Low-income and disabled: conversation with peer advocate of Boston Center for Independent Living

BY JORDAN FRIAS

POSTED ON JANUARY 31, 2013

Trying to find housing in Boston is hard enough. Imagine trying to find housing for you and your spouse when you are both low-income, disabled and have “CORIs” (Criminal Offender Record Information) against you.

Erica Tanen, peer disability advocate for Boston Center for Independent Living, is currently working with a couple, or consumer, to secure  housing for them, but the process has not be easy. A major issue has been dealing with owners who have denied applicants based on their section 8 vouchers which pays for about 70 percent of the person’s housing costs.

“It’s illegal for anyone to deny an applicant because of a section 8 voucher,” Tanen said. Still, owners have told some of her consumers that they do not accept these vouchers, which is obviously not the case. Tanen then has to tell her consumers that the owner is misinformed. The next step is advocacy. At times the consumer will call the home-owner themselves, other times Tanen confronts the owner for her consumer via telephone.

“It’s awkward for me,” Tanen said. Owners usually tell her that they will not accept her consumers because they have had low-income section 8 voucher owners as tenants before which, “hasn’t worked out so well.”

Tanen’s job is to then refer her consumers to a lawyer in the community. One popular choice is Greater Boston Legal Services which provides lawyers to these low-income applicants to fight discriminatory affordable housing owners.

While this process is going on, these applicants must renew their section 8 vouchers which expire every 60 days, depending on where they got their voucher, what type of voucher it is, along with some other factors. Their disability helps approve them for these renewals, Tanen said.

Consumers who resource Boston Housing Authority for housing are usually placed on an eight year waiting list on average. If they are homeless at the time then their waiting time is reduced to about five years. These consumers can either apply to be on another  list for public housing or private subsidized housing (check out list of available private subsidies here or on the HUD website here). The benefit of applying for public housing is that there is one single application that can be used to apply to almost all 242 different housing authorities (see list of public housing here or on the Metropolitan Boston Housing Authority page here).

Snapshot of public housing application with reasonable accommodation request through Boston Housing Authority

With the rise in affordable housing units across the city, consumers of Boston Center for Independent Living are applying to live in newer buildings which can sometimes be easier to get in to depending on the owner, according to Tanen. Tanen says that consumers who apply to private subsidized buildings in addition to public housing tend to get housing quicker than those who only apply to public housing as well.

There are other obstacles that stand in the way of her consumers getting housing. If they are married during the waiting process then their spouse cannot live with them because they originally asked to be housed as a single person. They can also lose their housing easily if they allow someone to stay over their apartment during the night.

These strict factors make it hard for some to gain or maintain their affordable housing units. Tanen said that there is also a “pre-waiting list” for individuals who apply for section 8 vouchers which are “really hard to get.”

While these consumers are playing the waiting game essentially, they are competing with many others who wish to occupy affordable housing in the city. Agencies like Boston Center for Independent Living will strive to streamline the process for those who are unsure of their options.

Former environment and energy chief describes how Boston challenges gentrification

BY JORDAN FRIAS

POSTED ON JANUARY 29, 2013

In this video produced by the National League of Cities for the Sustainable Cities Institute, former chief  of environment and energy for Boston James W. Hunt III says that “affordable housing” contributes to “a vibrant living city that attracts diversity of economy and diversity of people.”  He also cites an  “inclusionary zoning  provision” in Boston as something that has balanced out the amount of affordable housing and market rate housing in affluent neighborhoods. This video was posted on July 11, 2012 on the Sustainable Cities Institutes’s Vimeo page.

Week in review: Affordable housing stories throughout Boston and surrounding cities

BY JORDAN FRIAS

POSTED ON JANUARY 28, 2013

Neighborhoods in Boston continue to become gentrified as the housing market in the city improves, which improved by 18 percent from 2011 to 2012 to be exact. What does this mean for affordable housing? Is it in decline in areas like the South End? On the contrary. This week alone showed that affordable housing is on the rise in Boston.

