Rally to Prevent Displacement Reveals Tenants' Woes on Somerville Ave.

UPDATED at 1:00 am

As the Somerville Planning Board held a meeting on the second floor of City Hall Thursday evening, about 30 people circled, carrying white poster board signs with slogans like, “Homes for Somerville Families” and “Stop Gentrification,” in colored marker.

“What do we want?” one of the marchers would ask loudly, so Planning Board members inside the glass doors could hear.. “Affordable housing,” the rest would respond. “Where do we want it?"

“Somerville.”

The Affordable Housing Organizing Committee held the “Rally to Prevent Displacement” in response to a building owner’s decision to sell 378-390 Somerville Ave. The sale would set in motion further plans to convert the property into 30 residential condos and four rental condos, according to members of ADHOC, a Somerville Community Corporation committee.

Many of the low to moderate-income immigrant families that currently reside in the building were on hand. They expressed concerns about financial strife and displacement.

Residents also said they had been unaware the owner was planning to sell the building until hearing about the proposal at a January 10 community meeting attended by Ward 3 Alderman Thomas Taylor and Ward 2 Alderwoman Maryann Heuston. But SCC community organizer Mary Regan said she copied the notice about the meeting and put the copies underneath the tenants’ doors.

Bouzahar Malek, 54, lives in the four-bedroom apartment at 380 Somerville Ave. and receives a fixed disability income due to a degenerative back disease that prevents him from working.

While Malek said Regan told him that because of his disability he is eligible for two years notice before having to vacate the apartment, he said he would still have few affordable housing options.

“I don’t’ know what to do,” Malek said, explaining how after paying his current rent of $450 he has “little room” for grocery money. “Wait and pray, that’s all.”

Attendees are asking the city and owner to create more affordable family-sized units and rental units, protect tenants’ rights in the permit, allow Wellfoods to remain, create a relocation plan and improve the inclusionary zoning ordinance, according to a flyer.

Attorney Richard Di Girolamo said the property owner, Tim Herbert, has not yet sold the property, but is applying for permits to convert it into 30 condos. He said Herbert should not be "penalized" for having offered subsidized rent for such a long time and now wanting to develop his property.

"He's done a lot for affordable housing in Somerville," Di Girolamo said. "People should thank Tim Herbert for having subsidized his housing for as long as he did."

Di Girolamo said they have given the residents one-year notice. He said for those residents with disabilities, "If they're entitled to two years, they'll get two years." The condos would have four affordable units, as required by the city, Di Girolamo said.

Before attendees entered City Hall they formed a large circle out front where, after Regan opened the rally, a resident, business owner, lawyer, and an ADHOC member, took turns speaking.

David Jenkins, 52, who has lived at 388 Somerville Ave. for two years, told attendees he moved into his apartment thinking he would “stay there forever,” after a similar experience at his last apartment, where the landlord kept raising the rent until he had to leave.

“It’s just like, when does it stop?” Jenkins asked the crowd. “Are we all supposed to go move to Chelsea or East Boston? There’s nothing wrong with Chelsea and East Boston, but housing is going to get tight over there if that’s where we all end up.”

After Jenkins spoke, Jahangir Kabir, the owner of the specialty South-Asian Wellfoods market at no. 380 addressed the crowd. Kabir, whose business caters to a specific clientele throughout Massachusetts and New England, spoke while his baby daughter played with a poster in front of him and his other two children stood beside him.

“When we [first] talked to the landlord, he was telling us, 'the Green Line is coming, business will boom',” Kabir said, explaining why he decided to rent the Somerville Ave. location for his store. “We spent over $100,000 to renovate.”

In an interview prior to the rally, Kabir said the landlord “didn’t tell us anything until I hired the lawyer.”

He said if he has to move his store he will “be out of business” because he knows of two other stores that sold similar products, one of which had to move by The Independent bar and the other by Cornwall Park; both were forced to fold.

Later on in the rally, Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services Attorney Ellen Schacter discussed with the crowd Somerville’s Condominium Conversion Ordinance, which she said hasn’t been updated since 1985. Schacter has been working with the tenants to form a tenants association.

“Hopefully all the tenants will stick together because they have a lot of strength in numbers,” she said.

Alderwoman Heuston could not be immediately reached for comment, but Alderman Taylor, who does not technically represent the ward in which the Somerville Ave. building is located, said the city has been “struggling with the Union Square area to prevent as much displacement as possible.” He said “personally” he would like to try to make as many affordable units available as the city can.

When attendees walked back down the stairs from the second floor of City Hall to conclude the rally they chanted, “We’ll be back.” The Planning Board is scheduled to meet May 6 to hear public opinion on the plan.