Anonymous mailbox flyer argues against Housing Choice Act

Ratcheting up the tension even further, one or more people left unsigned anti-Housing Choice Act flyers in mailboxes around town on the night of Tuesday, March 19, stirring disgust and police complaints by some of the recipients.

“It got to the point that multiple people were calling,” said Acting Police Chief Sean Kennedy. He cited calls from residents on Codman Road and Wheeler Road, “but in talking with the dispatcher, it sounded like it was all over town.”

The flyer lays out arguments for voting against the HCA rezoning measure, but contains a number of factual errors:

• It says the state is requiring affected towns to put in “many low income” housing units, when in fact the law does not have any such requirement and in fact limits the portion of affordable housing in HCA districts to 10%.
• It says that Lincoln has never applied for a state grant other than for the school, when in fact it has applied for and received several grants in recent years, including regional planning grants and $400,000 for designing expansion of the Lincoln Woods wastewater treatment plant.
• It incorrectly states that “we are looking at 800 units” and assumes those units will be filled with families of at least three people all at the same time, leading to a “sudden massive 50% increase in the town’s population” and a $30.8 million budget deficit for the town.

The flyer also implies that illegal immigrants could occupy some of the new housing.

One of the flyer recipients said other residents had sent him copies of a different flyer expressing similar anti-HCA sentiments that was left in mailboxes, though it’s unclear if the two versions were produced and distributed by different people.

After word spread about the incident, several residents — including several who oppose Lincoln’s HCA measure that will be voted on at Town Meeting on March 23 — decried the act on LincolnTalk.

Kennedy said he would speak with Lincoln’s postmaster, since leaving non-U.S. mail in people’s mailboxes is technically illegal, though there is no law or bylaw specifically forbidding it. He added that police had identified a person of interest who was seen putting papers in mailboxes on Wheeler Road. “We’re following up with a party to let them know that the postmaster doesn’t want them doing that,” he said.