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The displaced of Maverick Square
By adamg on Wed, 12/02/2015 - 7:57am
The Dig reports on the residents of 173-177 Maverick St., whose new landlord upped their rent, did nothing when the water stopped and now has stopped paying for alternate housing for them after a rear wall collapsed.
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Comments
Holy Cross Grads nonetheless
I hope the pastor called his Jesuit friends at College of the Holy Cross, where one of the new buyers graduated.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zAz-maj0RRMJ:www.sp...
It's a Lutheran Church
And the Society of Jesus is a Roman Catholic order founded to counter the Protestant Reformation. Do all Christians look alike to you?
(But yeah, I don't think Pope Francis would be looking to well on these landlords.)
They may not be as far apart
They may not be as far apart as you think. Heres a recent article from The Pilot: http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=175179
The churches should have more to say on this issue as they seem to spend quite a bit remedying homelessness.
Resting on his laurels
Anwar Faisal is going to need up his game to compete with maverick slumlords such as this.
Can't Make This Up: Owners are Former Lehman Bros Execs
TLDR: Rich Egan and Tim White are former execs of Lehman Bros. Instead of destroying main street from a distance, they're doing it in person now at Spring Hill Capital Partners. And they've already run afoul of the SEC for being bad actors.
When Liz Warren and Marty Walsh talk about beating Wall Street, you couldn't grab two better out of central casting.
Thats why
You buy tenant insurance, its about $100/year.
This is why
The city needs to be proactive and responsive, like sparing no expense to fix everything broken using the city's own emergency contractors and then billing the landlord. Won't pay? Seize the property.
Boston needs to send a message that basic services will be provided and it will be a lot cheaper for the owners if the city isn't forced to step in.
As an adult
You should also be proactive and protect yourself financially.
Jesus H. Christ
Must be nice never having been laid off or fired or seriously injured and never having faced a single financial problem in your life. In the real world, as opposed to your little libertarian fantasy planet, many people are forced to live month to month through no fault of their own.
A-Man , no need to use the
A-Man , no need to use the Lord's name in vain, you know better than that now!
I like it
so why don't we do this???
That's a great idea!
That's a great idea! That way, these tenants won't have to pay for any of their personal possessions that were destroyed.
Of course, that policy won't stop or ameliorate any of the many other problems detailed in the story, but please don't let something as simple as "the facts presented in the linked article" stop you from victim-blaming, anon!
where?
I pay for a cheaper plan, and it's about $35 a month. And I'm not insuring a family's possessions.
Mass Property
Its basic;
$100,00 liability
$25,000 content
and it covers loss of use
Also, Commerce will give you a discount on you Auto.
I got mine a few years ago
I got mine a few years ago through Liberty Mutural (bundled with an auto plan) for $11/mo (2 people in a 600sqft)
Where is the City in all this?
Folks, holding up signs in Eastie at night is nice. It won't get you noticed.
One of the greatest protests in Boston was the people of East Boston blocking traffic at the entrance to the Sumner Tunnel in the late 70's when Kevin White tried to close the East Boston police station. It got attention, a lot of attention. The police station is open today.
First and foremost call Patrick Curran at Inspectional Services at 617-961-3261 and call the new owners to task. Call Sal LaMattina at 617-635-3200 and scream. Chain yourself to the entrance along Haddash Way to the residences at the Four Seasons if that is where the owners live. What is the worst thing that happens? You get arrested for trespassing? I wouldn't sweat it. It is your home these people are messing with.
Prayer groups aren't the way to go. Make it hard for the actors to go about their daily lives. Things will change.
Oh come on.
This from the man who publicly derided the protesters who were arrested for blocking I-93 last winter?
Legal Housing Standards Versus Black Lives Matter
These are very different things.
Where you live and for where you are paying rent with the legal guarantees that go with it and your deciding to block traffic owing to your disagreement with your view of the racial paradigm of society are not the same. I only took one pre-law class in college but I am fairly sure what is "Legal" versus "Concept / Feelings" are not the same.
The only thing in common with the Attack On The Suburban Working / Lower Middle Class by BLM / Occupy Boston and the people in East Boston protesting now is that they have no idea how to affect the real actors causing the turmoil and the potential facilitators in their lives.
so let me make sure i
so let me make sure i understand-
its okay only because the cause is something that you care about?
thats all you needed to say.
