PETITION BACKGROUND: The 5 tenant families at 26 School St. originally formed a tenant association in late 2014 in response to a building clear-out through no-fault evictions. The owner was a smaller local absentee landlord who was working with a realtor to sell the building to a developer, on the condition it be empty. Unable to find equivalent affordable places to move, the tenants fought their evictions and advocated for sale either with longterm leases in place to protect them, or to a nonprofit that would keep the building permanently affordable.
While the former 26 School St owner declined to respond to a $600,000 nonprofit offer last year, in April 2016 it was bought by City Realty for a much higher price. However, this company has an established precedent of working out affordable multi-year leases on a case-by-case basis in other occupied properties. And new subsidy is available from the City of Boston to help developers convert buildings to permanently affordable housing (City Realty isn't just a property manager; they're also a developer - and they're hearing concerns about inadequate affordability in a proposed new development. There's a local precedent of adding offsite affordable housing to address these concerns.)
Note: the 26 School St families are such outspoken advocates for anti-displacement measures that they attracted the attention of a real estate industry trade group, which panicked over a proposed municipal Just-Cause for Eviction ordinance and rushed a poorly-researched publication to press, containing not just misinformation, but forged signatures attributed to the tenants! (See City Life/Vida Urbana's response.)
SIGN THE PETITION:
To: CRM Property Management, owner of 26 School St., Roxbury MA via Aeton Oxford, LLC
We the undersigned express our support for the residents of 26 School St., Roxbury, whose 6-unit building you recently acquired after they originally came under threat of displacement in November 2014 when their former landlord attempted to clear out their building for sale, through no-fault evictions. 26 School St is the home where these tenants have raised their families, some for over 10 or 20 years, in their Egleston Sq neighborhood.
While real estate prices are now on the rise in our area, if purchasers of properties base their offer price not on what existing tenants are able to pay, but on a business plan of rent-burdening or displacing tenants to make large profits, they must expect strong community opposition. As neighbors and fellow community members, we are concerned about patterns of unaffordable rent increases and building clear-outs, affecting longtime residents of the Washington Street Corridor.
We urge you to work with the 26 School St. Tenant Association to find a sustainable solution protecting the affordability of their housing into the future, so that they can remain part of their community.
Who's signing
