of those wait lists because otherwise they're going to be literally probably either forced back into their home into the countries wherever they came from or homeless because none of them will have the great housing.

So it's something for us to be thinking about, keep our eyes on.

I imagine we won't really know until maybe this summer, um, by the time they've responded to all the comments and to see what happens with this.

But as a city, I do just want us to keep our eyes on what happens to this population of folks that are currently in Somerville and would be negatively by this mutual positivity.

So the other thing is as horrible as it is.

My hope is if it does happen, maybe they will say we'll only do it prospectively because they've gotten enough comments to talk about the harm for existing families.

Obviously, that's catastrophe too for new immigrants coming in, but but you know, if I I anything that would at least help to keep those families from having to lose their housing would be aware at this point.

Um that's and then let us think there's anything else.

I think, oh, and then the I should give you something hopeful.

I'm gonna give you guys something that have to think of something hopeful at the end here before I end.

But um, the other last thing fair housing issues is HUD just withdrew a whole lot of their fair housing notices.

And so, for example, some of these, one of these is there was a notice that did say if you threaten to call INS on a tenant, that can constitute national origin discrimination because that is constantly an issue where we have tenants that are afraid to enforce their rights when they're undocumented who are afraid to ask for repairs, etc.

And there was this good, there were some good court cases and this good notice, and um that was withdrawn.

We don't know how that would or wouldn't impact courts going forward on whether or not that's still the constitute national origin discrimination.

And I will note that all the HUD withdrawals, there's still state law and there's still state law discrimination.

So I would hope that even if we couldn't pursue things under federal law, that there would still be an avenue for pursuing fair housing violations on the state side, but all of this, I think the impact of all of this is also um up in the air, and these relate to reasonable accommodation, national arguments discrimination.

They now want to say criminal records, there's just the last one, and then all the staff.

I know I'm speaking a lot, but one last one is there's a HUD memo that says an arrest in and of itself can't be grounds for disqualification because of the bias that has been shown in arrests.

So the law had said that you can only use people and or open cases, but not arrests as a reason to disqualify some open housing.

And that's another one that they um.

So the good news is there's great organizing going on around all of these issues.

There's a lot of resistance, and none of them are in place right now.

So we aren't we haven't yet seen disastrous impacts from these head changes.

Um I think you know, people are really fighting back in a good way, but just wanted you to be aware of these things that are out there and that's my update.

My joyful second has something before I end, but um, yeah, so that's where things are currently.

Uh questions for um site.

Uh thank you for the presentation.

Um, I don't that last thing that was said, uh, I couldn't hear it, and they didn't want to interrupt uh counselor Strezzo when you're speaking, it can also not hear.

So if that thing could be moved, that would be great.

Sure.

Um your slide.

I was the director's whole presentation.

Um, thank you, director.

Yeah, that's why maybe when you guys say, oh, yeah, no, for sure.

That's okay.

Counselor site, thank you for letting us know.

And before um the meeting, next time we have it, we will make sure we check in about that.

Okay.

It's all good, just moving that to that side.

It's very common when we have meetings in that room.

Thank you.

And you did not catch the last part of what uh director said.

The director, I heard the whole presentation, but I don't know if you counselor Streso spoke because that from that seat is the part I can I hear.

Okay.

Okay, got it.

Um, any uh I uh before I I close the uh keep this item in committee.

Did you have any thoughts before we uh before we move on, counselor?

I do not have any questions, just wanted to thank the director for providing us with this information.

I think for all the work you do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Gary.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

All right, we'll keep this in committee.

Uh next item Order 26049.

That the director of housing report to this council, how many new housing units have been approved for development year by year since adoption of summer vision 2040, and of those numbers, how many are permanently affordable and how the department defines affordability.

This agenda item.

I put forward and I put this uh at the request of some housing advocates that we can for some data and happy to uh talk this through.

Uh we have Alana uh Daphne from uh the deputy director of housing here to speak on this item.

Uh and uh we have the lovely company detachment.

Ah, thank you very much.

And the direct deputy director, you have thank you for doing thank you, thank you, madam chair.

Um I think to start, it's really important to um go through the initial language of the order just so we are of the same definitions.

I yeah, um, so uh we did end up providing this data.

The chart shows uh the number of building permits that were issued per year.

So it was stated uh the how many new housing units have been approved for development, so that approved for development refers to building permits for us in terms of um residential new development as well.

That is its own um classification within our system.

So I just want to make sure I call to that beyond that the year to year since adoption of summer vision.

So we defined that particular um uh length of time.

So we said October 1st, 2021 through uh we ended it at March 31st, 2026.

We just wanted to get that full snapshot.

Um, and of those numbers, how many are permanently affordable?

Um and how we define affordability.

Uh so we do provide a little bit more context in that initial paragraph to to speak to that.

Um permanently affordable at this point.

If there are units that are coming online, they are very likely going to have some means of a deed restriction.

So many of the units, especially if they're all affordable, if we're talking about inclusionary.

Uh it when we're saying what we define as affordable.

So uh, I mean, the definition that we would typically go by is um a portable housing is defined as housing units that are designated for household earning below 80% of the area median income.

With that said, we're not capturing the entire portfolio, particularly around inclusionary housing, if we do that.

So we went ahead and we expanded it a little bit to be income restricted.

Um, I hope that's all right.

Um, perfect.

Um, so and just noting that we do have an 110% AMI tier when we're talking about um the rental side of inclusionary, and we have uh 110% as well as 140% when we're talking about the homeownership side of inclusionary.

