Get to Know Phoebe West
Thursday, February 12, 2026
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We recognize that people are coming in as people and they’re doing their best, so we’re meeting folks where they’re at.
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If you ask Phoebe West, Project Coordinator at the Housing Liaison Office, how long she has worked for the City of Cambridge, she will tell you that it is a bit difficult to quantify.
“Somewhere between three years in this role, and like, forever. Probably like 10-ish, all said, if you counted Mayor’s Program stuff,” West said. “Which is a kind of quintessential Cambridge kid story, but it’s awesome. We want people who work in municipal government to be from here and be totally invested in the community.”
West, who graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and then Harvard College, has lived and worked in Cambridge for almost her entire life. Beginning with the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program, she later worked in the Budget Office and at the Department of Human Service Programs, and after a brief period in Saint Louis, Mo., she returned to the City in her current role.
To West, her work is a valuable way to give back to the city where she grew up.
“I really valued growing up in an environment where there was so much diversity, so many services, so much good vibrancy, and so I really felt connected to wanting to continue to serve. I really believe in investing in community,” she said.
At the Housing Liaison Office, West’s work centers around projects, programs, and policy relating to housing and homelessness in Cambridge. She also provides behind-the-scenes support for the Office’s direct service work and helps run the Housed in Cambridge program and organize special interest groups, such as Seniors in Housing.
Through this work, West strives to bring systemic change to dismantle existing barriers to housing that impact Cambridge community members.
“My role is really thinking about, ‘How do we make housing services in Cambridge, specifically, better?’” West said. “And, ‘How do I support the work in structural, systems-wise [ways], to make it easier for case managers to do their direct service work?’”
One recent focus of West’s has been eviction record sealing. The Housing Liaison Office has hosted several workshops to help community members seal their eviction records if they meet certain criteria. West noted that these workshops are a collaboration between several groups, including the Housing Liaison Office, the nonprofit legal services team, and the City of Somerville.
“It’s really exciting, because this can profoundly affect people’s ability to find housing in the future,” she said. “And we’ve had great turnout.”
In addition, the Housing Liaison Office works closely with the Multi-Service Center, sharing the same space. West is currently helping the Multi-Service Center revitalize their rental assistance program, an important service for many Cambridge residents.
“It’s really thinking about, ‘How do we use the funding that we have to support people who need funds and help community members feel like they have some agency and control over their circumstance?’” West said.
This focus on personal agency is central to West’s approach to outreach and building trust with the community. She explained that taking a trauma-informed approach while respecting individual agency is key to this work, especially given the vulnerable nature of housing challenges.
“We often say that nobody’s coming here on their best day, and especially, talking about your housing problems is very vulnerable,” she said. “Because I think people can really feel, just like, hit around by their circumstances. My job isn’t to tell you what to do, but to say, ‘Here are the steps you could take, and here are the possible outcomes of that,’ so that you’re able to make informed decisions.”
She emphasized the importance of taking an individual approach to each individual circumstance, as outreach is ultimately about meeting people where they are at.
“I think we try to give all our clients a lot of grace, because it’s really hard and vulnerable. And look, it’s not easy to live in Cambridge and live in the world right now,” West said. “So, we also recognize that people are coming in as people and they’re doing their best, so we’re meeting folks where they’re at and that can look different for different folks.”
West said she is proud of the work the Housing Liaison Office and Multi-Service Center have done to help residents navigate the challenges of finding and maintaining housing.
“I’m particularly proud of both the people that we’ve been able to keep in their housing, keep safe in their housing, keep sustainably in their housing, as well as the people who we’ve been able to get them to a better housing circumstance,” she said. “Which is really awesome, and it’s so laborious, and it’s definitely not just me.”
Supporting community members with housing underscores what West believes is most important about local government—that it serves the people.
“I profoundly believe that housing is a human right, and I profoundly believe that your government should be working for you, and people should get services, and that, if we as a universe have money, we should be giving it to the people who need it most,” she said.
As a lifelong Cantabrigian, West can tell you her favorite local ice cream places—Honeycomb Creamery and Christina’s Homemade Ice Cream are two of her go-tos—but she can also tell you why working in the city she grew up in especially meaningful to her.
“I so appreciate the mixture of people and the investment in that. I really appreciate that we’re willing to think outside the box and that the City is willing to stick its neck out for others,” West said. “Not everybody is fortunate enough to still believe the city they grew up in is still exciting and cool and awesome, and they want to continue to be there, so I think that’s a testament to the Cambridge vibe.”
