By William Tauro

This past Monday evening in the Aldermanic Chambers of Somerville City Hall, the Committee on Housing and Community Development met to investigate the condition of affordable housing units in the City, including the taking of testimony and the compilation of relevant data, to determine whether there is an affordable housing crisis in the City of Somerville that constitutes a public emergency. If so, then prepare a report to support that conclusion for use in connection with any home rule petitions submitted by this Board to the legislature relating to affordable housing.

Dozens of people, mostly residents made up of tenants and home owners, whether for or against more affordable housing and whether we have an affordable housing crisis or not in the city of Somerville spoke publicly Monday night.

Many of the people who spoke at the meeting though were in favor of more government accountability to see where most of this affordable money has gone.

Back on March 8th, Alderman White requested that he would like the Committee on Housing and Community Development to determine if there is an affordable housing crisis that rises to the level of a public emergency.

Then back on March 14th the chairman explained that he agrees with Alderman White that this committee should have a public hearing, to get people to present data from organizations that deal with people being displaced such as Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services, Community Action Agency of Somerville, Somerville Homeless Coalition, Somerville Community Corporation, and others. He would like a public record of that data. He would also like to show that there is a crisis in the city with respect to affordable housing as that will help in getting a home rule petition passed according to advice from Alderman Bill White. Mr. Glavin cautioned against the term “public emergency” as this term is typically used to describe catastrophic natural disasters, and suggested that terms such as crisis may be more useful in this context.

Alderman Ballantyne explained that a public hearing is usually not a venue for collecting data in her opinion. She would also like to look at the housing situation in the region as a whole.

Alderman Clingan expressed concerns about obtaining the desired results from a public hearing. He would like to invite people being evicted in his ward from a particular apartment building that was recently sold. He feels this issue is about values and income equality. He is excited about this initiative, and wants to make sure that the correct message is being put out to the public so that people can really understand what is at stake.

Alderman Ballantyne wants to make sure that the subject matter experts are at the public hearing to provide the data needed. She said the public hearing needs to be planned properly in advance.

Alderman Ewen-Campen would like to get data on things such as rent increases over the past 10 years and the number of evictions over the past 10 years. He agreeed with the need to plan the public hearing in advance, so that local organizations are prepared to present useful testimony, in addition to comments from the public

Mr. Glavin discussed issues that are happening in Boston and Cambridge and how Somerville can learn from initiatives in those municipalities.

Brian Gaspar, housing specialist, discussed his experiences with eviction processes.

Alderman Ewen-Campen stated he believes the government can help improve people’s lives.

The committee discussed the timing of the public hearing and the submission of the home rule petition, and decided that Alderman Ewen-Campen would work with Mr. Snyder and organizational spokespeople to plan a time in the next month or so which resulted in this past Monday night’s meeting.

Further thorough detailed discussion is needed on these issues to make a precise determination on whether or not an affordable housing crisis exist and which way to go with this and how to handle it.