So that's just to acclimate us in terms of the actual data and the chart that's there.

Um with that said, I think there are some really important uh considerations and limitations that come along with the data that I want to flag.

Um, and I think part of what's important is to kind of explain how we get it.

Uh so the data was pulled from a citizen serve report, um, which includes uh building permit applications.

Um, so I already provided you with kind of the range of dates that we're talking about.

Uh, it was filtered per year to make sure that we had accurate counts and making sure that when we're comparing for affordability level, there are no um fields when we're talking about citizen serve that track affordability, unfortunately.

So, and there's multiple reasons for that.

So, one of that it was not originally set up in that way.

So I hope that we're not uh totally left with the app, everything has to correspond back to the actual application.

So if it's not listed as an application field, it's not going to appear in a report, which makes sense, but it's one of those things where you're like, I would love to have that data though, right?

Um let's talk through some of those other intricacies.

So there also might be multiple building permit applications issued for the same address and land parcel.

Why would that happen?

So it really depends on what's currently on the parcel.

So is there an existing structure?

Does it need to be demolished because there's a demolition permit that would exist?

Beyond that, does a foundation need to be added?

Um I assumed, and I hope this was an appropriate assumption when I was going through this order that we were talking about building permits related to construction.

Um this is like almost that final stage.

So let's say there's a structure and it ends up needing to be demolished and a new foundation needs to be added.

It could have three building permits if we're getting to the construction one.

The construction one is going to have the latest plan set.

So the reason why I selected that is it's probably the most up-to-date project information.

Now, this kind of brings us into one of the most important considerations when we're talking about this.

I might skip around if you're following along in the memo, I apologize.

Um, that bottom piece is we're looking at pipeline information.

It's going to change.

That is something that we absolutely positively know.

Um, so we anticipate that the build, a building permit um, in terms of the units that are being projected, that's a best guess.

So it is something where the developer is putting forward the project that they think that they're going to have, ultimately, it's going to evolve over time.

So I want to make sure that I note that.

Um, beyond that, there is another funny little reason why you might have multiple addresses having a building permit.

Um, and this has to do with MBTA communities.

This has to do with there has been a bit of a little bit of a boom in terms of adding cottages onto NR parcels.

So I wanted to make sure that I noted that.

You might get two construction building permits for an address, and it's not a mistake.

One of uh that's why it was important that we went through it line for line.

Um, it might be for a triple decker.

So you'll see three new residential units, and then you might see a cottage and it will have the one.

Um, so we really, when we pulled this data, went through the descriptions to make sure that we weren't missing anything.

Anything that didn't apply, we removed.

Um, beyond that, uh, if someone's pulling a building permit, they might be doing it as well for um like renovations.

So if we're talking about like updating their HVAC system, they would pull a building permit.

Um, there would be no new residential units created.

So those were also removed, just letting you know what didn't end up in this chart because it shouldn't be in that chart according to what the order had requested.

Um with that, uh, the way that these reports come through is it will let you know how many units are added as well as how many are taken away.

So anything that was taking away units.

So if we're saying that there is a condo conversion, and this isn't necessarily something that we like to see happen, but it is two units, and someone is turning it into a single family lot.

They've been approved to the condo conversion board.

So it's something that that went through the proper channels, um, then you will see a negative unit.

Um, those were not included.

So this is a gross count.

It's not um it's it's not a net count.

I just wanted to make sure that I clarified that also.

Um, let's see if there's anything else.

I'm not sure.

I think though, I I think it would be interesting to look at some what we're looking at.

Something that I noticed is uh, I mean, most of Somerville is NR, a neighborhood residential district.

The majority of the permits, this didn't make it into the chart.

It wasn't necessarily in the scope, it was something I was curious about.

Um the majority of the permits that are put here.

So there's 233 total building permits.

So you're gonna say that doesn't match with the unit number, shouldn't um, because uh that building permit's gonna have multiple units on it.

Um I would say 170 out of the 233 building permits are for the NR district.

Now, I think that's a lead worth looking at.

And the reason why I'm saying that is again, I think we're all having this sense that there are there are way more smaller construction projects that are coming up on NR.

Now, why might that be?

There isn't an affordability requirement anymore.

I think that's one piece of something that we might want to consider.

I think if we looked at the dates of when we started seeing more of those come online, we might notice um after the elimination of the spot program.

So that's the small uh oh my hold on one second.

I'm gonna hate myself at this small, oh thank you, property additional unit program.

So you might be familiar, I believe this was something that Councillor McLaughlin worked on.

And it's really about adding neighbors adding an additional unit.

Um, they still had to get a building permit when they did that.

I think the intent behind the unit, my understanding of it at least was that some um kind of what MBTA's uh community is kind of doing now at this point.

And that's for neighbors to add additional units to house other neighbors affordably.

Um, what ended up happening from SPOP when we had SPOP was there were I think five approved units in total uh out of the entire duration of the program.

Um, and only two of those units were actually built, and they were both built by developers.

Um ultimately we ended up making this change to be in compliance with MBTA communities.

And when we did that, it changed whether or not there was an affordable unit that was required in NR.

So I'm only mentioning this because I would be interested to track that uh throughout.

I think um the other piece uh that's kind of important too.

If you like 178 out of 233 of the building permits included three or less new residential units, which again, it kind of I would venture an argument, supports that conclusion of that doesn't trigger an affordability requirement.

So in that case, if there's only three units that are being added, uh maybe those are the types of projects that folks want to build right now because they feel like they can make the math work.

Um trying to see if there's anything else that's important.

