Senate Special Commission on Housing – Second Meeting

The Massachusetts Senate Special Commission on Housing met for the second time on June 24, 2015, and I was there representing MassLandlords. The commission had expanded quiet a lot, with new faces and new participation. (It was a busy day for housing, because elsewhere in the capitol, landlord volunteers were testifying in favor of bills about move-and-store and legal services.)

• Related Article: First Meeting of the Commission
• Related Article: Final Report [May 2016]

Senator Forry had been called away to Washington DC, so Senator Chandler filled in as chair. She presented a list of categories that we could use to subdivide the commission. The intent was to split up and recommend baby steps for each focus area. The categories were discussed, and at the end, we settled on the following:

• Homelessness
• Foreclosures
• Landlord-Tenant Law
• Production
• Rehab/Preservation
• Offline housing (public housing that is vacant)
• Alternative housing models (like Millennial villages or housing for the disabled)
• Zoning and accessory apartments
• Education
• Self-sufficiency and support services
• Access to capital
• Gentrification

A final category, Transportation, was omitted for now, as Senator Chandler thought it cut through everything. The rule was that we could only volunteer for one group. I found this restriction a little disappointing, because like transportation, landlording also cuts through many categories. We can take in the homeless, purchase foreclosures, produce new units, rehab old buildings, and preserve tenancies and neighborhoods. We are also impacted by zoning restrictions, especially when it comes to subdivision or reconstruction after a fire.

We went through the categories with show of hands to see who would be interested in each area. There was little interest in "gentrification" and no interest in "access to capital", so these groups were shelved. There was considerable interest in other areas, including production, homelessness, and support services. I volunteered for the Landlord-Tenant group, since it was obviously the one for us.

Rachel Heller of the Citizen's Housing and Planning Association volunteered for just about every group, so Senator Chandler allowed us to pick additional groups as long as we had time to participate. I then joined the homelessness group, as well. (I want to present an idea about insurance against homelessness, and after that, I will leave it to the experts.)

With me on the Landlord-Tenant group are Ray Mariano, Executive Director of the Worcester Housing Authority, Annette Duke, Attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, and Kathy Brown, Coordinator for the Boston Tenant Coalition. I will have to get to know these individuals better, but it would seem that the Landlord-Tenant subgroup probably encompasses a wide range of viewpoints and ideologies. If so, this will be the best chance Massachusetts has had for a while to find a "next step" that landlords and tenants can agree on.

By random chance, I was assigned to coordinate the logistics of meeting as a subgroup. I have therefore set the first agenda, with the intention of steering away from controversy and ideology. I think there are a few areas, particularly concerning communication about subsidy programs, that could be non-controversial baby steps.

Each group is to meet again before the next commission meeting, scheduled for July 27. The short-term goal is to find something that can be implemented immediately. A "long term" goal is to find something that can be implemented beginning in September. In this compressed timescale, I think we should look at landlord-tenant law reform as an "extremely long term" goal.

The commission disbanded that day without further action beyond assigning groups. To be continued!