A Better Cambridge Action Fund (ABC AF) is excited to announce it has endorsed a slate of nine progressive, pro-housing candidates for the City Council election on Tuesday, November 5!

These candidates support the Affordable Housing Overlay, agree that Cambridge needs to build more homes that more people can afford, and will fight to strengthen tenant protections.

These endorsements are based on candidates’ responses to the Action Fund questionnaire, participation in ABC’s Candidate Forum, and records of supporting housing on and off the Council. We believe that, as City Councilors, these candidates will work to enact policies to increase housing affordability and equity.

We encourage you to vote for these candidates in the order of your choice on Tuesday, November 5!

Posing in front of Cambridge's glorious new King Open school campus in September 2019:

From left: Tim Toomey, Denise Simmons, Burhan Azeem, Adriane Musgrave, Marc McGovern, Sumbul Siddiqui & Alanna Mallon. (Not pictured: Risa Mednick & Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler.)

More about the Candidates:

Burhan Azeem grew up in a three-bedroom house he shared with eleven people, which has helped him to understand housing instability. Having studied sustainability issues as a student at MIT, Azeem understands that reducing sprawl is one key to addressing climate change. He has also volunteered as an EMT in Cambridge. (Read his questionnaire responses or visit his website.)

Alanna Mallon is a first-term City Councillor whose has seen first-hand how housing and hunger are deeply intertwined. She has supported and been a leader on issues of affordable housing, including anti-displacement and tenant advocacy, additional funding, discrimination prevention, and the Affordable Housing Overlay. (Read her questionnaire responses or visit her website.)

Marc McGovern is three-term city councilor, a life-long Cambridge resident, graduate of Cambridge public schools, and social worker with 25 years experience working with children and families. He has served as mayor this term, leading on issues of housing, homelessness, substance use, and poverty. (Read his questionnaire responses or visit his website.)

Risa Mednick is a human rights advocate and community organizer who’s worked in intersecting arenas including reproductive and mental health care access, affordable housing, human trafficking, and sexual assault prevention. From 2008–2018 she led Transition House, Cambridge’s domestic violence intervention organization. (Read her questionnaire responses or visit her website.) 

Adriane Musgrave has dedicated herself to serving its residents across the city. With experience spanning the corporate, nonprofit, and public sectors—as well as being a new mom—she will bring a unique and valuable skill set to City Council. She helped found Upgrade Cambridge and served as the director of Cambridge Local First. (Read her questionnaire responses or visit her website.)

Sumbul Siddiqui is a first-term city councillor who grew up in Rindge and Roosevelt Towers. As a Councilor, she’s fighting to strengthen tenant protections, connect residents to better employment opportunities, universalize access to high-quality education, and deepen the City’s commitment to environmental sustainability. (Read her questionnaire responses or visit her website.) 

Denise Simmons is a lifelong Cantabrigian, who has served on City Council since 2002 and has served twice as mayor. She has spent the past three decades working to better her community —as executive director of the Civic Unity Committee in the 1980s, school committee member in the 1990s, and as a city councilor. (Read her questionnaire responses or visit her website.)

Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler is a renter, an organizer, a democratic socialist, and an environmentalist. He has volunteered as a tenants' rights organizer to support residents who face eviction, steep increases in rent, and poor living conditions like mold, lack of heat, and flooding. (Read his questionnaire responses or visit his website.) 

Tim Toomey is a 15-term city councilor, former state representative, and lifelong Cambridge resident. He has extensive experience fighting for an inclusive community where people from all backgrounds can thrive and where affordable housing, educational, and vocational opportunities and recreation spaces are open to all. (Read his questionnaire responses or visit his website.)