Rep. Frank Smizik (D-Brookline) said housing is a right of all people and should be guaranteed in the Constitution to an audience of about 40 people at the Lisa Court Memorial Lecture in Cambridge.
“Housing is a political issue. It is an economic issue. It is a moral issue,” said Smizik, who has been a housing advocate since the 1970s.
In a talk entitled “Is Affordable Housing Only a Dream?” Smizik noted that the Episcopalian, Catholic and Judaism doctrines, or the beliefs of some of their scholars, dictate that housing should protect human dignity and welfare.
This second annual event, sponsored by the Ethical Society of Boston, was dedicated to the memory of Lisa Court, a member of the society and housing advocate who died in 1999.
Smizik faulted the federal government for not taking an active role in securing housing for all its citizens.
“We have really never had a housing policy in the United States,” Smizik said. “We have yet not made the leap from our moral principles to our politics.”
Smizik encouraged community members to forge coalitions with state housing agencies and local advocacy organizations. While some state legislators are becoming more aware of the importance of affordable housing, he does not “hear this issue on the tongues of politicians” during campaign season.
However, he did say Brookline Selectmen, who do not tend to be the most progressive people, are becoming more willing to listen to him.
He noted that the Community Preservation Act provides provisions for communities to charge transfer property taxes to fund open space and public housing efforts. This compromise between environmental and housing advocates benefits both causes.
In order to help change the problem, legislators need to create and fund programs to encourage private developers to built more affordable housing to allow communities to purchase these buildings for their low-income residents.
Since many families will not be able to afford their own homes despite the “American Dream” image, building rental housing is important, Smizik said. This type of housing is the hardest to create because it is not profitable for private developers and requires government subsidies to be successful, he said.
To expose the roots of the problems with public housing, he outlined the historical background in housing development from former President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal public housing programs to the movement toward subsidized high-rise units in the 1960s.
He said many low-income high-rises were built on poor quality land in areas isolated from the metropolitan center and did not foster community among their residents. The only thing connecting these residents was their economic status, and many of the families lacked social stability.
Many public housing residents have no income, and without a means of supporting themselves many turn to illegal activities, he said.
“We have to stop thinking of public housing as bricks and mortar,” Smizik said. “There are human services, economic and community issues.”
He cited the law designed in the 1970s called the “Snob-Zoning” law that made it illegal for communities to exclude public housing units. Although this law is currently under attack in the State House, Smizik promise to vote not to change the law, except in preventing private developers from exploiting this law for their own financial gains.
“With the moral need for public housing, we shouldn’t be playing the politics we’re playing with the programs,” he said. “We are in a crisis.”
Smizik praised Brookline and Cambridge for their successful public housing projects. In fact, he said 8 percent of Brookline housing is long-term affordable, which makes it one of the only towns that approaches the state goal of 10 percent.
He said many people have strong misconceptions about public housing that contribute to neighborhood opposition to such developments. Often, it becomes a race and class issue rather than just a housing issue.
“Most people think that the residents of public housing are African Americans and Hispanics. It is not true,” he said. “In the housing authorities that I work with, there’s a wide diversity.”
Instead, Smizik insisted that public housing provides integration opportunities and is not replete with the crime many people assume.
He described how residents of a Brookline neighborhood protested when the city wanted to build public housing on the former site of a historic church. Not only was the community concerned about the quality of the housing, but it was concerned that the housing should be long-term affordable.
“It is difficult to get housing built with the programs we have and neighborhood opposition,” Smizik said. “Society is much more self-centered than it’s ever been.”
In Boston, bureaucracy, lack of social programs and poorly built housing have contributed to the problems with the city’s public housing, and it has lost more than 50,000 subsidized housing units over the past few years, he said.
Public housing and shelters should be temporary quarters for families until they can get back on their feet, Smizik said. The government should focus on making these units desirable places to live.
“I wouldn’t want my kids living in public housing, but yet I support public housing,” he said.
Despite the challenges facing affordable housing efforts, Smizik promised to continue his commitment.
“I am optimistic and hopeful for the future,” Smizik said. “I will do my part in the Legislature, and I hope you do your part in the community.”
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