The Boston Globe has covered most of this news in the Business section of its newspaper. Here are a few stories worth mentioning:

• Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2012 – A $35 million project in Chinatown expands affordable housing by 32 units for low-income elderly residents despite increase in “luxury high-rises”
• Thursday, Jan. 24, 2012 – Proposal to the Boston Redevelopment Authority for the creation of a $5.7 million renovation is approved. It will create affordable homes for 40 of Boston’s homeless families

Surrounding towns and cities are also seeing a rise in affordable housing units under construction:

• Saturday, Jan. 26, 2012 – AvalonBay Communities Inc. to build a 177-unit apartment in Higham since less than 10 percent of the town’s housing is affordable

Sunday, Jan. 27, 2012 – Despite neighborhood push back, a 300-unit affordable housing project is in the works in Needham

Owner supports move from low income to market rate housing

BY JORDAN FRIAS

POSTED ON JANUARY 23, 2013

On May 29, the City Council passed a resolution for David Parker, owner of Rutland Housing, to work with tenants to find some common ground on preserving low income housing in the apartment complex.

Since then, Parker has refused to meet with them.

Parker, who wasn’t present during the City Council hearing for affordable housing held that day, said he would have been more than happy to attend if he didn’t receive a “ghost invitation.”

By ghost invitation, Parker means that he did not know about the meeting until the morning of, saying that it was not well organized.

Kane, a proponent of affordable housing, says that Parker was “outside in his SUV” of Saint Steven’s Episcopal Church in the South End when the hearing was held. The hearing took place in that church, the location where the Rutland Housing Tenant Organization held its biweekly meetings.

When asked if he would support mixed income housing, a question that tenants and Kane have for him, he said he already does.

To Kane, this question refers to the Project Based Vouchers (PBVs) that would allow a portion of the building to remain compliant to the project based Section 8 contract, low income. But Parker doesn’t see it that way.

Kane and members of the Rutland House Tenant Organization have sent multiple letters to Parker saying that they would support him if he wanted to move forward with this proposal.

The vouchers could be transferred to the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development Office to guarantee that a portion of the future tenants will be low income while the other would pay market value.

When asked if he was willing to consider that option in an interview this week, a question that Kane and the tenants haven’t had answered, he said he would not.

“I don’t see how this would happen,” Parker said. “There would be two bureaucracies, two groups to manage—that would be an administrative nightmare!”

Parker stressed that the current community will not be evicted from their apartments, but also said that “probably 20 years from now” Rutland Housing will become a market rate housing complex, a fear that tenants have for the future of diversity in the South End.

Parker says that the “city has improved” because of the actions of people like him who partnered up with the government 40 years ago to finance affordable housing.

He feels no need to bust in terms of considering to preserve low income units in his apartment building and doesn’t want to be pressured to do so by other special interest groups.

“The U.S. government should be held accountable to their obligation,” Parker said, which is to allow owners to do whatever they please with their property after the section 8 contract expires.

Parker hasn’t heard much from “the two tenants and Michael Kane,” who he says make up the Rutland Housing Tenant Organization. The last correspondence he received from them was about three to four months ago.

Councilor Tito Jackson, who tried to mediate discussion between Parker and the organization after the hearing in May, hasn’t returned any of Parker’s recent calls on other issues.

Kane is waiting to hear back from Sheila Dillon, the Chief of Housing and Director of the Department of Neighborhood Development for Mayor Menino, to discuss owner legislation.

Proponent of new tenant organization shares history of for profit owner

BY JORDAN FRIAS

POSTED ON JANUARY 23, 2013

Photo outside of Michael Kane’s office PHOTO BY JORDAN FRIAS

In the basement of 42 Seaverns Avenue in Jamaica Plain is the office of Michael Kane, executive director of the Mass Alliance of Human & Urban Development (HUD) Tenants. Kane, who helped Rutland Housing Tenants form the Rutland Housing Tenant Organization in Feb. 2012, confirms that the group is still alive and well when questioned about its activity. What he is ready to talk about is what he calls the untold story of how David Parker, the owner of Rutland Housing, purchased the building that was previously owned by nonprofit management.

Kane came across Parker when he was involved in an elected neighborhood organization for urban housing known as the South End Project Area Committee (SEPAC) in the 70s. Kane says Parker was on the board of the organization earlier that decade, but wasn’t reelected in 1975. Parker then became “a principal leader” of a group called the Committee of Citizens for a Balanced South End. This group filed a controversial environmental lawsuit against urban developers of the Concord Homes project and HUD as reported by the SEPAC newsletter in March 1975. The lawsuit stated that these groups would “perpetuate a high density area of low-income Blacks” that would hurt South End property values with their construction of affordable housing.

