In the late 1960s public housing tenant councils in Cambridge sent representatives to form a citywide organization, which they called the Tenant Senate. In the 1970s the state and federal governments began to require housing authorities to accept tenant councils and citywide tenant organizations as bargaining agents for their residents. The CHA recognized the Tenant Senate until it dissolved in the 1990s.

Then in 2007 a small group of Cambridge public housing residents asked the Mass. Union of Public Housing Tenants (MUPHT) to help form a new citywide organization. CHA agreed to support this effort and signed a contract with MUPHT. In the spring of 2008 voucher residents were invited to join the planning group. Committees were set up to draft bylaws and organize five mass meetings to which all CHA residents were invited by mail.

These meetings decided that the new group would be run by an elected Governing Board made up of 19 public housing and 19 voucher tenant representatives. This would be the first city tenant organization in the USA with equal representation for public housing and voucher households. The fifth meeting in October 2008 approved bylaws and took the name Alliance of Cambridge Tenants (ACT).

The ACT office opened in December 2008. It has operated since then with an all-resident volunteer staff. Several hundred CHA residents voted for more than sixty candidates in the April 2009 ACT election. The CHA executive recognized ACT as the citywide representative of its residents. On May 16 the newly-elected ACT Board met, ratified the organization’s bylaws, and elected executive officers.

In addition to its office, ACT established three core committees. The policy committee—Technical Assistance Committee (TAC) — sponsored and cosponsored many workshops; held many meetings with CHA to influence its policies and publications; and established ACT’s relations with other organizations and agencies. The Tenants Assistance and Outreach Committee (A&O) has worked to help organize new tenant councils, to monitor tenant council elections, and to assist individual tenants to resolve conflicts with management.

A third committee developed a proposal for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which, following the contract between MUPHT and CHA, was to regulate the relationship between the CHA and ACT. The ACT and CHA negotiating teams met throughout 2010 to develop the final Memorandum of Understanding. However on January 26, 2011, the CHA Board of Commissioners rejected the MOU agreement. CHA has continued to recognize ACT as the legitimate citywide agent for its residents, but otherwise the relationship proceeds on a case-by-case basis.

From the outset, ACT’s Bylaws set forth a broad framework for its work : “to support the interests of low income tenants, particularly in Cambridge, Massachusetts.…the wider interests of lower income people and the rights of tenants in general … for inclusion of lower income tenants from all communities… to empower those who are disempowered, whether because of gender, ethnic, racial, religious, economic, or family status; and… to develop participation and leadership of lower income people, especially tenants, in the social and political life of their communities.”

In the years since its founding, ACT has continued to operate on an all-volunteer basis. It has taken thousands of telephone inquiries and assisted hundreds of individual tenants in conferences and hearings. It has maintained a website carrying news and information useful to its members and constituents. It has assisted in dozens of tenant council elections and participated with CHA in dozens of working and policy focus groups. It participates in events with the CHA, various city agencies, trade unions, activist and tenant organizations. And with CHA support, it has carried out five elections for its Governing Board.

However during the COVID period, with in-person work restricted and meetings being conducted virtually via ZOOM, ACT was unable to keep the election process on track and the Board’s term ran out. At the same time, the ACT website went out of operation. So a small group of ACT members set up a Temporary Emergency Committee and got CHA support to revive the organization. This led to the election of the fifth ACT Governing Board which took over in June 2023.

Minutes

Click here to view minutes of the ACT governing board.