I will say 102 out of the building permits that we pull that were pulled for this report came from 2025 to 2026.

Um 88 of those are for permits of three units or less.

I think that truly does support that trend of we're seeing a lot more development in NR and on small lots.

Um that's something to kind of watch for sure.

But this is the data that we ended up pulling.

I hope that please let me know if you have any questions.

Um, I have some of these like other commentary that's kind of uh that I'm happy to share.

Uh, perfect.

Please, of course.

I'm loving these impressions too, because it's all about sometimes it's all about just following patterns.

I think you for saying that, because I you can almost see it.

Yeah.

So it's like you're, and I so I almost wish we had a really great comparison between if we were to pull from 2016 to 2021 and then 2021 to 2026.

I think you would see it directly.

I mean, when you consider 2016 to 2021 assembly pretty much rose up.

Like you're there were a lot of very large-scale projects that came up from that.

Um, and then sort of at the tail end of that period in the beginning of this building permit data, there are a lot of projects from union that were popping up.

So that's like the a lot of our higher unit number projects you'll see in that grouping, and it's towards the beginning.

After it kind of switches.

I have a hunch, I think, and I think this is a lot of the buzz in terms of what folks in planning are talking about, is there's almost a swap between these types of projects.

And we're really not seeing those middle projects.

So if we're talking about like 10 to 20 units in terms of development, it's it appears as though they've slowed down.

That's my perception as well.

Um, but I'm happy to add that um as a supplement if you feel it's helpful.

If you have any other questions, please let me know.

We'd love the supplement.

I would love to.

I would love to um uh I I love what you're just your interpretation of this as well.

Um and how we're following this, I would very much be interested in in talking further about it, just with an addition to um your your perception is in your your following the patterns.

Would you prefer and we're still having the conversation, we're not looking to just end it right now with this very second, but uh going forward or how we uh plan for this, would you prefer to keep it in committee or we write another order to because I would love to talk about it at another meeting just the terms and what you're seeing as well.

Not that we're done yet for a second.

I I haven't even asked Counselor Said, so I wouldn't want to shut around at this uh whatever you feel is best.

Um this is just it's fascinating.

Yeah, uh but with that uh counselor say did you um now I was looking to my right with uh with the uh TV screen.

Counselor's catching up.

Yeah, this is um yeah, definitely still processing this.

Um and uh it's a lot yeah.

Um you mentioned something, you mentioned that because we no longer have the affordability requirement in R.

Um, there's a lot more development in RNR on smaller lots.

Is that because we took away the affordability, the affordability requirement in 2019?

Uh through the chair, thank you so much for asking that question.

I think there's a piece to this puzzle as well.

Uh again, that intent, I believe, of that program was really to um have homeowners build units, right?

And there were so many hoops in terms of we we got inquiries.

I believe we got between like it was a dozen to 20 inquiries of folks who were looking into that program and they were like, this is too difficult.

Um, and they decided against kind of moving forward.

I so I definitely think that that's a piece of it.

I think um I will say uh the an important consideration with this program as well is what needed to be required was a tier three, depending on whether you were doing rental or homeownership.

So of the two units that we do have built, one is a 110% AMI rental unit, and the other is a 140%, I think it's a two-bedroom, and it's a homeownership unit.

Um, so it and that way I think the idea with that was construction is expensive.

If this is being put on a homeowner, they need to be able to get back on their investment.

So they wanted to make it income restricted, but at the same point, even by what we define as affordability, that doesn't quite pencil out.

I hope that I answered your question.

I'm not sure that I didn't uh counselor.

Yeah, um I I think what I'm trying to get to is would in your opinion bring him back, like this is just you know, scenario, the affordability requirement on our keep this trend going of more development in R.

Or is the fact that we took that away that is triggering this pattern.

I yeah, if I remember uh correctly, uh Counselor Saeed, because I was um not yet a counselor, but very following and part of the push for um more affordable housing.

And yeah, I remember when this went into the zoning um overhaul, right?

Like 2017, 2018, 2019, and then it was final, and and then but the problem with the snag of it was that just what deputy director here said that that um the developers were were building enough, or so we're what the trend seemed to be is that they were building enough to where they they it was like three plus one, right?

And and so they were building the three, but that fourth, the affordable housing option never got built.

So a bunch of threes were coming up, but not fourth.

Um, and so it became such a a obvious like blaring point that I think that the city was just like, all right, it's not working, and and we stripped, I don't remember how it got script from that, but that's where as I recall it, it it happened.

That's cratch, may I also add uh so I think part of it is um so because you were able to develop buy right NR now because of MBTA communities, it's not as simple as necessarily just putting an affordability requirement back in.

Though I've had some interesting conversations with folks about like how do we where do we move from here?

Is are there incentives right?

