Tenants are facing rent hike
120 seniors told of 20-25% rise
With nearly 120 elderly Malden residents facing a federally approved 20 to 25 percent rent increase tomorrow, social service agencies and politicians were mounting a concerted effort last week to provide some relief to the tenants, most of whom are on fixed incomes.
In August, federal regulators allowed the owners of The Heritage, a 208-unit apartment building on Pleasant Street, to increase rents for most tenants by as much as 25 percent and to impose additional, smaller increases on Feb. 1. The decision allowed possible further increases in June.
Tenants say the increases pose a severe hardship.
``Terrible," said Fran Garvey, a recent cancer survivor and a resident of The Heritage for five years.
Under the plan, the rent for her studio apartment was to rise by $82 a month today, from $331 to $413. Garvey said she lives on the combined $900 she receives each month from Social Security and her pension.
``What am I going to do?" she said. ``I can't depend on my daughter; she can't support me. And I'm not working. I'm 81 years old. Am I supposed to work? You are supposed to be able to enjoy what life you have left."
In an Aug. 30 letter to the building owners, First Church in Malden Homes Inc., officials from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development said they had determined that the rent increases were needed to meet operating expenses of the 35-year-old building. The owners noted in particular the rise in their utility costs.
First Church is a nonprofit launched by members of First Congregational Church of Malden to develop the low-income building, constructed in 1971. It is not affiliated with the church.
HUD has the power to approve rents because it is the guarantor of mortgages for the project and because it provides owners with a mortgage interest subsidy.
Tenants and their advocates were able to work with management to arrive at a common strategy last week for bringing relief to the tenants facing the rent hikes. The two sides met Sept. 21 and again Tuesday.
Doreen Bushashia -- director of resident services for the management company, Braintree-based Peabody Properties -- said the first meeting was ``very, very helpful in terms of bringing the residents and their advocates, as well as the management and ownership entities, together."
``We found we have a lot of common ground," she said.
At Tuesday's meeting, it was agreed that Peabody Properties would ask First Church's board of directors to seek HUD approval to delay the rent increases by a month, according to Claire Murray, community organizer for the Local Action Committee, which advocates for affordable housing in Malden. That effort was ongoing at press time.
Murray said city leaders were being asked to consider providing financial assistance to the owners to offset revenue lost in the delay in the rent hike.
She said it was also agreed that management, tenants, and advocates would join to ask HUD to issue ``enhanced vouchers" to existing tenants, which would largely freeze their rents while providing the building with the additional revenue the owners say is needed to operate the complex.
The pending rent increases affect tenants living in units that are part of the federal housing subsidy program known as Section 236. That group includes all but 20 of the building's 208 units; 70 are currently vacant. With enhanced vouchers, those tenants would continue to pay their current rent, or 30 percent of their monthly income, whichever was higher. HUD would pay the remainder of the rent. Currently, it provides a subsidy of $80 per apartment. New tenants would pay the future rents in full.
Kristine Foye, a spokeswoman for HUD's New England regional office, said the agency would review any proposal to delay the rent increase.
But she added that the increase had been approved ``because the property really needed the money to meet its operating costs" and that the rent hike was to be implemented in stages ``to minimize the impact on residents."
Foye said that HUD had just sent a letter to the owners of The Heritage responding to their request for enhanced vouchers, a request that was pending prior to last week's tenant-management meeting.
While declining to comment on the letter, Foye said that HUD's position is that nonprofits are not eligible for enhanced vouchers.
Murray said that ownership has proposed transferring the property to a for-profit, ``limited dividend entity" whose sole stockholder would be First Church in Malden Homes Inc. She said the owners and tenants contend that the transfer would make the property eligible for enhanced vouchers.
In addition to the Local Action Committee, the senior tenants are seeking help from the Massachusetts Senior Action Council; US Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Malden; state legislators; and city officials, according to Murray, who was hired by Tri-City Community Action Program, an antipoverty agency, to work on the matter with the Local Action Committee.
``Our hope is to put pressure on HUD to do the right thing for the tenants," Murray said.
She added that the rent increases put many of the tenants in a financial bind.
``These are people who moved into this building thinking it was the last place they were going to live, that they'd live out their lives here," Murray said.
``There is no place for them to go," she said, citing the long wait for placement in municipal housing complexes for seniors.
In addition to being low-income, many of the seniors are not in good health, Murray said. ``They are the most fragile part of our society."
Patricia Worthley, 93, has lived in The Heritage for 16 years. Like Garvey, she faces an $82 increase today on her studio apartment.
``Right now, I could pay it," she said. ``But what happens later on? Who is going to take care of me?" 