Arlington Election Profile: Jo Anne Preston For AHA Board

ARLINGTON, MA – Jo Anne Preston is running for the five-year seat on the Arlington Housing Authority. She lives in Arlington with her husband, John Burt, and her daughter.

Preston currently serves as a Town Meeting member for precinct 9, which encompasses three of the five housing complexes that the Arlington Housing Authority serves. She volunteers for the Council on Aging Thanksgiving Dinner and Holiday Gift programs and volunteered to organize the sewing and delivering of face masks to the AHA Menotomy Manor housing complex this past spring.

She received a B.S. in Psychology from Tufts University and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Brandeis University. In her professional career, she has taught courses in social gerontology at Colby College and Brandeis University, served as Research Director to an Institute of Aging Research Project "Aging and Generational Relations" and worked as a social worker for Medical Aid to the Aged.

While living as a tenant for 28 years, Preston organized and served as the chair of a tenants’ organization, advocating for the needs of low-income tenants. She has successfully written grants for the Thompson and Ottoson Schools, a skill that she plans to implement to bring more funding to the Arlington Housing Authority.

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The single most pressing issue facing the Housing Authority Board is improving the quality of lives of the residents, and this is what I plan to do about it.

As a Town Meeting member, Council on Aging volunteer, and now as a candidate for the AHA Board, I have heard a great deal from AHA residents of what they would like improved in their living conditions. It is their concerns which inform my plans, if elected to the AHA Board.

First, one of the most pressing issues is the condition of their living areas and the lack of responsiveness of the AHA to address them. Pest infestation is high on the list of complaints both from residents and family members of residents. This an immediate public health problem and I will address it as such, working with the Arlington Board of Health.

In addition, needed repairs are sometimes not taken seriously. The state regulations lay out a process by which tenants can file for remediation of their complaints if not addressed in a timely fashion.

Second, and related to the first concern, is the updating of the Tenants Handbook to include all the rights accorded public housing tenants under state law. The current handbook online is dated 2008. By the inclusion of these state regulations tenants can more easily advocate for themselves. Moreover, favoritism in making repairs, a frequent complaint of tenants, is eliminated with a regularized process.

Third, the AHA Board does not notice it meetings in accordance with the Massachusetts Open Meeting laws. Currently, it just posts the dates of their meetings next to the Town Clerk’s office in the Town Hall. It is never announced on the Community Calendar as required. Tenants have to travel to town Hall to see when the next meeting will be held. This impacts the quality of life of the tenants.

If elected, I plan to bring the AHA Board into compliance with the state Open Meeting Law.Moreover, I will make sure the meeting minutes of the Board are posted in a timely way to the AHA website. Right now the most recent meeting minutes are for September 2019.

Fourth, increased funding could be used to enhance the lives of the residents. When I visited the Community Preservation grant funding meeting, I found the AHA had not submitted any grants while much of the money was earmarked for affordable housing and the fund had a surplus $700,000. I have grant-writing skills and I plan to work with the board to bring in more financial resources.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidate seeking this post?

The most outstanding difference between me and my opponent is that I have taken every opportunity to inform the Arlington voters of my qualifications and my plans for my goals on the Arlington Housing Board while my opponent has refused to participate in debates with me first as organized by the League of Women Voters and then later, conducted by the Arlington Community Media inc.

The cable T.V. station also offered all the technical assistance my opponent would need to create a short profile of his qualifications and goals and he continue to refuse to participate.

The few written descriptions of him have been written by another member of the Board and the Director of the AHA.

I believe this show disrespect for the Arlington voters and a lack of concern for the AHA residents.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board member failed the community?

From all the testimonies from residents I have heard and my own observations, my opponent has failed to be an effective representative of tenant interests.For the past five years in which he has served. He failed to have even the Board meetings properly noticed for tenants and the residents of Arlington; he has not worked to revise the 2008 tenant handbook; he has not advocated for the resolution of tenants issues at the Board meetings; he has not informed the tenants of their rights under state law; and, as previously stated, he has not brought his case for re-election before the voters of Arlington.

Describe other issues that define your campaign platform:

The quality of life of the AHA resident, while important, is not only determined by having clean, functioning living quarters. I would like to establish more programing that would be stimulating and interesting for the residents. For example, the Arlington Poet in Residence has expressed an interest to giving poetry writing classes at the AHA buildings. Other programs would be determined by residents' interests.

A second goal would better integrate the residences into the Arlington community. Some possibilities would be having a candidates’ night for the residents to both inform them and for them to inform the candidates of their concerns. For those residents who feel social isolation, an expanded friendly visitor program could serve their needs.