Housing Agency, Residents Clash At City Hearing

Residents of City public housing projects yesterday angrily confronted their landlord, the Cambridge Housing Authority. After listening to both sides for nearly three hours, the City Council asked the Authority to establish "tenant councils" in Cambridge's 11 public projects and to correct specific complaints voiced at the hearing.

Several Councillors criticized the "lack of liaison" between the Authority and its tenants. Councillor Thomas H. D. Mahoney, who proposed the tenant councils, said they should provide a "means of communication" between the two groups.

Councillors and residents alike said the Authority did not have enough men to maintain proper upkeep of the projects. Mahoney declared that the Authority's practice of paying money (some $70,000 last year) to the City "in lieu" of taxes was "nonsense." The money should be used to increase services, he said.

Rejected

City Manager John J. Curry '19 rejected Mahoney's suggestion that the money stay within the Authority. He conceded, however, that the Housing Authority did not have to pay the money to the City. Cambridge contributes no money to the Authority's budget.

Most of the residents who crowded into the Council chambers were from the Lincoln Way project. Mrs. Florence Brinkerhoff, spokesman for the group, charged that "when the temperature drops below freezing outside, we're freezing inside."

When officials of the Authority said that on 11 different checks they had never recorded a room temperature below 71 degrees. Mrs. Brinkerhoff began questioning her friends who filled the room. "How's your heat, Doris?" she asked. "It's cold," Doris called back from the balcony. Another woman said her children had awakened during the night "crying and shivering with cold."

Mrs. Brinkerhoff said that Authority inspectors only visited the project apartments in the afternoon when they were warmer. Authority officials said they had made some checks in the morning.

Muddy Water

Also complaining that the project was often without hot water, Mrs. Brinkerhoff reported this repairs within the past week had improved water temperature but had caused other problems. "The water is hot, but how can you use it when it's rusty and muddy?" she asked.

Repeatedly during the hearing, residents said they had difficulty in obtaining emergency repairs during the weekend, they said.