Sumbul Siddiqui
2023 Candidate for Cambridge City Council
Home address:
283 Sidney St. #3
Cambridge, MA 02139
Contact information:
website: www.votesumbul.com
phone: 617-785-0988
email: votesumbul@gmail.com
Facebook: facebook.com/mayorsiddiqui
Twitter: twitter.com/mayorsiddiqui
Instagram: instagram.com/mayorsiddiqui
Send contributions to: https://www.votesumbul.com/donate
Or please mail contributions to:
Committee to Elect Sumbul Siddiqui
283 Sidney St. #3
Cambridge, MA 02139
Background
My leadership in City Hall is informed by my experience in community advocacy, my work as a public interest attorney, and my perspective as a Cambridge native. My family immigrated to the United States from Karachi, Pakistan when I was two. I grew up in the Rindge Towers and Roosevelt Towers. At Cambridge Rindge and Latin, I developed a passion for civic and community engagement, serving as student body president and co-founding the Cambridge Youth Council, now in its 21st year.
I pursued an education that would empower me to improve the vital public services that provided my family with the stability we needed to thrive, such as Headstart and public housing. I studied public policy at Brown University. After college, I served as an AmeriCorps fellow and then graduated from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.
After law school, I returned home to Cambridge to serve my community. I worked as an attorney at Northeast Legal Aid. I was a member of the South Asian Bar Association of Greater Boston, the Women’s Bar Association, and the National Organization of Legal Services Workers - UAW Local 2320, the Cambridge School Volunteers, Inc., and the Cambridge Human Services Commission.
This term as Mayor I’ve worked on the following:
Community Resiliency
- Launched Rise Up Cambridge, the first city-wide cash assistance program in the country, which began in 2021 for 130 families, and now, almost 2000 families with children are receiving $500 per month for 18 months
- Championed efforts to update the Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance (BEUDO) and put our largest emitting buildings on a path to zero emissions by 2035
- Founded the Winter Gift Card Support Drive for elderly and low-income residents
Education:
- Formed a City Council and School Committee Ad-Hoc in collaboration with the Office of Early Childhood Education to work towards Universal Pre-K in Cambridge. Starting in 2024, the Cambridge Preschool Program will provide free school-day, school-year preschool to every 4-year-old and some 3-year-olds living in Cambridge; I also advocated for more afterschool seats
- Partnered with Lesley University to expand an early college program to give CRLS students two years of college credit
- With Harvard and MIT, launched Cambridge Promise, a tuition-free college fund for CPS graduates attending Bunker Hill
Affordable Housing and Tenant Advocacy
- Worked with the Affordable Housing Trust to address property management issues and repair relationships with tenants who have expressed concerns
- Advocated for the city to buy property from Lesley University
Accomplishments and Priorities
- Worked to preserve the City’s existing expiring-use affordable housing at the Fresh Pond Apartments, where I grew up.
- Secured additional funding for the Homebridge program, expanding eligibility to 120% of the area median income and ensuring that home ownership is a reality for people across the income spectrum.
- Sponsored the Tenant Rights and Resources Notification Act.
- Appointed an ad hoc working group to address ongoing issues of homelessness in Cambridge, and inform the City’s Homeless Strategy moving forward, including advocating for non-congregate shelters.
- Increased legal aid funding to organizations that help residents facing housing instability; pushed our City to collect and analyze eviction data; and pushed forward recommendations, such as a condominium conversion ordinance, from the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Tenant Displacement I chaired my first term as a city councillor
- Brought halal food options to the Cambridge Public Schools, and eliminated library fines that disproportionately affect low-income residents and families of color.
- Advanced a language justice ordinance as the Chair of the Family Policy Council (FPC).
- Worked to establish a program partnering the City with East Cambridge Savings Bank to open a savings account with $50 for every kindergartener this fall along with financial literacy classes
For More Information
Please visit my website votesumbul.com.
Reach me via email votesumbul@gmail.com
CCTV candidate video (2023)
2021 Candidate Page 2021 MCNA Candidate Forum (Siddiqui)
2019 Candidate Page CCTV candidate video (2019) 2017 Candidate Page CCTV candidate video (2017)