karen: today on "cityline," luxury condos are going up in boston, but middle and low income residents are getting cut out of the real estate pie. karen: hello everyone, i' m karen holmes ward. welcome to "cityline." from millennium towers in downtown crossing to the rapidly rising waterfront properties, development in boston' s rental and condo housing market is booming, but only for some. as rental costs surge and wages go nowhere, middle and lower income residents are feeling the strain. two organizations working to advocate for impacted tenants are city life-vida urbana and

lisa owens pinto is the executive director for city life-vida urbana. with her is boston program coordinator for right to the city, darnell johnson. welcome to the program. lisa, why don' life' s mission is. lisa: city life-vida urbana is a 40 plus year old housing rights organization whose mission is to fight for racial, economic and we' people stay in their homes using a combination of organizing and legal strategies. karen: darnell, tell us about right to the city? darnell: right to the city is a national alliance. we are and 26 cities and 17 states working for social justice.

groups, boston workers alliance, the progressive association, city life-vida urbana, new england united for justice and neighbors united. karen: what is the goal? duane: to look at the -- darnell: to look at the root causes of gentrification and our communities. and link issues of oppression around job justice and racial justice. karen: let' s talk about the achievements over the past year. one of them had to do with boston 2024. lisa: city life-vida urbana did not take a roll or position on boston 2024, but we certainly supported the grassroots organizing that was meant to include people in the planning process.

in terms of our accompaniments, weight -- our accomplishments, we have worked on the homeowner foreclosure side. we work with homeowners who are fighting to stay in their homes after they received a foreclosure notice. we were working with a sister organization to purchase units and they are now permanently afford the housing. we are about to acquire a fifth property. in total that is 11 units. karen: there were a lot of promises made about boston 2024 about villages for olympians being turned into housing. but the community was kind of suspicious of their motives. darnell: they were. what we notice is that boston' s emergence as a world-class city

residents and people being able here. somewhat of an uprising of residents to say we want to make sure the development that happens in boston is about boston residents and about ways that we can stay here come the work here and live and play. not so much about a spectator event 10 years down the road. great for the city did not take a position but we did challenge the developing community to make sure that they are engaging with the community and the processes leading up to final plans. we want in our neighborhoods down the road. the boston -- karen: i think the boston 2024 organizers were surprised at the way the community did organized around the bid prospect. let' s talk about the landscape of the housing market right now.

lisa: as darnell mentioned, this is a really exciting time for some people. for low income people, the housing situation is bleak. neighborhoods across the city, low income and moderate income people, people who make $20,000 a year, $30,000 a year, $40,000 a year, $55,000 a year. harder and harder to afford housing and other staples they need to survive -- transportation, food, child care and those kinds of things. karen: you have some statistics that talk about the impact of income on renters, income inequality on renters? lisa: boston has the dubious distinction of being the most gentrified city in the u.s. that is due to --

lisa: sometimes. on the one hand, wages are for most of us. on the other hand, the divide between the has and have-nots grows wider and wider. in the top 1% make 15 times the bottom, the majority of workers in the state. and when we are talking about a boston context, we are talking about a place, there was a recent study that said boston' s housing wage, the wage you would have to make in order to afford a two bedroom household, a two bedroom apartment, is a little over $27 an hour. what that translates into is 3.2 minimum-wage jobs. karen: in one household? in order to be able to live in

boston proper. lisa: the boston globe actually set the wage higher. housing crisis? darnell: i would. what we are is that a lot of folks in foreclosure are in the rental market is they are being pushed out of their homes and having to go to rental spaces, there are no places for them to go. or they are having to play higher mortgage -- higher than their mortgage in rent. we are looking at ways to challenge the administration to produce more affordable housing, convert more affordable housing, and preserve what is there. you' re going to stay with us for a second segment. this process of moving out residents from the city to the suburbs and having wealthier

