Boston strikes deal to stop gentrification of housing complex in Mattapan

In late February, two days before she had to vacate her apartment, 73-year-old Margaret Nichols got a knock on her door. She’d been rushing to fill moving boxes and pack up her apartment of more than 20 years. After years of paying her climbing rent at the recently rebranded “SoMa at the T” complex in Mattapan, she’d spent nearly all her savings and had to give up.

“I just couldn’t pay the rent and I just stopped,” Nichols said.

To avoid eviction, Nichols had signed an agreement to leave but still she feared “sheriffs coming” to force her out.

She opened the door to find Gabrielle Rene, a community organizer from City Life/Vida Urbana, a Boston-based nonprofit that had spent six years helping tenants at the 12-building complex fight the surging rents. Rene told her to stop packing; a deal to keep the building affordable was in the works and she assured Nichols she could stay.

City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune speaks to the crowd gathered at the Fairlawn Apartments. PHOTO: JEREMIAH ROBINSON/MAYOR’S OFFICE

On Monday that deal became reality as Mayor Michelle Wu announced the sale of the complex to developer Related Beal with the help of $10 million from the city of Boston to guarantee that all apartments remain affordable. Under the deal, existing tenants won’t pay more than 2% per year increases and new tenants will have to meet income restrictions.

Related Beal will also put in $6.4 million for needed repairs and upgrades on the 53-year-old property. Tenants have long complained about rodents, mold and poor plumbing. Another nearly $1 million will come from the city’s Boston Acquisition Fund, a public-private loan fund.

“All of the almost 350 units here,” said the mayor, “will be converted from market rate housing to permanently affordable housing.”

The sale of the property — which will be renamed Fairlawn Estates — is the largest completed through the city’s Acquisition Opportunity Program, which helps developers purchase market-rate, multi-family housing and make it affordable.

“This relatively reasonable investment by the city allows the property to function and function well, operate well, and it ensures affordability into the future,” Sheila Dillon, Boston’s chief of housing said.

After rent control was abolished in Boston in 1994, the city had no ability to curb rents in privately owned buildings. Wu has proposed a cap on rent increases, but that plan ultimately failed in the Legislature. Without that kind of protection, Dillon said, Boston’s loan fund is currently the best tool the city has to protect low-income tenants.

“Taking existing rental stock out of the speculative market and getting it into the hands of owners that really want to maintain tenancies, want to maintain affordability and recognize that property … is people’s homes, is what we should be doing more of,” Dillon said.

Tenants and housing advocates call the property a case study in what happens when new train stops come into a neighborhood: Rents rise and push out existing tenants.

Residents of Fairlawn Apartments in Mattapan, along with members of City Life/Vida Urbana, community members and elected officials gather to celebrate the acquisition of the Fairlawn Apartments, ensuring all 347 units will stay affordable. PHOTO: JEREMIAH ROBINSON/MAYOR’S OFFICE

In 2018, Developer DSF bought the property, then known as Fairlawn Apartments, a year before the opening of the nearby Blue Hill Avenue commuter rail stop, just outside Mattapan Square. They rebranded the property “SoMa at the T” — a name referring to South Mattapan — and said tenants would have to sign new leases that raised rents by $300 a month. Without a lease, rents would rise $500 a month.

Annie Gordon, 74 and Betty Lewis, 73, were among the first tenants who decided to stay and fight the rent increases. And with the help of City Life, they organized tenants to stage walkouts, vigils and write letters to officials.

Gordon, who has lived in her apartment for nearly 50 years, watched as many tenants gave up and left and others were evicted. DSF failed in an attempt to evict her, even as she refused to pay new rents.

“I’m very, very happy,” Gordon said, “Above all, I’m relieved because I do know that there was no place for me to go.”

Gordon and Lewis said they fought not just for themselves, but for everyone in their complex. They now hope their success will embolden tenants in other buildings to take action to fight high rents.

“We can’t give up,” Lewis said, “We are human. We have a right to have a home.”

Gabrielle Rene of City Life/Vida Urbana said it shows what can happen when tenants stand up. “I think the credit is owed to the tenant association, their resilience and the fact that we kept the course for six years and we kept going at it and we didn’t relent.”

But Rene and others say more tools are needed to keep buildings affordable and are calling for the state to pass rent control as well as the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. Known as TOPA, that legislation would require landlords to let existing tenants make a first bid on a property.

The idea, which has failed to advance over years of attempts in the state Legislature, is back for consideration in the current session. Several major cities including Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Philadelphia as well as the state of Maryland have adopted versions of tenant purchase laws.

Meanwhile, Nichols is grateful she answered that knock on her door, and now calls City Life’s Rene, her “guardian angel.”

“I was praying for something to happen, you know, and suddenly it was there because I would have gone,” said Nichols, “I’d have been sleeping on a cot somewhere.”

This article was originally published on WGBH.org