And I as I recall um counselor um we were so before the because the MBTA communities act came up came with uh came alongside still with Charlie Baker that was like his last year and and when it was approved as a recall and and directors please if if I'm like okay well that if if there's a fact but this is how I recall it in counselor's brain my brain um right so that that came about and when we were and I believe I was in land use at that time when we were trying to implement it as a city and of course we we in Somerville were like well there's no there's no qualification if because we overqualified with the MBTA act including all of our buy rights with ADUs and in backyard cottages and such and and much to what you were uh trying to say deputy director that was the point of like some of the zoning um ADU and backyard cottages that uh incentivizing that ADU production and um affordability option uh sustainable home ownerships and that's part of the thing uh won't get into this because it's another agenda but that's what I was trying to do as well and and what some of the housing efforts are trying to do with the zoning um amendments that are in another in the land use currently um trying to incentivize or what's not working and and what we've seen with our at least the research or the conversations I've had is that you get we have to get creative with how we incentivize but it's it's a possibility but it's been done but very much um it we have to get creative on what that looks like and we're already by rights so counselor if you I saw you might go off so um yeah so right now for the community uh for the MBTA communities um with the MBTA communities act the the those part the parcels that are in that uh you know that are close to the uh the transit right they're zoned out four stories is that like they can the developers can build up to four is that correct through you to or I'm sorry deputy director uh did you or uh are you asking you're asking deputy director we have or uh through the chair i i know that there are um i know that there's still a process going on to actively interpret right uh pieces of this and how it's implemented because i think we're seeing that stage at this point um of um kind of uh how uh what requirements you still must adhere to in terms of what is you can't be held to more strict requirements than the least i'm not gonna say this as eloquently as my peers and isd or ppc so i might defer to them right um but i believe there's still an there's ongoing conversations about how we're best interpreting that right and is as i yeah and then and I hope that everything that right that I've heard is is pretty much the same better that there's so like our ours is a unique case because we were ahead of the curve on this because of of the advocates in this room um so our our struggle with that is is it's not a struggle is different than a lot of other communities.

Luckily we're not like we don't have to convince anyone that this is a value of us and that brings me there's a shot silver lining to today that we're not actually trying to actively encourage our community that this is important that we need more housing and that we need more um we need to make sure our neighbors can stay in our community especially our our lowest income um residents this is a value that we hold there and that that means a lot because yeah they're absolutely when I talk to other advocates throughout the state um that is not always the case um or or the message of communication being like well I know that if the community saw or saw what we understood the what we're trying to say here that they'd be like yeah of course we need that but then people it's so a lot of people need to there's still a lot of information campaigns and communication that need to happen in some communities.

So we have a lot of good phones to our structure, I guess.

I'll stop.

But thank you.

Thank you for your thoughts on that.

Uh counselor, are you are you good or do you uh yeah, I I think I'm good.

Um, I think it's probably uh I think this would probably come up in land use soon.

Um because in my ward, they have developers that are building uh four store three stories in parcels that are zoned for four, and it's just yeah, just avoiding that making for building that fourth unit.

Um because that fourth unit will trigger the affordability requirement.

Um yeah, and we are thinking creatively about it as we are uh looking into potentially up zone in um though those parts.

Uh yeah, like the lots that are within the communities, the MBTA communities act.

Um so yeah, I think uh yeah, this is just the beginning of that conversation.

Thank you.

I have no further questions.

Thank you very much, Pastor.

And just to be clear, the the three plus one doesn't, it's not on the books anymore.

As far as we we took that off, like so that fourth affordability, Cora, that affordability option is it's it's null at this point in Somerville.

Um, and then the qualifications for the MBT Communities Act, that's a whole separate bucket, um full of lots of nutritious things.

Um and yeah, counselor, you have a lot going on in your board.

Um a lot of activity over there.

Um, but the the three plus one is is uh not there uh or not collectively in Somerville at this very second.

Okay, thank you very much for this information.

And yeah, I will like I'm happy to follow up you you and I just how how to best proceed on on having having this uh talking further about this.

Um I'm not sure if I should because this is this is really great, but I don't want to would you prefer we that I just uh we can talk further offline.

I'm I'm just wondering if I should um keep it in committee.

Um you did some let's let's um we'll put this as mark work we're complete and then we can submit all right we can talk further about the additional data and information again how to get it back on the agenda and talk because that's that's all really good stuff.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

All right, we'll mark this one more conclusive.

Thank you.

And thanks for for coming out on this lovely um April Spring day and in person.

All right, last on the agenda.

Okay, um, last on the agenda is um the an officer's communication item 260141 housing commission conveying the FY 2024 annual report pursuant to section 717 of the closing abhorrences.

I know what you're saying.

2024.

Yes.

Okay, yeah, it's all it's it's not past a uh-uh.

Um we this is how the process first off, okay.

So then there was a whole last year, right?

And and um the submitting of that, and it went through, and then of course we had the change of the 2025 to 2026 is what's submitted.

Um, it carried over to this this year.

Um, and was submitted submitted in 2026.

Yeah, we could have just been like, all right, we're done with this, but I thought it was good to just talk about it, review it.

Um, because a lot of work went into this also yeah, yeah, that the fair housing commission does is it's a lot of after thought on this and calculating and thinking out the data, which brings us to this present moment or April 2026, and thank you very much.

We have uh our fair housing specialist and inclusionary support, Shannon Waller here tonight.

Thank you for being here um in person and me.

Uh thank you.

Yeah, I'm gonna step off for one second next door.

I'm here by just getting a bit of water.

Thank you.

Um, so yes, we you should be receiving the FY25 report soon.

Um, but wanted to get this through first um to see if there was any feedback or anything that um might need to be reflected in the FY25 report.

Two, um, so I'll start by saying that this is for FY24.

I was not the fair housing specialist during that year.

Um, I started in July of 2025.

So I've been the fair housing specialist for the entire almost the entirety of uh or August of 2025.

So almost the entirety of FY25 and FY26.

So if you have questions, um, I most likely will be able to answer them.

But if you have questions about like how things have been going since then, I'm definitely happy to answer that.

Um so yes, to start with the background.

Um this is as of FY24.

So the affirmatively furthering fair housing rule, it was issued under the Obama administration in 2015 and it was terminated in 2020.

