In Chelsea, there is often what is supposed to happen, what is written on paper, and then there is always what really happens – the unvarnished truth of life that occurs at the ground level.
Nothing could be more emblematic of that than the culture of subletting apartments and rooms, and how that is causing havoc, and a potential avalanche, in the eviction crisis – an invisible piece of a crisis that overall has gotten great attention.
Subletting is the practice of one person renting an apartment, then charging rent to others – mostly undocumented residents without social security numbers – for the apartment or for rooms in the apartment. In many cases, the person renting the apartment never lives in the apartment, and the landlord sometimes doesn’t even know that other people are living in his or her property.
After 45 minutes of rancor over process and procedure, the Chelsea City Council moved ahead a request for $25,000 to replenish the Chelsea Funeral Fund due to a surge of deaths recently.
Councilor Judith Garcia presented the measure earlier this month, and Father Edgar Duarte of St. Luke’s – who operates the Fund – appeared to speak about the heartbreaking situations that have transpired. He told the Council the Fund is about to run out of money because there have been so many deaths recently.
“The need for financial assistance is there,” Garcia told the Council Monday night.
Virtually everyone agreed to the thought behind re-seeding the Fund (which the City seeded last June), but there was some confusion as to who would benefit from the fund.
Council President calls Council to fight for justice in 2021
When Council President Roy Avellaneda had his coffee shop open and thriving in Cary Square, there were a number of meaningful quotes on the ceiling from world thought leaders like John F. Kennedy, Gandhi, Bob Marley and William Faulkner.
Council President Roy Avellaneda asked his fellow councillors to fight injustice in all forms this year – perhaps making some enemies along the way. He was re-elected in an 8-0 vote of his colleagues to a second term.
He would often talk to customers about which quote stood out to them and why, but a quote from Winston Churchill always stood out to him, he said. That quote was about making enemies, and it read, ‘You have enemies, good. That means you stood up for something some time in your life.’
Help is on the way for homeowners that find themselves with increasing tax bills, as the City Council on Monday voted 10-0 to transfer $750,000 to the Homeowner Stabilization Program to help some owner-occupants with tax increases.
The Homeowner Stabilization Fund had been in existence and had a $250,000 balance this fall, but after the tax rate was set and it was discovered many people were going to get his with tax increases – particularly two-family and three-family homeowners – it was proposed to be expanded. The program combined will have $1 million in funding and will be available to those making under $119,000 as a household.