the city of boston? we talk about displacement because that is the impact it is having on part, working-class and low income culturally what is happening is that you have a major developer, for example in east boston where i lived there is a developer was on npr. hodara, he advertises his vision of a new east boston. the vision does not include the current resident. karen: it includes residents who have more ability to pay. lisa: currently in east boston we have economic diversity. it is fantastic. that economic diversity is in jeopardy because of large

ara buying all of the housing stock using no-fault eviction and then marketing these new luxury conversions. karen: tenants who cannot afford to pay face eviction. what protections do residents have from eviction? what protections should they have? we' ll be back with more from lisa owens pinto and darnell

karen: welcome back. we continue with darnell johnson and lisa owens pinto. just a few weeks ago, hundreds from across the city gathered in dorchester to protest what they called a housing crisis in boston. residents have decried the tactics of corporate landlords who are displacing poor communities, especially communities of color, in place of wealthier, younger and often less diverse renters. one solution in the works? the just cause eviction bill that could protect residents from landlords pushing them out of their homes. tell us about the just cause eviction bill. lisa: the just cause eviction bill gives renters a fighting chance.

current law, the current law. in order for a landlord to evict a tenant, all the landlord has to do is give 30 days. and -- unless the tenant has a lease. the lease is the protection for the tenant. if the lease is expired, the landlord can give 30 days without cause. karen: is 30 days enough time to find new space in this market? lisa: we know that it is not because of the difference between what people can afford and what the market will bear right now. really the question is why? why are some large landlords using eviction as a tool to push people out? that is what is happening. karen: the answer?

karen: if they zipped one person paying $1000 a month, they can raise the rent to $1200 a month with a new tenant. lisa: exactly. you are not evicting one tenant, you are evicting all 6, 20, 30 -- you are using the protection that massachusetts law provides you to do a building clear out. in essence, changing the character of that neighborhood. that is what we are saying is unjust. karen: what is the no-fault eviction law? lisa: the just cause eviction bill we are advocating for, city life and the right to the city and the larger coalition groups around the city, we are saying simply this, tenants should have some protection. if a landlord wants to effect the tenant, the landlord should have a good reason -- that is it.

if the landlord wants to raise the rent above 5%, the landlord and the tenant should have an opportunity to sit down in a nonbinding mediation session. if after the nonbinding mediation session, the landlord still desires to evict a tenant, the landlord is free to do that. karen: what if someone wanted to bring legal action against the landlord. how successful would they be? lisa: one thing i wanted to mention is that the just cause eviction ordinance specifically targets corporate landlords. to are owner occupants in boston and who own 4 units -- landlords who are owner occupants in boston and who own 4 opponents or less are completely exempt. that is 80%-80 5% in boston. we are targeting large,

when a landlord start evicting, it is within the tenant' s rights to produce counterclaims if they have legitimate reasons. for example, the landlord is not conditions. the landlords were trying to fix but if the heat wasn' t working or the doorjamb was broken or housing violation, that the displace that resident. lisa: that is correct. there are procedural ways that a tenant can fight back in order get what is owed to the tenant, the contract. karen: the landlords are damaging the house so they can

lisa: it is possible that that happens. what we know is that the vast majority of landlords want what the majority of tenants want, they want a clean, safe, habitable unit. they want to live in boston. they want to work and contribute. there are some large corporate actors that are getting into being a landlord and investing for reasons other than that. it is purely about making a killing off of this market. we think that because of that , tenants need special protections and large landlords need to be held to higher standards. karen: give us an example of how it is done in other cities. lisa: there are a couple great reports that the national alliance has produced is called

the massachusetts area planning council has a really good fact sheet that talks about what other cities are doing. other cities are combining comprehensive policies. you are combining rent control with just cause eviction protection with increasing the resources for affordable housing . things like linkage for commercial development, also, looking at things like zoning. karen: there are some successful programs we might adopt it i will give the last word to you. what advice do you offer to tenant two might be facing eviction? darnell: through our partners like city life, we work with tenants on knowing their rights. through the court' s

process, we are able to step in and landlords so they can avoid court altogether. , just reach out. there are people who will advocate for you. darnell and lisa, thank you for coming today. one solution to displacement is the development of mixed income housing. will this help or hinder communities of color?

