Somerville Community Corporation a force to be reckoned with

By Andrew Firestone

In the past several months, the Somerville Community Corporation, a non-profit that provides affordable housing for underprivileged families in Somerville, has seen its stock rise considerably as a social force. From organizing rallies to support their local hiring ordinance, the mock GLX groundbreaking and the housing symposium, to receiving $3.9 million in government funds to build the third phase of the St. Polycarp village and their Cross St. project, the SCC has exemplified that old adage that, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Led by CEO Danny LeBlanc, the group has received kudos from none other than Congressman Mike Capuano, Governor Deval Patrick and the Somerville delegation on Beacon Hill.

“The real message we’re looking to send forth is that we’re interested in promoting and helping to develop an equitable Somerville that allows for a range of people to be able to afford and live and enjoy the benefits that Somerville has to offer,” said LeBlanc

The Cross St. project has received $1 million in funds from the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) for eight units of affordable housing for those living below the poverty line. An additional $619,550 has been granted for the third phase of the St. Polycarp Village in tax credits, with an additional $2,259,000 in DHCD subsidies for 31 units there, five of which will go to families below the poverty line. A total of 67 jobs will be created for these projects.

“I think it’s generally necessary in cities across the country. I don’t think that we should put ourselves in a position where markets alone will dictate who gets to live where and who doesn’t,” said Leblanc. “It’s the role of community groups and, frankly, it’s the role of government to try to mitigate some of those market tendencies and not just let the market rule by itself.”

The Governor himself, Deval Patrick was likewise impressed. “I am proud to support public-private partnerships that advance construction projects like the Cross Street and Saint Polycarp Village, putting people to work and contributing to the economic vitality of our communities. We want Massachusetts to be a place where people put down roots, raise their families and do business, and that’s why expanding affordable housing opportunities remains a top priority.”

The SCC has found praise from the entire Somerville delegation, as well as from Somerville’s federal representatives. “Funding these units will help keep Somerville affordable for families struggling to stay in our community,” said Rep. Carl Sciortino. “I applaud SCC for continuing to grow and for helping families be able to live and contribute to the vibrancy of our city.”

“This investment in affordable housing will help expand access to quality rental units for families and individuals, as well as for people transitioning from homelessness. It will also create jobs, making an impact on the local economy,” said Congressman Michael Capuano.

With 145 units of rental housing established for needy families by January 2012 with the completion of the second phase of the St. Polycarp Village development, as well as 125 units of affordable housing sold, the non-profit continues to expand its own horizons, becoming community organizers and helping foster housing advocates for the working poor. While not exactly concordant with market forces, LeBlanc said that he tries to use the SCC to do what is right.

“All the signs I see would say the market is going to drive costs upward in Somerville. It’s not doing that everywhere in the country. If you go to Cleveland, it’s not doing that, for example. But it is here, and therefore I think it’s all of our jobs to try to do what we can to allow a place in Somerville for a wide diversity of income folks, and not simply let the market take over and result in a situation where low and moderate income people cannot afford to live here anymore,” he said.

“One way to keep diversity in the community is to build some amount of affordable housing that is preserved and dedicated as affordable housing and that’s kind of how we build,” he said, describing the use of long term restrictions on the SCC development housing. “If we can increase the amount of that stock, then that’s one way we can ensure some percentage of low and moderate income people can live in Somerville,” he said. “We try to be agents of that in the city.”

Legislative Matters

The SCC has also been involved in the fight to bring local jobs to Somerville, working with the community group Jobs for Somerville, as well as the pro bono Sugar Law Center to do legal research in bringing the Local Hiring Ordinance to Somerville.

Cecily Harwitt, an SCC employee and grassroots organizer, said that the work with Sugar Law was “a pleasure.” “In this fight there is so much energy from so many different parts of the community,” she said. “Everyone from laid-off factory workers, to lawyers, to professionals, people that have lived in this city their whole lives, that I don’t see how we can lose. Everyone agrees that local people deserve local jobs and should benefit from the City’s investment.”

The ordinance, proposed in June to provide a soft cap to encourage those developers receiving state and local funds in excess of $50,000 to hire 30 percent of their workforce locally, was championed by the SCC and supported unanimously by the Board of Aldermen. However, a recent decision against local hiring ordinances in Federal District Court threatens to derail the proposed ordinance after a Fall River ordinance was struck down Oct. 12 by Judge Rya Zobel, costing the city of Fall River tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

However, said John Philo of Sugar Law, the battle is far from over, as the Somerville ordinance does not include a “hard cap” for local hires, and only encourages a good faith effort.

“It was a mandatory 50 percent of new hires and 100 percent of all apprentice position had to be city residents,” said Philo of the Fall River ordinance, who noted that there wasn’t even a provision for workers even if there were not enough employees to fill the positions, nor was there a rationale for such a drastic change.

“It’s an unsettled area of law,” said Philo, an expert on local hiring matters, who said that the Supreme Court of the United States had previously remanded a case in Newark, New Jersey, saying that, under certain conditions a jobs ordinance could be applied without going against the Constitution. Hard caps, said Philo were held in suspicion by courts, while soft caps might just work.

The soft caps help create a culture that would allow a city to deny contracts and permits to developers who refuse to deliver on a good faith effort to meet hiring quotas.

“The achievement is that it becomes something that they should account for. [The contractors] have to show that they’ve made best faith efforts to hire locally,” said Philo. “That is not ideal, I would like to see hard caps, but we can’t do that,” he said. “It does create an incentive for developers to hire locally,” he said, for if the City can prove that there is not a best faith effort, they would have grounds to revoke the contractor.