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'Eviction' highlights some of the many lives upended by the Massachusetts housing crisis
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2022
- Vanessa Vela has lived in the same Somerville, MA apartment since her son was born 17 years ago. A year ago, the apartment building was sold. Vela said her new landlord plans to renovate the building and offered to help her relocate. But Vela, who works as a veterinary technician, says she's been unable to find another place she can afford.
“He can pay the first and last month, but what about all the other months?” asked Vela. “I looked in Springfield, Newton, I looked everywhere - even Chelsea. People in Chelsea are getting kicked out left and right.”
Vela remembers when people in her Winter Hill neighborhood could rent a room in a shared apartment for $300 a month. Now she says the price for a single room is closer to $1,000. She said it's not uncommon for people she knows in Somerville to spend well over half their income for housing.
That question of affordability and the impact of staggering rent hikes is at the heart of a travelling exhibit housing advocates have brought to the Somerville Armory called "Evicted," which includes a photograph of Vela and her mother standing in their kitchen. Based on Mathew Desmond's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name, it includes eviction data from every state and a section highlighting stories and photographs of Somerville residents at risk of eviction.
A quote attributed to a unnamed tenant in 2018 reads: “My family has been through eviction more times than I remember. I struggled in school because I was always worried about whether my mom was stressed and whether we would have a place to stay.”
One wall is entirely covered with a photograph of a family outside a home carrying their possessions; another wall is blanketed with moving boxes sized to illustrate the number of evictions in each state.
Kate Byrne, who spearheaded the effort to bring the "Evicted" exhibit to Somerville, said a lot of low-income people and people of color have moved out.
Byrne's on the board of the Community Action Agency of Somerville, which works with tenants at risk of eviction. She calls the effort to keep people housed in Somerville "a struggle" and points to data on display in the "Evicted" exhibit that indicates condo conversions in the city have reduced the overall amount of available rental units even as demand has gone up.
Somerville kept a COVID-related ban on evictions in place until the end of last June - longer than any other community in the state. But according to a coalition of tenant rights organizations, there were 226 evictions within two months of the ban being lifted. Byrne predicts that number will continue to climb.
“I really hope people [will] understand the depth of the housing crisis and the depth of the destruction on families, in particular children," she said. “Moving people out of their homes, where are they going? Are they double bunking with other family members? Are they living in their cars?”
Vela has became a tenant activist with CAAS, leveraging public protests and legal support to remain in her apartment. She hopes to remain there at least until the spring when her son will graduate from Somerville High. Ultimately, though, she sees eviction as “inevitable.”
Walking through the "Evicted" exhibit and seeing the stories of other people from around the country - many of them women of color - she said was like “looking in a mirror.”
“Most of those women there are single women, single households,” Vela said. “And I know that some of them put their stories publicly, and they still got evicted.”
“Evicted” is on display at the Somerville Armory through Nov. 4.
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$3500 in rent???!!!! This isn’t New York City. There is a RUclipsr who interviews people in New York City about their rent prices and plenty of people there aren’t paying that much money. Perhaps this area needs some rent control policies.
Absolutely!
I was reading ppl of a town near me talking about a new apartment bldg. This is a small town with really NOTHING to do - no restaurants, very little retail…. A few ppl said “the apts are for the kids mkg $350k-$450k! The apts go from $3k+ to $5k. No!! Anyone making that kind of $ is not going to want to live in this town! They’re going to want to be right in Boston, or one of the more affluent towns that offer a wide variety of things to do. Also, I’m in HR and do not see salaries increasing.
Should be a law that you can't raise rent on these people if you're buying their building.
Why? It’s a business and investment. Just like every other business. That’s the risk of renting.
Bad Ending comes from Poor Planning
It's absolutely ridiculous that there are no price control restraints on these greedy ass landlords that do not give a crap about their renters as long as that check is coming in or they can find a way to gouge them out into a no-fault eviction. Or a faulty eviction due to their raising prices to astronomical amounts for the places these folks are living in they probably should get a reduction versus an increase.
If someone is willing to pay more, as a business person you would want a higher paying tenant. Right or wrong, I would say that it is a lack of housing in general that drives rental costs up.
So any other business owner trying to make money is ok but not a landlord? It’s your job to house yourself? If you had a business and someone told you what you’re allowed to make would you like it? That’s communism. No one is forcing g you to rent where you can’t afford. And let’s be clear, right now every single cost of living is going up. Taxes, and insurance especially. I live in MA. My taxes for my 2200 s ft house went up $976 last year. If I rented out this house the rent would reflect that. You people think you’re owed cheap housing. You’re owed nothing.
@@user-wj9wq7mk4h - WHY is there a lack of housing? Ppl need to learn the #truth! We’ve, all, been conned for decades. I really don’t understand how anyone couldn’t be worried about WHAT the too powerful have planned. This has been predicted for decades. There’s books, articles, movies - Wolf on Wall Street, TheCon on the con tv is an excellent documentary explaining what’s happened in the last decade+. I just pray good will prevail.
