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FAIR Hnt0IN.. C21L"ITTEE
Minutes of the Meeting of March 12, 1985
Present Bob Pressman, Bill Spencer, Fred Rosenberg, Florence Baturin, Hilary
Harris, Steve Baran, Leona Martin, Bea Phear
Membership
The Selectmen appointed Florence Baturin and Sang M. Chung at their meeting on
March 11 Bea reported that Sang was out of Town and did not yet know of his
appointment Florence was welcomed and given background material
Steve reported that he had spoken with Jim Brannon and left some messages, but
did not know if he was interested. Bea will write him.
Leona has spoken with Pat Long and will confirm if she is interested.
Warrant Article
Bob reported on the discussion of the citizens' petition at the Selectmen's meeting
Mr Toye told the Selectmen that the two policies were confusing and that there
was a need to emphasize Lexington residenc1 Bob summarized the points he had
made in his letter, giving the views of the committee
Mrs Battin said she saw no conflict, and she thought implementation was important.
McLaughlin and Marshall commented that residency preference_ought not_to._he_expanded._
Jim McLaughlin of the Housing Authority asked that there be a new policy from the
Selectmen Mr Toye said they would ask for postponement until after the zoning
articles, as Pat Swanson would be out of town
The committee members present (Pressman, Martin, & Rosenberg) agreed that they
felt the Selectmen appeared supportive of the committee's views No position was
taken by the Board.
LexHAB
The Selectmen also discussed the draft tenant selection procedures presented by
LexHAB The Fair Housing Committee said that they were planning a meeting, and
could not yet respond fully Most of the discussion centered on financial
cirteria, which the Fair Housing Committee decided was out of their realm.
It was decided Bob would write a letter making the following points
1 The Fair Housing Policy of 1981 does apply in this circumstance, since it
was not mentioned in the 1983 Town Meeting, it was not set aside The LexHAB
premis that Town Meeting intended Muzzey for Lexington only is not in the
motion, and people interpret discussion in different ways, and is not a
well-founded premis
2 The Committee recognizes that LexHAB worked very hard and struggled with
financial aspects in great depth.
3 We ask for not only financial diversity but racial and ethnic diversity
4. The criteria over-emphasize Lexington connection, and it is not made clear
how this criterion will be weighed against other criteria in the event
of a conflict.
5 There is no procedure laid out to resolve "ties" We suggest a lottery
6 We suggest adding another criterion for priority of racial and linguistic
minority
7 We suggest outreach steps that are specified and include using the minority
media (newspaper and radio) ; METCO; sister parishes of Lexington churches
and organizations serving minorities
8. We will suggest alternative thoughts to achieve the goal of diversity
a. a "set aside" model, whereby 3 or 4 units are reserved for minorities
b. a strenuous outreach model, where decisions are then based on need
c. a numerical weighting model, whereby a prospective tenant would get
"points" for being minority
9 The final paragraph regarding joining with the Housing Authority to
provide housing to elderly and handicapped is ambiguous Is this meant
to give priority to elderly and handicapped or the reverse?
10 Priority #1 is redundent. #5 is ambiguous It gives extraordinary
discretion, and should be stricken or clarified. The need for discretion
should lie in setting the policies, not in applying them.
11. The handling of future vacancies is not addressed. -If a waiting list is
allowed to grow, and outreach is not continuously performed, there will
gradually be an increasingly white pool Fair housing concerns apply to
replacements as well as to initial rent-up
There was concern that LexHAB did not mention minorities in its criteria (although
they did ask a question about minority status on the application form)
Assessments
Bob examined assessor' s records to research the question of subsidized housing having
an effect on neighboring sales prices His findings were inconclusive, as there
were not a lot of sales in the Parker or Interfaith vicinity All housing increased
__-- in value-There-was-fairlrlri-gh-turnover in Pazker itself, d-the pric€s-tended- - -
to be closer to assessment
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be March 21 (Thursday) at 7 30 p.m. in room 111
(This meeting may be cancelled if not needed for LexHAB discussion)
Respectfully submitted,
- IfZGV\
Beatrice Phear