Um and it called for municipalities to foster inclusive communities by addressing persistent segregation housing discrimination.

And then the city submitted an assessment of fair housing, which will be referenced later on in the report.

Um the Biden administration proposed a simplified version of the AFFH rule, um, but no final rule was issued by the end of FY24.

And then just adding this in um it was not issued by the end of the Biden administration and has been taken away since then.

Um so that's some background on the federal context.

Um state context.

Um the state legislature increased the appropriation for MCAD for the Massachusetts Commission against discrimination, so that the agency was no longer reliant on federal funding in FY23.

Um, so that was good and good to know going into new federal administration.

Um and MCAD received 439 housing related complaints.

This is over the whole state of Massachusetts in FY24.

Um, so that can give a little more context to the number of complaints that were submitted from Somerville to MCAD as well.

And then for the local context, um, the anti-displacement task force submitted a home rule petition to city council to a lot of rent stabilization in Somerville.

This was unanimously passed by city council and referred to state legislature joint committee on housing.

Um I'll talk a little bit more about that as well later on.

Um so going into enforcement.

Um in FY24, the Fair Housing Commission continued from FY23 exploring the idea of becoming a substantially equivalent agency to HUD in order to enforce fair housing law and address long wait time issues um for complaints submitted to MCAD.

Um so the next line here says becoming substantially equivalent agency was determined not to be feasible as it would require home rule petition.

This isn't the full picture.

Um I'm actually gonna read from the anti-displacement task force um residential displacement committee's report.

Um, just to provide a little bit more context.

Um so the law department concluded the city could expand the investigatory and fact-finding duties to cases within the jurisdiction of MCAD without first needing approval from state legislature.

However, in their opinion, the only penalties that could be issued um for failure to comply with local fair housing ordinance without new home rule authority would be those fines permissible under mass general law um chapter 40, section 21 about enforcing ordinances with a maximum of 300 per day per violation.

Um and all parties concluded that it would be difficult for inspectional services department to enforce this ordinance because it depends on individuals, um individuals to file complaints and cases relying on verbal evidence, which can be difficult to prove for inspectional services.

So that's a little bit of more context and background.

And if you have a question, we can hold the phone.

What that's amazing.

That's really exciting.

Hold on.

All right.

That's really exciting.

Okay.

So that's that's a little bit of background on enforcement and why enforcement isn't happening right now.

Um and just to add to that, I think that and that, yeah, a big piece of that is the staff capacity.

Um, you know, given that the fair housing specialist position right now is only half time with fair housing.

Um, and then also ISD um based on at least based on the Somerville Residential Displacement Committee.

Um because each director and every presenter has their own style.

So it I am interrupting you during the presentation.

I will keep my mouth shut and when you go ahead.

Okay.

But if in your brain it's way better if I like we're here, let's talk about this.

Okay, yes, both point we talk about this.

Yeah, whatever works with okay.

We explored this with um with the fair housing commission and the fact that and and okay, I have all these word bubbles above my head.

There's so much.

Okay, number one.

Yeah, we were told that the only way we could really do this is through a home rule petition, and and we have a bucket of of home rule petitions in Somerville, and this is not okay.

So that's very exciting to hear this new information.

Um, okay, with ISD.

I'm in my fourth term now.

I love my ISD.

However, it's always been a map a matter of staffing and priorities of what gets um prioritized with this.

Um, and on the fact the point of um on the point of of um so of verbal um responses, yeah.

Okay, that's that's complicated when it comes to fair housing discrimination.

However, there was a time in history that I remember living through pre-smartphone where we had to rely on verbal um evidence for stuff.

Um so ever the optimist we lived in a time of history where this is possible.

I'm not saying like stop everything and proceed forward, but this is really interesting information.

Yeah, um, if I could add a little bit to it as well, and this is not on the report, so is that all right?

Um but there is um the protected class of family or relationship structure in Somerville, which is not protected by the state or federal law, um, because this is something that we've added to our fair housing ordinance.

Up to this point, we haven't received any complaints with that as the protected class.

But if we were to receive complaints with that as a protected class, we would probably need to go through ISD for enforcement if there were to be an enforcement process because the state won't be able to enforce it.

So if that adds a little bit of, you know, somewhere where ISD should be able to enforce it, um, like a little bit of context there.

Um I think also within the anti-displacement task force residential committee report, um, it does talk a little bit about what Cambridge does.

Um, Cambridge Human Rights Commission.

Yes, their human rights commission, um, it's not just housing, but they are a substantially equivalent agency.

Um, so I recall, I'm sorry, Jim.

No, go ahead.

Because I recall with the human rights commission in Cambridge, they received the ability to do that like in the 90s when no one was thinking of it like this.

Yes, and then Ellen, I think is the person who we have the expert in the room.

Of course.

I'm not surprised.

It's amazing, and thank you, because I remember feeling like when we've explored this with the Fair Housing Commission and always hitting that wall of like, well, that was done in the 90s.

This is 2020 X that like by state permission now, because we would need a home rule petition to get that permission from to make our own investigative abilities in Somerville.

But that would that's where we would get lumped in all the HRPs begging and pleading with the state that maybe to give us permission to do that.

Yeah.

Holy crowbar.

Um, their investigator is a licensed attorney and it's an investigator position.

So that's another piece of context there with the Cambridge Human Rights Commission, um, in terms of like what staffing might look like if we were to start enforcing.

Um, let me see if I have anything else.

Um as of January 2024, there were only four backlogged housing complaints from Somerville with MCAD.

