Locals Battle Evictions in Holiday Rally

Cheryl L. Patterson-Munroe is in her mid-thirties, works as a paralegal, and is raising her three children, ages 16,13 and 2, by herself. She lives in Cambridge, in the Clinton and Prospect Street Apartments, is responsible and says she always pays her rent.

Elaine M. Schuster has donated over $250,000 to the Democratic National Committee, is a personal friend of Hillary Clinton, and has tried to evict Munroe and her children three times.

Why?

"Retaliation," Munroe says.

Munroe has served as the leader of her fellow tenants in protesting huge rent increases, and believes that as a result, she formed the perfect target for Schuster's attack.

"They use me as an example," she says. "They know if I go then all the people I support and all who support me will buckle."

"I'm tired of it. I would like to live in my apartment without going to court every other week."

Munroe is scheduled to appear in court at 9:30 this morning.

She says she is determined not to buckle in her quest for fairness and respect.

"They treat us like peons, without brains and an education," Munroe says. "We might not have millions and billions of dollars in the bank, but we have each other, and we have our children."

"Where's the fairness?" she asks. "We would like to be treated like human beings."

Eviction Free Carols

On Saturday, Munroe gathered with about 100 other Cambridge residents to protest what demonstrators say has become an endemic problem: wanton evictions and heartless rent increases throughout the city.

The Eviction Free Zone (EZF), a 10 year-old organization dedicated to combating housing injustice, coordinated the weekend event.

While organizers say housing injustice is a yearlong problem, they planned the rally to coincide with the holiday season.

Demonstrators carried signs that read, "Don't get Scrooged by your landlord" and sang "Eviction Free Carols."

The lyrics to one such carol:

"We're dreaming of affordable housing/ Just like the homes we used to know/ Where all working people/ Can live securely/ Although their incomes may be low."

The rally began at City Hall, with speeches and chants of "Hey-hey, ho-ho, greedy landlords have got to go."

Demonstrators then marched down Mass. Ave. to the music of the Batucada Belles, pausing before various buildings.

"We're stopping at corners where tenants are in a struggle resisting rent increases and eviction, and basically fighting to keep their homes," said Bill Cavellini, the 55-year-old Cambridge Cab Driver of the Year. Like the majority of event coordinators, Cavellini is a volunteer with EZF.

At one such corner, 580 Mass. Ave., speakers commemorated a nine-month rent strike by 20 Haitian families in 1990 that ended in a success.

Returning to City Hall, demonstrators gathered on the steps for a candlelight vigil, speeches and caroling.

The demonstration spanned all ages and ethnicities. The EZF banner displayed its slogan in four different languages, and one of the participants spoke and chanted in Spanish.

Susan L. Mello, 37, attended with her eight-month-old son Ian, bundled against the cold in a blue and green jumpsuit.

"I'm a member of EFZ, and I've personally experienced housing injustice," she says.

According to Mello, her landlord tried to raise her family's rent by 500 percent.

It did not matter that her husband's family had lived in the building for 40 years, she says, or that Mello and her husband were prospective parents.

"[The landlord] tried to evict a man in his 80s, a crippled man in his 60s, and people like us with families," she says. "The man has no soul."

Mello decided to fight back. "We refused to pay the rent increase, we encouraged other tenants not to pay, and we took him to court for violations of the housing code. We hung together," she says.

As a result, the landlord sold the building a year ago but has still not stopped fighting.

"Believe it or not, he's still litigating with us, even though he's been gone for a year," Mello says. "He's spent over $40,000 in legal fees."

That's $7,000 more than what he paid for the building originally.

Rallying the Troops

EZF, the sponsor of the event, is a non-profit grassroots organization founded a decade ago.

In the rally's opening speech, Steve Michael, a housing advocate in Boston, told an allegorical story about the organization's founding.

"Ten years ago, there was a group of people like us, regular working class folks like us, and they met a gang, a gang of rich real estate people, and they took all their money, they took their keys, they took their homes," he told the crowd. "The people decided to organize."

Leading Housing Organizer Bill Marchotte identified EZF's goals as fivefold: decent affordable housing, living wage jobs, good healthcare, good education and equal justice for all.

According to Marchotte, the end of rent control has pushed eradicating housing injustice to the forefront of the organization's concerns.

He says that throughout Cambridge, landlords evict residents to fill the vacancies with higher-paying tenants, and also harass tenants who organize and protest.

EZF uses a variety of means to combat housing injustice, including outreach and education, the purpose of last Saturday's rally.

"The demonstrations are to focus public attention," Marchotte says. "We're trying to educate the community by putting a face on the problem."

"Having people stand up and tell stories is a very courageous thing for them to do," he says.

EZF also works to set up tenant organizations, the most effective way to combat injustice, and provides legal aid and advice, including financial support for those who qualify.

Marcotte, 50, is no stranger to housing injustice. He describes his job--one of EZF's three paid positions--as full-time with part-time pay. He also works part-time as a housekeeper to pay the rent, which has been getting increasingly hard to do.

"I know what it's like to be threatened with the loss of your home when you're most vulnerable," he says.

A few years ago, Marcotte was faced with a series of evictions and rent increases in the midst of a medical emergency. His partner was dying of AIDS.

"My landlord knew what was going on but didn't care," Marcotte says.

While Marcotte's housing situation has stabilized somewhat, the incident prompted him to get involved with EZF.

"When you see things this outrageous, sometimes you have to take to the streets," he says.

Strength in Solidarity

Dan Bouchard, a 29-year-old Cambridge resident who works at MIT Press says EZF's educational and outreach work is vital.

Bouchard is currently facing eviction, but said he is optimistic because he knows his rights. "If you know you have rights and assert them then you can deal with it," he says.

"It's more scary for people who don't know their rights, who think that they're alone," he says. "They're vulnerable. They pay their rent on time, they're responsible, and [when they get served with a notice] they think they've done something wrong."

According to Bouchard, landlords lie to tenants outright, telling them that they have no rights, and prey on ignorance.

Bouchard advocates tenant organization. "There's strength in solidarity," he says.

However, he says he believes that his eviction is a result of his activism, a common theme at the rally.

"It's not a coincidence that I helped my neighbors to organize a tenants' association two years ago," Bouchard says. "It's retaliation."

On the other hand, Elizabeth B. Court says her landlord is "trying to get me to move out to make more money."

Court is 60 years old, has been laid off by MIT twice, and has lived in her apartment for 30 years.

She is the only person left in her building since the end of rent control, and has seen "at least 25" of her friends leave Cambridge because of an increase in housing costs.

EZF has helped boost her morale and teach her different tactics, Court says, and she has responded by volunteering.

Court is now facing rising rents while trying to get by on an unemployment check.

"I've realized how terrible it is to lose your home," she says. "It's terribly frightening."