The following letter about the Arlington Housing Authority was submitted by Angela Olszewski and Carolyn Parsons, co-presidents of the League of Women Voters in Arlington, Mass.:
Over the course of a few years, volunteers from the League of Women Voters of Arlington (LWVA) conducted a study of the Arlington Housing Authority (AHA). This study was undertaken in response to various queries. Our goal was to determine to what extent tenants are able to exercise their rights under Massachusetts and federal law to participate in management and the setting of policy and procedures in governing their living space.
The AHA board has a total of five members: Three are elected, one is appointed by the Arlington Select Board, and one is appointed by the governor. There is an executive director and a staff who manage a number of building complexes for the elderly/disabled, a housing complex for families and a number of Section 8 housing-choice vouchers for subsidized housing in Arlington. The buildings for both elderly/disabled and families have some handicapped accessible apartments.
Steps LWVA took
For this study, representatives of the LWVA attended AHA board meetings, reviewed the minutes and their notes from those meetings, and gathered comments from tenants. They also interviewed the town manager, a representative from the Mass. Union of Public Housing Tenants, the chief of police, the executive director of the Housing Corporation of Arlington, two social workers of the Council on Aging, the head of Fair and Affordable Housing, the director of the Council on Aging, a social worker from Minuteman Senior Services and the chair of the AHA board, who was accompanied by the board counsel.
Each person was asked the same general questions, and follow-up questions were directed at each organization’s role in tenant rights. Meeting and interview notes were transcribed and distributed to members of the LWVA AHA study committee and were used to describe what we heard and observed.
In addition, through the last 10 or more years, LWVA volunteers have overseen tenant elections in several buildings in Arlington as well as Cambridge and helped write bylaws for several tenant organizations. Our findings also reflect the conversations and interactions of these longer relationships.
Recommendations in 2019
The following recommendations were made to the LWVA membership and adopted at our annual meeting in June 2019. The conclusion of the membership was to support:
- Documentation of AHA policies and procedures, including state regulations, to define a formal process for tenant concerns to be communicated, addressed and resolved.
- Adherence to the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law.
- Regular professional training on how best to interact with people with challenges including but not limited to hearing, sight, language, cultural, financial, religious and physical and mental abilities. Communication should be responsive, prompt and courteous.
- Tenant handbooks which are explicitly clear regarding whom to call in housing emergencies as well as the numbers for police, fire, or regular building maintenance. The handbooks should be reviewed/revised every few years as necessary and dated for easy reference.
- An adequate number of social workers to meet the needs of the tenants.
- Regulations outlining the procedure for the election/appointment of tenant representation on the AHA’s board to be codified by the state.
Appointment, election
Within the last few days of the 2020 legislative session at the State House, legislation was passed that one person on the Housing Authority board must be a tenant who will be appointed by the Select Board for a five-year term. To fill a vacancy, Fiorella Badilla, who happens to be a tenant of the AHA, was recently appointed to the AHA board.
This appointment is good until the local election in April, and that seat (term expiring in 2022) will always now be filled by the Select Board appointing a tenant. The Select Board will need to appoint a tenant for the remaining year of this term. There is also one five-year term open for the townwide election in April.
If you are interested in public housing in Arlington, you can go to the Arlington Housing Authority website (www.arlingtonhousing.org), where there is information about how to view board meetings remotely.
While the league takes no position on candidates for public office, the league is hopeful that a few citizens in Arlington will be interested in running for the Housing Authority board. The league also hopes that those running for the AHA board will consider the support positions mentioned above.
Dec. 16, 2020: Housing Authority introduces new member
This letter to the editor was published Friday, Jan. 15, 2021.