karen: welcome back. too many housing projects scattered across the city have become worn down with aging buildings, neglected property and plagued by high crime. a solution to revitalize these communities and increase land value is to create mixed income housing, allowing low to moderate income tenants to stay in their homes at affordable rates. but with wealthier tenants inhabiting luxury apartments in the same space. the parmelee court residence, located in the south end is an acquisition by alinea capital partners llc with the goal of creating a new mixed income community. joining us is managing member for alinea capital partners llc,

duane jackson. duane: thank you. karen: let' s talk about allinea ' s past and present efforts to acquire housing and create communities. duane: our effort is to build the first housing for use in -- for youth aging out of the foster care system in boston. that is when we are literally tied together on. we appreciate the contributions of wcvb. karen: we enjoy working with you on it. duane: allinea , i' ve had a long history running architectural practice and doing thousands of units for the city of boston. obtaining greater control of housing production and real

2007 or 2006. i have been in the roxbury professional career. it is a community that is very close to my heart. i have tried to build a diverse port folio of homeownership and rental housing. karen: tellis whitey parmalee acquisition is such an exciting project. it happened about a year ago. with the project. i was established as a 1996. i managed it through the tax credit compliance period in 2005-ish. the investor services thought i it. the project was in default, which was part of the problem.

we could restructure it in such a way that it would become a viable investment. in 2012, mhfa decided to create a portfolio wide solution for about 50 products in what they called the sharp portfolio, of which parmalee was one. i went through the process of restructuring debt, buying out on the limited partners to reposition parmalee as a viable project. karen: why is it a win for the residents? darnell: -- duane: we retain the current income makes of low to moderate and market rate housing. consider a quality real estate asset peers of property. duane: it is literally on the

rate housing explosion. it preserves residents in perpetuity. karen: in is right past massachusetts avenue. the lower roxbury side. on the other side is the south and, which is becoming gentrified very quickly. is there any danger that the gentrification is going to jump over to lower roxbury? to guard against that? i think it is important to understand the composition of housing in lower roxbury. if we look at the border from massachusetts avenue to malcolm -- and dudley to tremont street, 75% of the

housing. in that specific sound, almost in perpetuity. did was sustain a portion of housing in an established an affordable area so that some of the land that will be developed around it hopefully we will have a substantial amount of market rate housing, will be preserved. karen: cynics might suggest that even though you quoted the quoted to the affordable housing, cynics might suggest .r.a. might find a way around that. duane: from a policy perspective, i think the city has been vigilant in ensuring that expiring use projects, that have a period of time of expire.

the city has been vigilant about ensuring those projects remain affordable. actually, we were talking about this in the green room. the consequence of that concentration is that it prohibits the economic diversity that we need among residents within zones like that and as a consequence, the lack of affordable retail services and presumably jobs. i look at this more as a student of city development. i look at this holistically, recognizing that we need to figure out ways, i call it the c. we have an issue of policy that needs to be altered. we had a concentration of affordable housing in certain zones that we need to distribute more throughout the city, and we have a production problem. we need to find mechanisms. i wish we could create more affordable housing in more

karen: a lot of work ahead? s a lot of work ahead. the city needs to figure this m a little frustrated about and communities of color. i would like to see a greater distribution. i would like to see the city figure out ways of supporting the demand side, i mean the i don' t mean this in a bad way, there is, there are two ways to provide housing. you can support production of it or you can support demand of it. section eight programs and subsidy programs are the demand side. stimulus -- we need to look at production, the extraordinary cost of building houses in the cities hit it costs the same to build in fenway that it does and

roxbury. -- thank you for coming. learn more about everyone we featured on our program by logging on to our page at wcvb.com. thanks so much for watching, everyone.