A copy of the SEPAC Newsletter explaining the environmental lawsuit PHOTO BY JORDAN FRIAS

“They said that blacks were a pollutant,” Kane said, when asked about this incident.

The lawsuit was dropped.

Kane says that Parker was a “very controversial” figure around that time. He was a “small speculator” of Rutland Housing and had lived across the street from that building. Kane says that Parker was a “conning” figure who befriended elderly black woman in the community to take advantage of them when they sold their property. He would purchase their buildings for much less than what they were worth and convert them into market rate housing, a move that Kane and Rutland tenants believe he will make when it comes to Rutland Housing.

Since the deadline passed for Parker to renew a 40 year old section 8 contract, Kane and the Rutland Housing Tenant Organization (RHTO) believe that Parker will slowly destroy the character of the community which is largely Latino and largely low income.

Kane is not surprised that Parker did not budge on negotiating the renewal of the section 8 contract to maintain low income housing. He believes it was Kane’s plan all along to wait out the contract to appeal to the public as a supporter of low income housing. Kane says Parker has been making millions off the property from federal government assistance.

Prior to Parker, the building was owned by a nonprofit, Morgan Memorial and an elderly woman who was having trouble making mortgage payment. Kane says that this is when Parker “manipulated a defunct nonprofit” to purchase the housing for a very small amount.

He questions the legality of it all, stating that neither the Massachusetts Attorney General nor Boston Redevelopment Authority approved or monitored the sale, which is required by state law. There is no evidence on record according to Kane.

Kane says that the financial angle of Parker’s tale has not been told and has agreed to share some more of it the near future.

In the meantime, RHTO and Kane haven’t met since August of last year, but plan to meet soon to discuss the possibility of supporting legislation for all income housing in Boston.

Kane says they would like to give the city the power to require owners of low income housing to renew expiring contracts or Project Based Vouchers (PBV).

They have not met since David Parker refused to negotiate accepting Project Based Vouchers this summer. Kane spoke to representative of Mayor Menino’s office last week to try to pressure Parker into meeting with the tenant organization.

Kane says Parker has made up his mind and “hasn’t given any indication of changing it.”

“If he is serious [about mixed income housing] we will work with him to go to the state to convert 20 percent or more of his apartment to PBV,” Kane said.

Organizations form in the South End as housing contracts expire

BY JORDAN FRIAS

POSTED ON JANUARY 16, 2013

The South End of Boston is known for its Victorian style high end apartments and fancy red brick sidewalks. What’s also in this neighborhood is affordable housing complexes such as the Villa Victoria (Victory Village), Torre Unidad (Unity Tower Development) and Rutland Housing. Section 8 of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) contract has sustained affordable housing in the state of Massachusetts for 40 years, a move seen as a temporary solution for public housing requirements by the federal government. On May 31, 2012, that contract expired.

Tenants of apartments on 105 West Concord Street’s Rutland Housing were determined to remain in their South End homes regardless of the $500 rent increase that was imposed on them after the first of June. Luckily, they were issued enhanced vouchers by HUD and the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) to sustain the increase in their rent for the year.

Some tenants are determined to make sure that their residence status at Rutland Housing is not threatened again as federally funded programs like HUD and BHA could possibly lose funding from Congress during this recession.

Rutland Housing unfortunately did not have a tenant organization until this past summer. Tenants who wanted to form an organization to preserve affordable housing for themselves and future generations in the South End got support from Michael Kane the executive director of the Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants. They then formed their own grassroots organization and called it the Rutland Housing Tenants Organization (RHTO), as reported by Andrew McFarland, freelance reporter, in a September 7, 2012 edition of The Phoenix Boston (read article here). He described affordable housing facilities like Rutland in Massachusetts as “ticking time bombs in gentrifying neighborhoods.” At that time the group had only five official members.

With Mass Alliance’s support, RHTO was able to write letters and form petitions to urge Rutland Housing owners David and Karen Parker to continue to support the 40 plus families that are fighting for affordable housing. RHTO has won the support of Mayor Thomas Menino, State Representative Byron Rushing and Arch Bishop Sean O’Malley.

The City Council ordered that negotiations between the Parkers and RHTO begin to draft up new contract plans, which the Parkers oppose.

No news on the newly formed organization has been written since. Members of the RHTO said in the September 7 article that they were hoping to increase membership sometime in the near future.