LYNN – A number of Lynn organizations urged the city to invest in ARPA funds to prevent evictions and to create affordable housing Tuesday evening at the “Housing Equity Now” rally in City Hall Square.
Leaders from Essex County Community Organization (ECCO), “Neighbor to Neighbor,” “Lynn United for Change,” and other organizations took part in the rally, after which the participants submitted their project proposal for ARPA funding. The rally, the participants said, was intended “to raise public support and to indicate to the city officials that this is a priority for all of us.”
“Through ARPA funding, Lynn has a once in a generation opportunity to address the city’s housing crisis,” according to a statement released by the various organizations prior to the event.
For that end, Lynn’s community, faith, and labor organizations have come together to create a community proposal that calls the mayor and the city council to invest $29 million to create and preserve affordable homes, provide emergency rent assistance to prevent evictions, and to help homeowners repair their properties while stabilizing rent.
Marven Hyppolite from ECCO said that the smaller share of the requested funds would be distributed among the renters and the landlords to stabilize the rent temporarily, and it would also be used for increasing financial literacy to help people get prepared for homeownership.
The larger share of the funds is planned to be used to establish — with the participation of the Lynn Housing Authority, My Brother’s Table, and other non-profit groups — a community land trust fund to buy properties and land and then distribute them among the least fortunate members of the community.
“(We are) joining the development game on behalf of the community,” said Hyppolite.
The organizers maintain that with the prices skyrocketing, thousands of Lynn families cannot afford to pay rent and are being pushed out of the city or forced to crowd multiple families into one apartment.
Jeff Crosby, director of the New Lynn Coalition, said that due to the lack of affordable housing, people had already been forced to move out of the city, and that he personally knew a dozen families who had moved out of the city to New Bedford, Fitchburg, Haverhill, and to New Hampshire.
“And lots of people are just doubling up,” said Crosby.
Gabe Cohen-Glinick from “Neighbor to Neighbor” said that the ban on rent control should be removed at the state level, but their ARPA fund proposal will both work as an immediate solution to keep people from being displaced from the city that they called home for years, as well as a “seed for the ability for more community-ownership in the city.
“Whatever are the programs that are created by ARPA in Lynn, what is the use of them if the people who make up our diverse community are forced to leave,” said Cohen-Glinick.
He further mentioned that the city needed to set its priorities, whether they were to bring wealthy people from Boston, or to take care of those who were already here. Cohen-Glinick also said that the proposal was inclusive and was aimed at providing help even for those who did not have the documents or lease.
Sandra Lopez, a Lynn resident, said that the developers continued to build luxury condos, but the city needed to fix its housing problems first.
“I would like them to make condos for the people who are here,” said Lopez.
Jose Encarnacion from “Neighbor to Neighbor,” said that the city needed to build more affordable housing, so that the hard-working families could afford to buy a house.
“This is bottom up, not top down,” said Hyppolite about the proposal.
Oksana Kotkina can be reached at [email protected].
