Craigie Arms Dispute in Stalemate

More than six months ago tenants at the Harvard-owned Craigie Arms apartments decided they had seen enough of what they perceived as the University's attempts to slowly remove their homes from the city's rent control market.

About 20 tenants filed an official complaint with the rent control board, charging that Harvard had violated Cambridge's strict removal ordinance. Shortly afterwards, according to testimony by Lorraine Wade, Harvard Real Estate tenant relations director, the University decided to file a petition of its own--a request for an exemption from the removal ordinance in order to perform a $2.5 million renovation on the building.

Two months have passed since the tenants agreed with Harvard to seek a private settlement to the controversy. In early January there were signs that the parties were nearing a satisfactory conclusion to the dispute, but tenants said yesterday--emphasizing that they had not given up their efforts to gain concessions from the University over its future housing policy--that a settlement may still be a long way off.

"We're in a holding pattern, just waiting to hear from Harvard," said Janice Graeff, a member of the tenant union leadership.

In the negotiations with tenants, Harvard has been represented by the developer it has selected to perform the massive rehabilitation of the building at 122 Mt. Auburn St. across from the post office. Housing Associates of Cambridge would acquire ownership of the Craigie Apartments while Harvard would maintain ownership of land on the site, under the terms of an agreement between the University and the developer.

Robert Kuehne, president of Housing Associates, said yesterday only the "mechanics" of the agreement between Harvard and the tenants remain to be worked out.

But Lee Goldstein, attorney for the tenants, said, "When I see it [the final agreement] on paper, I'll believe it."

And Meredith Scammell, a tenant representative, said that Harvard has been promising to deliver a final proposal every week since Christmas.

Since the tenants began rent control board proceedings against Harvard, about ten have voluntarily moved out and received compensation from the University for moving expenses, Jacqueline O'Neill, assistant to the vice president for government and community affairs, said yesterday. According to O'Neill, about 33 tenants remain iin the Craigie building, and Scammell said that all of the 20 members of the tenant association are still in their apartments.

Harvard and the tenants have repeatedly refused to disclose details of their proposed agreement. But it was disclosed last month that the current cash offer to tenants exceeds Harvard's original proposal of about $1500 for each tenant. And Kuehne has said publicly that his firm intends to provide for 25 per cent of low-and moderate-income housing in the building once renovations are complete.

City Councilors Saundra Graham and David Sullivan said yesterday that the 25 per cent level of low-and moderate-income housing, about 12 units, is unsatisfactory.

"Some additional concessions are necessary before the city or the rent control board could say that what is being done is not contrary to the spirit of the removal ordinance," Sullivan said.

Current monthly rents in the building average about $175; the tenants charge that if removal permits are granted to allow construction, future rents would rise to more than $700 in most of the apartments.

The city would lose control over rents in the building because removal permits exempt a landlord from provisions of the rent control guidelines.

The additional concessions that tenants are seeking revolve mainly around Harvard's future housing policies, Scammell said yesterday. The tenants at one time had hoped to force Harvard to admit it had violated the removal ordinance by intentionally keeping several Craigie apartments off the market, but Kuehne said yesterday that no such statement would be included in the settlement.

O'Neill said that Harvard does plan to include a factual history of the dispute between tenants and the University that both parties will be able to "sign off on. "Everyone will be looking at a set of facts and have different interpretations of what happened and what the motives were," she said.

Kuehne said that the "mechanics" yet to be worked out include the political considerations of the tenants. These include a possible promise by Harvard to refrain from keeping apartments empty in the future.

The city's removal ordinance prohibits the conversion of rent-controlled housing to other uses such as condominiums or offices. But the rent control board has not ruled conclusively on whether keeping apartments empty constitutes a violation of the ordinance.

In testimony before rent control board hearing examiner James Packer, Harvard attorneys contended that such a practice is not prohibited; tenant attorneys argued that vacant apartments represent an effective illegal removal.

In addition to the problem of Harvard's future housing policy, there have been other recent, indications that the proposed settlement to the long dispute over the 80-year-old Craigie building may no longer be satisfactory to tenants.

"My understanding is that they [the tenants] feel they've been duped." Graham said