| Gentrification is not a new phenomenon and plenty of attempts have been made to combat it in the past. Some have come to fruition as laws; others have dropped away in market downturns or in the face of unrelenting progress.
Long a contentious issue between landlords and renters, Massachusetts has some of the strongest tenant rights’ laws in the country. The process of evicting a tenant is long, arduous and expensive; it is not be undertaken lightly, which was part of the whole point. It should be difficult to remove a person from their home. But it also shouldn’t be an undue burden on behalf of small landlords, many of whom rely on rent payments for their own health and wellbeing.
Small property owners face another set of challenges in the current real estate market. While they can conceivably raise rents in line with market increases and thus increase their own income, other expenses – maintenance, insurance, taxes, snow removal – rise as well. Many of those small property owners are Baby Boomers or older, and upkeep on Boston’s ancient housing stock isn’t easy or cheap. A fat check from a developer is increasingly difficult to ignore.
No aspersions should be cast on those who choose to cash out. But what of the tenants they leave behind? Large swathes of the city are undergoing tremendous changes. The triple-deckers of Southie and Somerville are prime real estate; nearly every block has a building undergoing a condo conversion. As the housing stock flips from reasonably priced long-term rentals to stylish condos, the neighborhoods lose their charm and heritage (which, it could be argued, in some cases isn’t necessarily a bad thing).
Rep. Denise Provost, 27th Middlesex, figures enough is enough. She has filed a bill, HR 3017, that would give tenants in multifamily buildings the right of first refusal when their building goes on the market. Banding together the tenants could either buy the building outright or assign the right to a community partner or nonprofit for the same result. Either way, the building would have to be purchased at fair market value – not an easy proposition in Greater Boston.
As one might expect, the real estate community is not on board. NAIOP has already come out against the bill, according to the State House News Service, and the Greater Boston Real Estate Board is weighing its position but is not expected to support it.
The germ of a good idea lives inside this bill. With some refinement it could be a win for tenants and neighborhoods without unduly disrupting the racing flood of condo conversions.
There’s not enough housing at any price point in Greater Boston. Preserving a few apartments each year isn’t going to rip a hole in the condo market. No judgement for those who choose to cash out – but does it really matter whether the cash comes from a developer or a CDC?
