Op-ed: The Fairlawn Estates Story Shows Why We Need Rent Control
Fairlawn Tenant Association writes the FIRST op-ed for The CLVU Bulletin!
We’re excited to publish the first op-ed for The CLVU Bulletin! Below is an op-ed by Annie, Betty, and Manny of The Fairlawn Tenant Association, who recently won rent control and permanent affordability for all 347 units at Fairlawn Estates in Mattapan. They share how rent control would’ve prevented 6 years of tireless fighting just to stay in their homes, and why Boston and all of Massachusetts should have the option to enact rent control!
The Fairlawn Estates Story Shows Why We Need Rent Control
By Annie Gordon, Betty Lewis, Manuel Mena of The Fairlawn Tenant Association of Mattapan
After six years of tirelessly organizing together with City Life/ Vida Urbana to fight huge rent increases and eviction by a national investment group who purchased our building, our Fairlawn Tenant Association drove out the investment group and won rent control and permanent affordability for all 347 units at Fairlawn Estates in Mattapan.
We’re absolutely thrilled with our victory. But it shouldn’t have taken a six year fight just to stay in our homes. Policies like rent control and the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) would have prevented years of struggle for Fairlawn tenants – and our State Legislature should pass both to help the thousands of residents like us who are in similar situations across Boston and Massachusetts.
In 2018, DSF Group bought our building in South Mattapan and rebranded it as “SoMa at the T” to take advantage of the new Blue Hill Ave commuter rail stop across the street. The new owner immediately imposed rent increases of hundreds of dollars on tenants.
The new train stop should’ve been great news for us. We as a community advocated for it for decades — why should Mattapan be unfairly disconnected from the rest of the city when we need to get to work and doctors appointments too? But we hardly had a chance to celebrate the new train stop before DSF purchased Fairlawn and made it clear they wanted us – the elderly women, moms, and families at Fairlawn – out of the building.
When DSF notified us of the rent increases, some of our neighbors moved. But a group of us resisted. We’ve lived at Fairlawn for much of our lives and raised kids here. We’re the ones who made the improvements to the neighborhood by advocating for public transit. And with little to no affordable housing available, we had nowhere else to go. So, we fought back: we wrote public letters, protested, and shared our stories with the media. And now, after six years of intense stress, we won affordable housing protections for all 347 units in our building, which will be renamed back to Fairlawn Estates.
We see our struggle at Fairlawn as a poster child of why residents of Boston and Massachusetts need rent control and the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA). Prior to 1994, we had housing stability in our homes at Fairlawn because of rent control. Ever since the 1994 rent control ban, we’ve faced unaffordable rent increases by multiple corporate landlords– DSF being the worst. If apartments in Boston were rent-stabilized, a national investment corporation would not have purchased Fairlawn Estates to drastically increase rents. And if we had TOPA, Fairlawn residents could have worked with a nonprofit to buy Fairlawn in 2018 and keep it affordable. Both tools would have prevented the displacement of our neighbors and years of physical and mental hardship for Fairlawn residents.
Rent control proposals before the state legislature would allow cities and towns to stabilize rents by limiting annual rent increases to the rate of inflation, with a cap at 5%. Exemptions would include owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units, as well as new construction for five years.
TOPA proposals being considered by lawmakers would allow cities and towns to provide tenants in multi-family buildings the right to match a third-party offer when their homes are being sold. Small property owners and below-market sales to family members would be exempt. The Legislature passed TOPA in 2021, but the policy was vetoed by Governor Baker.
With housing costs continuing to rise, many of our neighbors are being forced out of their homes due to unaffordable rents. At the same time, the shortage of affordable housing grows, with new developments largely focused on high-end tenants rather than meeting the needs of those most at risk of being priced out of their neighborhoods. Communities like ours should be able to have amenities like reliable public transportation without fear of eviction or rent increases. We know many more people like us in communities across Massachusetts are fighting the same battle to stay in their homes.
Both rent control and TOPA are critical steps toward ensuring that renters are protected from unpredictable and excessive rent hikes. These policies will provide local communities with the modern tools they need to stabilize housing costs and prevent displacement, giving tenants the security they need to thrive in their homes. Our legislature should pass both, so that tenants everywhere can secure the housing stability we’ve won at Fairlawn.
You can take action for rent control TODAY!
Email your legislators TODAY and ask them to cosponsor the rent control bill! Use the email tool to email your legislator at homesforallmass.org/act.
What inspires you from the Fairlawn TA’s op-ed? Do you think we should include more op-eds in The CLVU Bulletin? Let the Fairlawn tenants know in a comment below!