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WHAT are the tenants
complaining about?!
(This article was written in 1999, but correcting for inflation, the points still remain valid.)
A few tenants are complaining about rents from
$880 to $1,090
for 2-bedroom apartments in Boston!
TENANT ADVOCATES
CLAIM "HUGE RENT INCREASES"
at Samia Companies' properties at Lourdes Avenue in Jamaica Plain. But
they never say what the dollar increases are. They never say what the
resulting rents are. So we (SPOA) asked eight Samia tenants at Lourdes
Avenue and they told us.
WHAT ARE THE
ACTUAL RENT INCREASES?
From $20 to $125.
WHAT ARE
THE RESULTING RENTS?
From $880 to $1,090!!! The largest rent increases were on the lower
rents.
ARE
THOSE RENTS AFFORDABLE?
Every tenant we talked to said the post-increase rent was 30% of their
income or less. That's affordable! Those tenants have incomes from $30,000
to $45,000 and higher.
WHAT ARE
THEY GETTING FOR THOSE RENTS?
All 18 apartments are identical two-bedroom apartments. Each bedroom
12'x12' with closets. Eat-in kitchen 12'x14'. Huge living room 12'x20'.
Tile bath. Polished hardwood floors. Porch 8'x12'. Replacement insulated
windows. We saw one apartment. It was in great shape. No evidence of
a "sinking kitchen floor" as the tenant had posted on her kitchen cabinets.
The public foyer was spacious, well-lighted and immaculate.
WHAT KIND
OF TENANTS ARE THEY?
The eight tenants we talked to were all under 30 years old except
one. All were unmarried singles. All had white-collar professional
jobs except one. One tenant could recall only one family with
children in the 18 apartments.
THIS IS
ALL ABOUT RENT CONTROL!
They are the same young, affluent, upwardly mobile tenants that
got -- but never deserved -- the old rent control that was abolished
in 1994, when only 7% of Boston's former rent-controlled tenants
were income-qualified for two extra years of rent control.
THESE ARE FAKE RENT COMPLAINTS!
A few tenants are being used by paid advocates to whip up rent control
hysteria!
Activists expect to pay LESS rent and get BETTER conditions, even when the RENTS ARE ALREADY REASONABLE! They live in a FANTASY WORLD. Without realistic rents, properties will deteriorate and fall apart. Nice neighborhoods will be destroyed. The tax burden will shift. Others will pay for rent control through higher property taxes.
WHAT THE TENANTS WE INTERVIEWED SAID:
"The apartments are nice."
"It's a quiet, nice neighborhood."
"We can afford to pay the rent increase."
"The rent is 25% of my income, shared with my roommate."
"I'm 28. The average age in my building is 27 years old."
"I have seen only one family with children in these three buildings."
"When this stuff started [when paid advocates started agitating Samia
tenants], the inspector was called. Violations were cited. But they
were all fixed."
"The roof was leaking, but Samia fixed it."
"Samia insulated the water heaters and water pipes. How many tenants
have that?"
Rent control destroys housing through deterioration and abandonment, runs small property owners out of business, and gives cheap housing to rich tenants. Under rent control, zero new private housing gets built. Mayor Menino should let city employees live outside the city (thereby releasing units) and get Boston to change its zoning to allow more rental housing. Increasing supply is the only way to lower demand and lower rents.
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This is one of three identical
six-unit Samia buildings on Lourdes Avenue in Jamaica Plain. One
tenant described it as a "nice, quiet" neighborhood. Even from
the outside, this building clearly is well-maintained. But tenants,
goaded by activists, find everything is wrong with it.
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This is the foyer of one of Samia's
three identical six-unit buildings on Lourdes Avenue. It is modern.
It is well-lighted. It is spacious. It is immaculate. But tenants,
goaded by paid activists, say the property is full of "bad conditions."
They are lying or being deceived.
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