USCCB - (CCHD) - Massachusetts Senior Action Council

Massachusetts Senior Action Council

Members of MSAC attend an Action Planning Workshop. MSAC works to empower seniors and disabled persons to address issues their communities face.

For senior citizens living in Boston’s senior and disabled housing developments, funding for resident activities comes from an unusual source: revenues from on-site washer and dryer facilities. So, when the Boston Housing Authority decided in 2007 to double the cost of laundry facilities and to no longer allow proceeds to be used for tenant activities, residents were outraged.

Luckily, many residents were members of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council (MSAC) and knew what to do. Through MSAC, the residents of dozens of developments quickly came together to push for the return of proceeds for resident activities. While they were at it, residents also decided to demand more control over the division of funds towards activities, requested regular access to information about the amount of funds received, and proposed a more efficient process to speed up the dispersal process. The result of MSAC members’ actions? The Boston Housing Authority agreed to return $150,000 in retroactive funds for resident activities and further agreed to double future payments. It also agreed to work with MSAC members to improve its policies and procedures.

The victory was possible because of the training residents had received through the Massachusetts Senior Action Council (MSAC), established in 1981 as a grassroots organization that focused on the rights of low-income senior citizens. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) began funding MSAC in 1982 and has supported its triumphs over the last several decades. Since the eighties, the organization expanded its focus to other issues that the senior and disabled communities face. It has grown to include 1,000 members and seven chapters, all dedicated to promoting justice and dignity for seniors.

Carolyn Villers, MSAC’s executive director, notes MSAC’s emphasis on empowerment and leadership development within the senior community. While individual seniors benefit from personal empowerment, “our strength comes from working together,” she says. MSAC works with communities of seniors to provide leadership training and workshops in action planning, lobbying and outreach to the media. MSAC helps senior communities make goals, strategize about issues, and develop solutions that arise from the seniors’ own thoughts and ideas.

MSAC is celebrating success in other areas as well. Just recently, the state legislature passed and the governor signed into law an important piece of legislation for which MSAC had advocated: An Act Preserving Publicly Assisted Affordable Housing. The new law allows the State or a designee, such as a non-profit group, to preserve affordable housing by purchasing properties that are at risk of being converted from subsidized affordable housing to expensive market rate housing. If a building does convert to market rate, the new law ensures that currently subsidized renters can maintain affordable rates and that households not eligible for this protection are shielded from rent increases for a period of three years. With seniors and disabled persons accounting for 85 percent of tenants of privately-owned, publicly-assisted housing, the new law allows some of the state’s most vulnerable residents to continue paying rent that is affordable. This victory was in large part due to determined articulation by MSAC’s membership, supported by funding from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.