Um and yeah, that is the information that I have on enforcement right now.

I know it has been an ongoing conversation with you know, this committee and also within the Fair Housing Commission has talked a little bit about what would we do if there were any additional protected classes that are not covered by the state or not covered by federal law, um, in addition to the family and relationship structure, and we got complaints about them.

Um, so yeah, that's the background and enforcement.

Um, what is so the addition set of protected class that is special to the Somerville ordinance and interposed to the state?

If I may really quick, um, what is so the addition set of protected class that is special to the Somerville ordinance in a posted state?

You said it was family structure, is that correct?

It's family or relationship structure.

Family or relationship struggle structure.

So then that's that's good too because but also does that include like um pre-filtering, like realtors or brokers of like the lead paint.

Um well, that would be protected under family status, um, so including children, and that is protected under state and federal law.

I think that this is I think the the wording of family or relationship structure, I think it was made specific or not specifically, but to include like polyamorous yeah um yeah, people.

So I think that that is like the group that wouldn't be covered by the family status and structure in the way that the state does it or sexual orientation the way that the state.

Um, but yeah, up to this point, we haven't received any complaints about that.

Um, but you know, it's definitely something that could come up and that we should be ready for when it does.

In my opinion, if I may, um, I think um, because I've heard of incidences.

Um it's of course not okay.

I think um, and this is something I talked about with several of the commissioners too, is I I think the information of still having to get out there that people don't know.

Yeah, they may say to their friends that the staff admitted is wrong, but not know where to go from there.

And then, of course, aside from that, is the well, do they want to take the additional step of actually going through the threshold of reporting because then of course it changes the climate.

Yeah, yeah.

But that is a good segue into what the commission is trying to focus on, which is that education and prevention piece.

Um with education um for fiscal year 24.

Um, the main event, I guess, or two events was during fair housing month, which is in April of every year.

Um in FY24, um, the Fair Housing Commission had two events.

Um one was a screening of the short film segregated by design, um, which basically summarizes the book, The Color of Law.

Um, that was held in person at the central branch of the library.

Um, the film is in English, but it had Spanish subtitles, and there was also a Spanish interpreter at the event.

Um, and then the second event for Fair Housing Month in FY24 was hybrid.

Um, it was also held at the central branch and over Zoom.

And attorney Todd Kaplan, who works for Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services, shared information for best practices um for tenant screening screening.

Um, and he focused on a case that he was working on with the use of credit score and households that have vouchers or varying source of income because source of income discrimination is something that we do see a lot of um, the commission sees a lot of, which I'll talk more about in um the next section.

Um, and then also for online outreach.

Um, the chair of the commission posts a question of the week and a news article related to fair housing um each week on the Facebook page.

Um the Fair Housing Commission also started tabling.

Um, so this has continued since FY24, but their first tabling event was at Civic Day um in 2024.

Um and they had a fair housing fact sheet and also an activity that participants um, you know, of Civic Day could come up and point out discriminatory language in an advertisement, um, and then discuss examples of what constitutes fair housing discrimination, um, and then talk more about it based on whether they were a renter, an owner, a landlord, that sort of thing.

And then first-time home buyer courses.

Um, Somerville Community Corporation has first-time home buyer courses um at that point on a bi-monthly basis.

Now it's on a monthly basis.

Um, and then the course is open to anyone who would like to learn about home buying process.

The fair housing specialist um did and still does um present information on fair housing rights and responsibilities for tenants, um, purchasers, sellers in Somerville.

Um, just to add a little bit to this, I think the goal is so that, you know, not only do people know when they're searching for housing, whether it's rental or homeownership after taking the course, what are their rights and what happens if what they can do if someone discriminates them in that search?

But also if they do end up buying a multifamily home, you know, what are other people's fair housing rights when they're looking to rent from them?

Um yeah, that oh the first-time homebuyer course also covers the inclusionary program and the closing cost assistance program as part of that presentation.

Um, the anti-displacement task force, um, a member of the Fair Housing Commission served on the anti-displacement task force residential displacement committee.

Um, that was Rona Fishman.

Um, and then Hanelee Steinhart, who was the Fair Housing Specialist, was also on the committee.

Um, and then just going back to that home rule petition for rent stabilization and the task force continuing to identify and address housing needs in the city of Somerville, with one of the priorities being addressing fair housing discrimination and enforcing fair housing law, um, which they did a great job on collecting that information has been really helpful to me in moving forward with that residential displacement committee report.

And then for language access, um, the commission continued to facilitate use of the language access plan by providing educational materials in languages commonly spoken by Somerville residents.

So for instance, um, with the Fair Housing Month events, having the Spanish interpreter, also at tabling events, having translations of the discriminatory language in flyers so that people can see in their language what's allowed and not allowed.

Um, and also continuing to collaborate with the Office of Immigrant Affairs in terms of um like referrals from the Office of Immigrant Affairs to the Fair Housing Commission if they notice that you know one of their clients um seems to have something that happened to them that might be fair housing discrimination, they'll refer them over.

Um yeah, we can move on to assessment of fair housing priorities.

So again, this is going all the way back to 2017, um, but these were what from the AFFH, and then this Somerville's assessment of fair housing, what the priorities were listed as.

Um, and we want to make sure that we're still sticking by those.

So ensuring that the commission is fully seated and staffed, increasing outreach to constituents, specifically tenants and landlords, and exploring collaboration with local fair housing agencies in the region.

Um, so in terms of ensuring the commission is fully seated and staffed, the commission was not fully staffed or seated in 20 FY24.

