Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, waves at a rally in Iowa. Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore / CC BY 2.0

As Super Tuesday and the Massachusetts Democratic presidential primary looms in his campaign’s windshield, candidate Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders took to twitter to say he “stands with” community groups seeking to halt plans to redevelop Suffolk Downs.

“We need affordable housing for all instead of more gentrifying luxury developments for the few,” he wrote, while linking to a news story about the groups’ efforts.  “I stand with the longtime residents of East Boston fighting displacement from the communities they have spent generations building.”

A coalition of tenant and affordable housing advocacy groups asked the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to halt the BPDA’s review of the project and accuses the BPDA and Suffolk Downs developer HYM Investment Group of not translating important documents or providing “competent and complete” oral interpretation at meetings in the review process for the development of the Suffolk Downs site.

The BPDA and HYM reject the charges, pointing to the presence of Spanish language interpretation at every public meeting for the proposal and two public meetings exclusively in Spanish. The agency has also translated meeting materials and documents about the development.

“At a time when we are facing a housing crisis, it is unfortunate that anyone would want to hold up progress on this creation of much-needed housing, which will strengthen the communities of Revere and East Boston without displacing a single resident,” HYM Principal Tom O’Brien said in a statement when the complaint was filed.

Sanders’ tweet set off a storm of discussion among locals on the social media service, including East Boston’s City Councilor Lydia Edwards, who has campaigned to get HYM to increase the amount of affordable housing built on the former racetrack site. Edwards, who is backing Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the race for president, highlighted her efforts to lobby for the increases, saying “Don’t worry @BernieSanders, I have a PLAN FOR THAT!”

Between 900 affordable units planned on-site and 500 units planned off-site, HYM says 17 percent of the thousands of total units planned for the site of the former racetrack will be affordable.