@@dcg590 - Of course OUR taxes are going up. It’s bad enough we have one of the highest state income tax. So, WHY is our govt spending so much of our $?
If more people knew the truth (which is accessible to any of us and I wish I were a conspiracist), they would be outraged! We just bailed out (another) mismanaged bank for hundreds of billions$. Didn’t we learn anything from the last bailout? Yes - the people who are supposed to protect and serve us don’t give a sh%^ about any of us! BOTH parties. The TBTF banks were responsible for millions of people wrongly losing their HOMES and the bailout $ went to the executives bonuses. Not one dime to the victims. Not one bank exec sent to jail! The government-controlled media did a great job labeling them as “deadbeats”. Look up Addie Polk in Ohio. Never missed a payment. Her late husband had paid OFF the house. She was too ashamed to ask for help and at 94 y.o., shot herself as they were knocking to evict (steal her home).
a REAL reality check! LoviE thank you for the reminder that it is our responsibility to shine with the Light God gave us our buildings will rise and fall but our community is our responsibility.
It is not black or white life matters but homeless , poor and weak life matters
Eviction is a normal process if you can't pay the rent. If you have to move because you can't afford it, then the landlord gets control of his apartment or house again.
This is the way it is suppose to go. Rent moratoriums didn't really help the landlords. It just sent the whole process out of balance.
That’s not true. What’s happening is large, foreign corporations are buying rentals and raising the rents. Small landlords got out bcuz of the moratorium but our govt could have done something to keep this from happening.
Everyday people never been behind have been told to move on so higher prices could be enacted
I don’t know about you, but I really have to question a lot of things going on. Yes - they put SMALL landlords out of biz! Just like they put most small businesses out of biz. These are the BACKBONE of our society - unless, you want a few mega corps in every industry. What goes with that? Too big, too powerful - govt claims they’re too big to regulate.
This crisis is global, here in London the rents have gone up and up and up.
Yes - it’s going on just about everywhere. Who ISN’T effected tho? What scares me the most is this is exactly how China became communist. They made the people DEPENDENT on them (masses of people dependent on a few.). I will never live like that. We’re ALL equal; no one is superior over another.
When a lot of profitable middle-income suburban houses were built people moved out of cities which opened up housing for low-income renters. Building a few subsidized low-income buildings will never house the low-income population. Lowering lot size in the suburbs will massively increase available housing.
They have to go to work like everyone else.
We also have many homeowners being displaced by rampant “deed theft” . Most people would be horrified if they knew the truth of what began many years ago and who is involved! Sickening how many people have lost their homes due to fabricated, forged documents filed into our land records. Homeowner doesn’t even know it until it’s too late. Lawyers won’t even help for fear of disbarment or worse! THIS is very real, but you won’t hear a word on MSM because of WHO is involved and how many!
The great reset and a property grab by banks all in one
Bingo! Big banks and Wall Street, RICO, $ laundering and no one doing anything about it. Watch TheCon by Patrick Lovell - a docu-series that explains everything. Of course none of the major producers would produce it.
Leonardo DiCaprio had to give back his Oscar for The Wolf of Wall Street because the movie was funded by ppl involved in $ laundering (see Pascal Najadi’s story)
Just build affordable housing not 1000 plus rents keep it simple and landlords will lower rents to get back tenants they threw away price gouging consequences should be factored in or buy out landlords property for 15 cents per apt
My heart goes out to the landlords who have to deal with these Squatters. They have to pay property taxes, insurance etc. plus enormous clean up costs once these deadbeats are finally removed. The eviction process needs to be speeded up.
Yes it's something YOU did wrong...YOU DIDN'T PAY YOUR RENT! Good grief take some personal responsibility!!!
I wish I could post some facts/information on here. I’m sure it would get deleted (and I swear it’s all veritable). It, literally, made me sick for days. I had no idea how evil some people are; but some things can’t be unseen or forgotten. All I can do is TRY to warn as many people as possible. We’re ALL being played and our only chance is to come together; stop believing what we’re (allowed) to hear - purposely keeping us divided. Our “enemies” know how powerful we’d be IF that ever happens.
we need more boosters and helicopter money
I see a lot of children. Why are people having children they know they can't afford? If eviction is an issue, then move to Mexico or Central America. Stop complaining and do something about it.
European POV: you need childrens money , free ( from tax paid) eduation and free (from tax paid) child care , free (from tax paid) healthcare , good work laws for workers und so on. Shaming people for having children and shaming people for aborting them , shaming peoplefor being poor but offering nothing from society makes no sense. I mean an epi pen for 300???? Its free for us.. sick days??? We are sick as long as the doctor says. U r crazy, americans. Greetings from Austria.
Your lack of empathy is staggering.
Will Mexico or Central America take care of them? Pay for everything they need even if they went there illegally? Not everyone has complete control of the life they plan - stuff happens. Maybe they HAD plenty of $ when the kids were born but suffered some tragedy. I know - why don’t we do like China? Make it a law that families can only have one kid? There is SO much at stake right now for ALL of us. Follow the $. Do you ever wonder how all these elected officials are SO wealthy?
The government must print more money for the people and have price controls