Welcome to the June edition of Somerville YIMBY news! Here are some great ways to get involved in helping our community create housing and prevent displacement.

Action Alert: Affordable Housing

We have a serious favor to ask of you: We need you to contact your ward and at-large alderfolk and let them know you support the Clarendon Hill redevelopment project.This is a critical project for the city, and it's at serious risk of not getting built if we don't make sure the Board of Aldermen know that it has support from the community.BackgroundAt 34 North Street, the Clarendon Hill housing project consists of 216 low-income housing units. They are old, in terrible shape, and at risk of being condemned. The city of Somerville, in collaboration with the nonprofits Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) and Somerville Community Corporation (SCC) and the real estate investment/development firm Gate Residential, has developed a plan to rebuild them. But we have to act quickly: $17 million in state funding will be reallocated to other communities if Somerville doesn't move on this project before July. This project will: 

• Replace all 216 units of public housing, guaranteeing the current residents the right to return to newly rebuilt homes.

• Create 70 new permanently affordable low-to-moderate-income apartments.

• Create over 250 new market-rate housing units, putting us closer to SomerVision's goal of 6,000 new units by 2030. 

• Contribute more than 8,000 square feet of community space, including parks and green space.

• Provide approximately $800,000 per year in tax revenue.

The reason we need your support is that there are some compromises that could stop all this great stuff from happening. The public and affordable portions of the project are to be built using prevailing wage rules, but the developer does intend to use open-shop rules for the portions of construction that are not public works. This has drawn the opposition of local labor organizations. While we agree that it would be better to have the entire project built using at union/prevailing-wage rates, the project is so critical, and the funding so time-limited, that we feel it must go forward even at the mixed-rate pay scale. Please write to [email protected] and let them know you support this project. More information can be found at the Somerville CDC and at ClarendonHill.org.

Events

Somerville YIMBY General MeetingThursday, May 31, 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. at 294 Summer St.Jeff Byrnes will host this open meeting of Somerville YIMBY members and friends as we talk about zoning reform and other upcoming issues.Better Bus Project MeetingsThe MBTA hosts an open house and feedback session about improvements to bus service in and around Sullivan Square. This is part of an overall research and development project aimed at improving scheduling, dispatching, and municipal partnerships.Harvard Square: Weds May 30, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at Cambridge Rindge and Latin.Sullivan Square: Thurs June 7, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn, 30 Washington St.Save Our Homes WalkSunday, June 10, 1:30 p.m. at City Hall, 93 Highland Ave.The Save Our Homes Walk is a 5k organized by the Somerville Homeless Coalition, Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services, Somerville Community Corporation, and Community Action Agency of Somerville.  Funds from the Walk are used to make cash grants through the Rapid Response Homeless Prevention Program administered by the Somerville Homeless Coalition. To donate or participate, click here.

Obligatory Social Media LinksLike us on Facebook, and select "Subscribe -> See First" as well. Then share posts with your friends. Shares, comments, and reactions all help spread our message. Follow us on Twitter, and like/retweet/reply to our tweets to let your friends know what's going on in the city.