Senate President Karen Spilka named Senator Lydia Edwards to be the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Housing, and the Senate Vice Chair of the Judiciary committee. The Senator will also serve on the following committees: Senate Ways and Means, Municipalities and Regional Government, Revenue, Juvenile and Emerging Adult Justice, and Children Families and Persons with Disabilities.
The Housing Committee has jurisdiction over issues concerning Chapter 40B housing, subdivision control, condominium laws, and housing generally. Senator Edwards has over a decade of experience working on housing issues. In 2016, she was appointed by the Mayor of Boston to be the first director of Boston’s Office of Housing Stability. As a Boston City Councilor, she chaired the Housing Committee and worked with her Council colleagues and the Mayor, to pass the transfer fee, zoning reform, senior property tax relief, and condo conversion protections.
“Stable housing is critical, it protects mental and physical health, ensures children can excel in school, and keeps families together. I look forward to working with leadership, colleagues in the Senate, the House, and the Healey Administration to deliver for our communities. Thank you, Senate President Spilka, for the opportunity to lead on housing issues.†said Senator Lydia Edwards (D-Boston).
“I am committed to using my position as the Senate Vice-Chair of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to protect the dignity of all people involved in our justice system and to ensure our system in fair, accountable, and just†said Senator Lydia Edwards (D-Boston).
The Joint Committee on the Judiciary is tasked with considering all matters concerning crimes, penalties, and sentencing, criminal offender record information, judiciary, including the recall of judges, the salaries of judges, court clerks and court officers of the various courts, probation officers, juries and jury duty, parole, registers of deeds, correction issues previously sent to Public Safety (but excluding the retirement of judges and all other court personnel) and such other matters as may be referred. For the past year, Senator Edwards has been serving as a commissioner on the New England Commission on the Future of Higher Education in Prison. On the Commission she is working with a diverse coalition of stakeholders, government agencies, and elected officials from across New England, to improve education for incarcerated people.