No money to turn on the water, or fix the collapsed wall, but...
... White and Egan have $3 million to buy East Boston's Mt. Carmel church from the archdiocese: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/09/02/boston-archdiocese-sells-cl....
Under another shell LLC of course.
Where oh where
are all those cheerleaders for Eastie gentrification now? More than one commenter around these parts was never shy about it before.
Hard to feel so self righteous about "keeping the riff raff out" when you see what you're really doing is shoving families out into the street.
I suspect
...they just haven't gotten around to UHub today. They aren't particularly shy about protecting property rights and the rights of the FREE MARKET to reduce every human experience into a commodity that can be squeezed for obscene profits to the detriment of planet, people and good taste. Give them time...
Frankly
This kind of thing has always gone, gentrification or no--there have always been crappy landlords and buildings that fall into disrepair, probably even more so years ago when rent control was a disincentive to maintain buildings and arson was often seen as an easy out. The only difference now is there are fewer affordable rentals for these families to move into. My question is: what ARE the legal requirements here and why has nothing been resolved after three months? If your landlord's negligence has caused your apartment to be unlivable and your possessions unreachable, what rights do you have? I don't see how the motel situation is sustainable but how has this gone so long without a legal/city solution? This can't be the first time this has happened.
I checked with Mayor Walsh
and he says you have the right to an super awesome race car event in your city! And he has the right to have closed door meetings with various foundations about school closures! And you can meet the mayor on his Holiday trolley all over the city! So while this whole wall collapse thing is a shame, Walsh is really way too busy doing other stuff to get this kind of issue just now.
If you want to build a large construction project with lots of union labor, he will be able to see you in a few minutes though.
Does anyone here believe that
Does anyone here believe that the building will be restored as is? It's now a tear down candidate.
Wild Guess
How much do you wanna bet that it's condemned, then torn down, and some fancy new "Luxury Condos" are built. Far more profitable to do that than just fix it and re-rent it out.
What is it about money &
What is it about money & economics that causes people to become so heartless?
greed
that is all.
Hold them Legally, Financially and Politically Accountable
Just like with anything across the city, state and country - bad actors will persist on all fronts until they are in danger of being held legally, politically and financially responsible. As long as our legislators and political representatives accept special interest funds, fail to develop and enforce solid legislation that protects folks and most importantly - publicly and loudly denounce these bad actors NOTHING will change. Diplomacy is one thing - but rolling over and turning a blind eye is another.
If you want change - make it happen at the ballot box and reach out to your elected representatives at the city and state level to remind them you are holding them accountable.
What about the old landlord?
What about the old landlord? Most likely a member of the "community." No one complained then.
It's hard to tell
from your vague codeword, but I suspect you're making a racial, linguistic, or otherwise "ethnic" insinuation.
don't you think maybe all those problems weren't problems with the old landlord? so there wasn't a reason to complain?
The article describes
The article describes substantial problems with the systems and the structure of the building. Those things don't go from great to horrible in a few months. Most likely it was cheap so no one, including tenant advocates, complained. This happens over and over (see: Chinatown building/tenant issues from earlier this year.) No one complains when an ethnic group preys on their own.
old landlord
This building was in a terrible state likley for a decade. The mouse issue and many of the other issues likley existed for some time. They old started going to isd after the new owner as of december 2015 was going to give a rent increase. These apts were going for between $600 and $800 per apt in a part of the neighborhood where apts that size fetch $2000 plus. They were fine with the conditions that likley gave way to the eventual wall collapse for some time never really caring till more recently.
The old owner likley had little carrying costs and no mortgage so when he decided to cash out like many others are doing now and also did in the 80s the new owner would have had to raise rents or likely lose the house.
I love how many that were in the position to buy a multi family 5-8 years ago to live in one and preserve an affordable unit decided against this and bought a lovely renovated condo. But then they have the audacity to look to others that have the task of looking after tenants and after to take phone calls at random times what they should charge.
People could have done something by buying the multi families themselves but the real situation is that many like the idea of affordable housing but few want to use their personal funds to provide it for another.