Um, there were four members who were on the commission for the entire fiscal year.

Um, that's Patrice Faulkner, Dennis Fishman, Rona Fishman, and Janine Laudie.

Um the former commissioner um Claudia De Andrade stepped down in July 2023.

And um Kay Mamo, who replaced her, was not approved until April of 2024, um and actually didn't end up starting until early 2025.

Um that's a little bit of background on this seating.

There was not an issue with making quorum with four members.

Um, but yeah, it did take a little bit of time from July 2023 to April of 2024 to get someone um approved for the commission.

Um, in terms of increasing outreach to tenants and landlords on fair housing issues, um, again, there was outreach conducted both virtually and in person.

Um, the virtual was over the Facebook page, um, and the hybrid event on the fair housing month.

Um, and then there was also in-person at Civic Day and the other fair or both Fair Housing Month events were held at the library.

Um, the commission meet met and still meets virtually, um, and meeting information is of course added to city counselor to allow and encourage public to join monthly meetings.

And then in terms of exploring regional collaborations on with local fair housing agencies.

Um the collaboration, um, the main one is with in FY2024 was with SCC with the first-time home buyers courses with the fair housing um presentations.

Um, and then also the specialist would refer and still does refer complaints to the relevant agency, whether it's MCAD or HUD or both, um, if someone has a complaint.

Um, and then there are also connections with the Office of Housing Stability and Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services.

Um, and I would just add that since then um in the past two years, um, I think that there's been a lot more collaboration with um community partners and regional agencies, including Chappa and MAPC.

Um, so can look out for that on the FY25 report.

And now we can go to complaints.

So reporting on complaints in FY24.

There were 17 fair housing related reports of discrimination received between July 1st, 2023 and June 30th, 2024.

And of course, this doesn't include reports that were submitted directly to MCAD or to HUD without first contacting the FHC, the Fair Housing Commission because they wouldn't know about them.

But reports of discrimination can be made in several ways.

So they can be made through the online referral form over the phone to the staff liaison's email.

They can be referred from other city departments or divisions like Office of Housing Stability, Soya.

And also people can come in person with a complaint.

And then the Fair Housing Specialist assists constituents with filing complaints with relevant enforcement agencies.

And this might be changing soon because there are some proposed changes.

But right now, the way that people need to file a complaint is for the most part going in person to their downtown office in Boston or sending the complaint via mail.

They have some limited online intake, but it's very limited.

And yeah, that is that's a little bit of the background on MCAD complaints.

I think the reasoning behind that is so that they have their intake specialists there to help people file the complaint and make sure that it's not rejected for any missing information or anything.

But in my opinion, this can somewhat create a barrier to filing a complaint because I have heard people say, oh, I have to go all the way downtown during business hours.

I don't even know when that can happen.

Yeah.

What if they're disabled and can't not just they can make an accommodation, definitely if someone is disabled, but it again, like I do think that it can create more of a barrier than I'm again, they they have their reasons for doing it and they have these proposed changes right now, which we'll see if they go into place, but um would have an online portal for people to submit and would limit the number of um or the the way that people could submit um to mostly being online, um, which in that case I could help them submit the complaint the way that I would with a HUD complaint.

We'll see where that goes in the upcoming year.

Um and then just to dive a little bit deeper into the complaints that were received.

Um most of the protected classes were represented in these complaints.

Um, you can see them there, but the highest number of complaints were based on the protected class of disability with eight um followed by sex or gender and race.

Um and this is a little bit different, um, I think from what we've seen with other years where source of income is a really high, like has a higher number of complaints.

Um, but for this, those for this year, those are the top three.

Um, and then most complaints received were from wards three and six.

And then um going over to the other side, um, eight of the complaints were submitted to MCAD, five were referred to OHS, four were referred to legal aid services, two were resolved between the tenant and landlord, and eight were left unresolved due to lack of response from the person who submitted the complaint.

And again, some complaints were referred to more than one um organization or service.

So that's why there's more than the 17 total there.

Um, and that is all that I have.

So open to questions.

Incredible.

Really quick question.

Um you'll have the 20, the 2025.

Yes.

The draft is done.

Um, but yeah, I wanted to see if there's anything that you wanted added or meet and with um where are we on MCAD uh catching up with backlog?

So I'm not quite sure.

I did reach out to MCAD um several months ago before writing this.

Um they report their backlog for non housing complaints, um, but on their annual report, they don't report their housing complaint backlog.

So I don't have that.

And then I also asked them for the number of complaints from Somerville.

But I didn't get clear data answers on that either.

So I'll try to reach back out again for the FY25 report.

But yeah, I it's unclear from their data that they publish.

The only thing that I will say is that I've had people who have come to me with a complaint and have said, oh, you know, I was looking to schedule an appointment.

Um and it was just booked out as far as I could tell.

So I didn't do it.

And now, you know, the 300 days that you have to file a complaint with MCAT is almost up, and I'm not sure what to do.

Um, so I I think that you know, regardless of the information that I have, it seems like there is still they do still seem to be swamped by complaints um and intakes.

Wow.

Wow.

Thank you for the same thing.

Um counselor Say, do you have um any thoughts or questions or no questions, counselor?

Thank you.

Okay, this is fantastic.

And um here we are mid uh April.

Um is Fair Housing Month turning up this year, and I didn't even get a chance to celebrate.

Um it's going well.

Tomorrow is um the second event.

The first event was last Friday.

It was with the council on aging.

