On June 22 the council gave the administration 90 days to produce an anti-displacement plan for Chelsea’s seniors and disabled residents. The 90 days ran out around September 20. As of this week the plan has not been delivered to the council, and the order that asked for it has not been answered on any agenda.
The order
Order 2642, filed by Councillors Kelly Garcia and Tanairi Garcia, directs the City Manager to work with the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Chelsea Housing Authority, Inspectional Services, the Disability Commission and other stakeholders to develop a plan to keep elderly and disabled residents from being displaced from their homes, and to report back within 90 days. It passed by voice vote. Two companion orders from the same meeting asked for a home repair program for low-income owners and for a meeting on conditions at 14 Bloomingdale Street, a Chelsea Housing Authority building where the order cites safety concerns, maintenance and “future plans.”
Why 90 days matters
Council orders in Chelsea are requests, not commands; the charter gives the City Manager the executive power and the council the power to ask. But a deadline in an order is the council’s way of making a request measurable, and the administration has generally met them. The anti-displacement order is one of the few this year with a clock, and the clock has run.
The context is the year’s housing argument. The council rewrote the inclusionary ordinance, rezoned the west end for towers, approved the Fitzpatrick-Prattville demolition, watched the trash fee rise 8 percent on rental buildings, and heard the City Manager’s own slide that Chelsea is the only Gateway City losing housing units. Seniors on fixed incomes and disabled residents on SSI are the people with the least room in that market, and the senior tax freeze that would have helped the owners among them died in subcommittee in June.
When the plan will come to the council, and what has been done about 14 Bloomingdale Street, are unanswered in the record. If you live there, or you are a senior or disabled tenant facing a rent increase or a move, write to [email protected].