Gentrification to Increase in 1999

Cambridge housing advocates are planning another year of activism as evictions and rent increases have multiplied since the end of rent control in 1994.

This year, they say they expect the problem to be worse than ever.

"Cambridge is gentrifying more rapidly in 1999 from 1998," said Cambridge Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55. "I do not expect the escalation to slow."

Neither does Lou L. Hill, who has lived in Cambridge all his life.

"Cambridge is no longer a small, nice, get-together town," he said. "Now it's all Mercedes and BMWs and nice sports cars; there are no more Fords or Chevrolets. It's all going to the rich."

With evictions continuing and rents increasing, the Eviction Free Zone (EFZ) and other housing rights organizations promise that the next 11 months will be ones of agitation, rallies and tenant solidarity.

"We're the busiest we've ever been," said Bill Marcotte, EFZ director. Marcotte said the organization dealt with 3,000 eviction cases in the past year alone, along with numerous rent-increase situations.

"Each [landlord] mistreats the tenants worse than the one before," Marcotte said. "We've heard the most outrageous stories you can imagine, with families, children and the elderly being threatened in their homes."

But Duehay said the city is virtually powerless to control the landlords' growing financial ambitions.

"There is no way the city can stop landlords from raising rent," Duehay said. "[In 1994] I said that if we lose rent control, we'd have rapid gentrification and no way to stop it."

Fifteen thousand households were protected under rent control, but the city has only restored 1,500 to affordability, according to Duehay.

While Cambridge's policy is not to try to reach specific numbers, Duehay said the city continues to "pursue as many opportunities as we can simultaneously" in saving or creating affordable housing, including buying buildings, subsidizing landlords and offering low-interest loans.

Though Duehay considers the creation of affordable housing one of his top priorities, he said the city's efforts were "completely insufficient."

"There is no end in sight" to the problem of gentrification, he said.

Activists will face a more difficult task, he explained, since the newer and more affluent residents of Cambridge are not concerned with protesting the lack of affordable housing.

This increases the burden on housing advocates like EFZ.

The organization has already set out long-term goals for the year, which include a restoration of affordable housing in Cambridge, tenant rights, a living wage law and immigrant voting rights.

Currently, EFZ is protesting the evictions of residents from three apartment complexes in Cambridge, including one on Porter Road.

Hill has lived in the Porter Road complex for the past 33 years and now finds himself faced with eviction.

He said a developer recently bought the building with the intent to drastically increase rents and evict all residents unable to pay.

"I'm becoming homeless because of two words--profit and greed," he said.

But Hill, like many Cambridge residents, is determined to fight the evictions and rent increases.

"[My landlord] is in for the biggest fight of his life," he said. "It will take the National Guard to get me out of the apartment where I have lived for 33 years."