Um so it was geared towards older landlords um who own small properties um to teach them about like rights and responsibilities with fair housing law, but also um we invited Russell Cody from the home improvement program to talk about, you know, if they want to do involve like participate in the home improvement program and do um fixes to their house.

And also um Penny from OHS came and presented on OHS's resources for landlords.

So I think it was all around a good event and great of the Council on Aging to host.

Um that was the first time that the commission has done a collaborative event with the council on aging.

So it was really fun.

Um and then yeah, the one tomorrow um is at 6 30 um at the library.

Um and it's also it's gonna be like a book discussion book club kind of thing.

So looking forward to that.

Wonderful.

And for anyone that may want to come at 6 30 at the central library.

Yes, at the central library auditorium, just the first room downstairs.

Got it.

Thank you very much.

And I think Councillor said has your hands up, hand up.

Yeah, through you, uh Chair Strazzo.

Um yeah, thank you for you know, um mentioning normalness of the meetings of the meeting tomorrow.

Uh question for folks who are will be watching this.

Um uh these resources somewhere on website, where else can landlords, whether oh you know, any landlord here in Somerville can find these resources if there's a website you can provide or um please if you could add that.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Um through the chairs.

So for the home improvement program, um, they have their own website.

Um and if you just reach out to housing division, I have that number off the top of my head, I think it's 617 625, 6600, and then extension 2577.

Um, can you repeat that?

Yes, 617 625, 6600, extension 257.

Um, that would be the extension to reach housing division and office of housing stability.

Um, so if anyone has questions for either um division, um, then they should call there and then um our admin assistant will direct them to the right place, um, whether it's home improvement program, um, fair housing commission, office of housing stability, um, any questions that they have um about resources for landlords or anything like that.

Um, and probably the only other thing um I can think of is um the Office of Sustainability and the Environment.

I know has a lot of resources that can help homeowners and landlords as well.

Yeah, through you, Chair Streso.

Uh, thank you.

Thank you for adding that.

Um, so just again, back to my question.

So the best way is to just to reach out to this number and then they will connect you with the right, the appropriate staff or department.

Is this not because you mentioned that there was a presentation last night.

So I'm just thinking like are these resources, do they live somewhere in the website?

Yes or no?

Through the chair.

That's a good question and also a good suggestion.

I think that we probably will publish the presentation on the Fair Housing Commission's website.

Yeah.

Wonderful.

And that wouldn't.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Counselor.

Yeah, through the chair.

Yeah, thank you.

I think that would be a really awesome.

It is something in my board that people reach out to me about.

And I usually direct them to this the city.

But I think if this is something that can anyone can access the Justiceon website, that would be great.

Thank you.

Yeah, super noted.

That's great though.

And I'm looking forward to see.

I mean lukewarmly because hopefully there's positive progress with less reports of fair housing discrimination.

But I know that there's a lot of we're all here to hopefully do a lot of great positive changes in the world.

So realistically, there the fair housing complaints continue on, but at least I hope that people are using the resources and are equipped with the knowledge to know they can at the very least.

Everyone else is on Zoom as well.

Additionally, or I think a Zoom meeting or something.

So I hope that is taken into account and happy to talk further about that because that's kind of discouraging that that is absolutely a barrier.

That is um that you have to put on at the office.

I assume work hours Monday through Friday.

Yeah, which if you're working one or two jobs or have kids or whatnot, there are numerous barriers to why that may or may not be possible.

And um at least if someone could do like a hybrid meeting over Zoom or even just a Zoom meeting or an exiting tape.

Um over lunch break, if they do have a nine to five office job, or you can just that would probably change a lot of possibilities.

Um I have one thing because just the resources just to let people know is that we also do have a contract with legal services with the Noble Legal Services, and in that contract, they have agreed for cases that would need injunctive really fast action, typically for things like I have a sectionate voucher and they won't rent me, but I need that apartment.

We do have some capacity because complaints that are filed at MCAD don't generally have that.

We go into court right away and we get this apartment held for you and we get you to move in.

So we do have a backup system in case there are people that really do want to follow up on the we want this apartment, they said no section eights, just to know that there are some additional enforcement resources, legal resources through Genovo that we might be able to also use to address their husband you know discrimination.

So did just want to note that as in another possible resource um regarding enforcement.

Wonderful.

That's this is all really helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'll add one more thing too.

Um that and Suffolk Laws Housing Discrimination Testing Program.

Are they doing are they doing it again?

They still have it, yeah.

So I have referred people there in the past year, um, and that they have gotten in contact with them.

So that's just another resource in case um, you know, since MCAD, you know, we we want to have as many resources as possible.

Right, okay.

That's wonderful.

Well, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Um Councilor Say, are you good?

Good.

And no further questions.

Thank you, Councillor.

All right, super.

Okay.

Um, well, thank you very much for for your information and for being here tonight.

And I look forward to um uh the FY25 that year and talking further with you on.

Thank you, good night.

Um so with that I'll I will um mark this uh for for um approval and recommendation to be approved and and moved out of committee.

We ran out of agenda items.

Um with that, uh I moved to um uh for um uh looking for words.

I move thank you so much.

And I mean to adjourn the vote on yes on some by voting to adjourn, can will that also trigger the uh ability to vote yes on the meeting minutes?

Yep.

So approval of the minutes, um, that's items number one and two, and then we're marking items four and five were complete as well as adjournment.

Counselor Sae.

Yes.

Counselor Lang.

Chair Strazo, yes, right.

But that is 727, and we are adjourned.

Thank you very much.

And thank you all for showing up tonight and for all your hard work out to site.

Have a good night.