Candidates for District Seven’s city council seat have taken to the debate stage, presenting a unified front against over-policing and substance abuse but some disagreement on education.

Housing was the first issue presented during the July 15 forum, lent urgency by the pandemic’s expiring eviction moratorium. Finding money to subsidize both landlords and tenants was a popular proposal among the candidates, as was reexamining the proportion of new development money demanded for linkage fees that fund affordable housing.

Tania Fernandes Anderson, a long-time advocate for social and economic equity, referenced her own experiences with homelessness when proposing more ambitious assistance.

“If you work 40 hours in the city and you’re paying more than 35% of your income on rent, the city should subsidize the difference,” she said. “The most important thing when we’re implementing all of these ideas is that we do so equitably for everyone.” The police department proved a source of controversy, with candidates agreeing that the police demonstrated widespread racism and over-policing. Anderson, Roxbury activist Marisa Luse, community organizer Joao DePina and attorney and educator Lorraine Payne Wheeler all shared how homicides had affected their own lives, questioning the effectiveness of police at preventing violent crime. Proposals to increase funding to social programs and recruit officers from local communities also received broad support. “It’s going to take reflective employees to change the system and break it up from the inside,” said community activist Angelina Camacho. “We have to be unapologetic about the existence of racism and oppression in the city and every department. It exists, it needs to be broken and we need to take action.”

Host Tito Jackson, himself a former City Councilor for District Seven, brought up the area’s massive health disparities. District Seven contains both a “slice of the Back Bay with an average life expectancy of 91.9 years and census tracts in Roxbury folks on average pass away at 58.9.” “This is going to require not just a district approach, but a city and a state approach,” said Dr. Brandy Brooks, an adjunct professor of history and social science for the Bunker Hill Community College.

“It’s not just substance abuse, it’s homelessness, it’s poverty, it’s mental health. This will still require some public safety response as well.”

Candidates agreed on decentralizing public services to try and break up areas of heavy substance abuse and drug sales. The intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, referred to at some points by the candidates and even the host as “methadone mile,” earned particular scrutiny for its deteriorating conditions and wide range of drug-related crime.

“We’ve seen issues like this before, we know the best practices,” said Anderson. “We should collaborate with city government to disperse these clinics and coordinate with housing and mental health services. What’s the difference here? Skin color. If these were gunshot patients, we would find beds, we would find the resources.” Opinions varied on whether Boston’s school committee should remain entirely appointed by the mayor, with a thin majority of candidates supporting a fully elected board. DePina and Wheeler were in favor of a hybrid model, with Camacho preferring appointments. Candidates were similarly split over Boston’s exam schools, with many wishing there had been more time for the community and themselves to debate the issue. All candidates supported reducing the voting age to 16, although they were again divided on whether voting should be extended to non-citizens. The amount of city contracts that should be given to companies owned by minorities ranged from community organizer Leon Rivera’s 40% to the 60% suggested by Anderson and Camacho. The other candidates favored at or slightly above 50%.