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.
Housed in Boston 