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Date: 8/24/2021
NORTHAMPTON – During the Northampton City Council’s Aug. 19 meeting, the council approved a resolution to support a bill that would help combat the housing and eviction crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and agreed to keep meetings remote until the end of the current council term.
As one of the meeting’s first action items, the council discussed a resolution to support bill S.891 and H.1434, An Act to Prevent COVID-19 Evictions and Foreclosures and Promote an Equitable Housing Recovery.
Ward 5 Councilor Alex Jarrett, one of the resolution’s co-sponsors, said he brought the resolution forward because many people are facing eviction due to the COVID-19 pandemic even though there are resources available.
“The money is there; the agencies need the time to build their capacity to get it to the property owner. No one should be facing eviction when we have the resources to solve it. I am strongly in support of these bills, I think they are specific in their protections, and they will help create more equitable outcomes,” he said. “The sooner we get this passed, the better,” he said.
With a large sum of money available to help both property owners and tenants, Ward 1 Councilor and co-sponsor Michael Quinlan said it was necessary to push the bill through the House and Senate.
“We met with a number of local people that were concerned and had great information for us and I just remember being stunned because we have all these people ready to help and here’s $842 million, but only 17 percent of it has been spent. That to me just points to the crisis upon the crisis, getting this money to help is so important to get it done swiftly, fairly and equitably,” he said.
Council President Gina-Louise Sciarra said the housing crisis was continuing to accelerate and expediting the bill is necessary.
“This is a very quickly moving crisis at a time during the summer when those who are privileged enough to slow down are, but this is not slowing down at all,” she said.
The council unanimously approved the resolution and in doing so joined several other communities, legislators, and groups across the state in support of the bill.
Before the council jumped into discussion about how to conduct meetings for the rest of the term, Al Williams with Northampton Open Media said they were ready for hybrid meetings whenever the council was ready.
“The short answer is that we are ready to go hybrid whenever the council wants to do that, we are prepared and we feel good about how it is going to work. For the council you will see Zoom participants on the screens in council chambers, people on Zoom would see the center camera in the room, and the audio works fine,” he said.
With COVID-19 breakthrough cases in vaccinated individuals and the delta variant on the rise, At-Large Councilor Bill Dwight said it made sense to remain remote for the rest of the term.
“You are seeing an increased amount of breakthrough exposures and cases in the hospital. The fact is Hampshire County has one of the lowest incident rates in the state, but we realize this virus does not care about boundaries, classes or anything else. It seems to me it is most appropriate to continue meeting remotely for the time being,” he said.
With how the council pivoted to remote meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ward 2 Councilor Karen Foster said it made sense to continue meeting remotely.
“During this term we pivoted really quickly, and that was really a joint effort between Northampton Open Media, our council president and everybody working together to make that happen. But we have proven we can do this work remotely,” she said.
During the discussion nearly every member of the council urged residents to get vaccinated to protect themselves from COVID-19.
With the decision to remain remote, both Sciarra and Dwight said they were sad not to be able to return to council chambers before their final terms end.
“Believe it or not I actually have some attachment to the chambers themselves, this is the right thing to do but I do want to share with you my poignant sadness,” Dwight said.
The council unanimously agreed to keep all meetings remote through the rest of the term.
With several candidates in the race for mayor and for city councilor at-large, the council also approved the first reading of the warrant for the preliminary election on Sept. 28.
The City Council next meets on Sept. 2.