Private solution only realistic hope for Devenscrest
In another time, a visit by the state housing secretary to an affordable apartment complex in the throes of being dismantled by a developer seeking to cash in on the commonwealth’s high price of housing would be cause for at least some measure of hope and solidarity.
But with the housing landscape now in flux, spiraling further out of control by the overwhelming inflow of migrants that have exceeded the capacity of this state to provide adequate shelter, one must wonder if the plight of a few dozen Ayer residents facing imminent displacement can be viewed as a priority.
Nonetheless, State Housing Secretary Ed Augustus did visit with the embattled tenants of the Devenscrest apartments on Tuesday morning to both listen to their concerns and explain how the state could support them.
Devenscrest, a 110-unit apartment complex of duplex and triplex homes located in an enclave off Littleton Road, had offered an affordable choice of two- and three-bedroom apartments for low- and moderate-income tenants for many years.
That’s before it was purchased roughly two years ago by real estate investment company Brady Sullivan Properties.
Brady Sullivan then began renovating units, which substantially increased rents and resulted in numerous evictions of tenants who could no longer afford to live there.
On Tuesday Secretary Augustus met with Devenscrest Tenants Association members to “talk about efforts to save their housing from real estate speculators,” according to the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI), an organization supporting the Devenscrest group.
“The tenants who want to remain in their homes are deeply grateful” to state officials “for extending a helping hand,” said MLRI attorney Ann Jochnick. She said Devenscrest is a “perfect example of why affordable homes in Massachusetts are disappearing, and why we need Gov. Healey’s Housing Bond Bill to protect homes like this and the families who live there.”
Augustus’ visit drew an impressive crowd, including multiple media outlets that camped out outside the private meeting between Augustus and the Devenscrest Association members. That meeting included Legislators such as state Sen. Jamie Eldridge and state Rep. Dan Sena, as well as municipal officials such as Ayer Town Manager Robert Pontbriand.
But other than further publicizing the housing crisis that’s being exacerbated in part by predatory developers like Brady Sullivan, there’s not much of a “helping hand” the state can offer other than advocate for a just solution that serves both tenants and landlord.
That includes the one offer to buy the property that so far has been rebuffed.
Richard Henken, of New England real estate company Schochet, had proposed a plan aimed at finding a firm that would buy and manage Devenscrest and keep the rents affordable. Henken offered to buy the complex from Brady Sullivan Properties. “I spoke with Brady [Sullivan Properties] … but he wasn’t interested,” Henken said.
Jochnick said MLRI aims to keep trying to come up with a price that Brady Sullivan finds acceptable. In her view, it could be a win/ win for both parties, including the developer, who could “make a profit and do the right thing at the same time.” she said.
Asked if there’s a legal way for tenants who haven’t moved out can stay without being subject to rent hikes they can’t afford, Allie Girouard, media consultant with MLRI, said the governor’s housing bill may help, although it’s not specific to Devenscrest.
For now, it’s a housing court issue, she said.
That venue might have recently given the embattled tenants some reason for optimism.
Eviction notices recently initiated by Brady Sullivan in Lowell housing court on a few of Devenscrest’s remaining tenants have been withdrawn, though the reason remains unclear.
Given the state’s desperate need to access housing, it ironically could find itself in competition with residential developers like Brady Sullivan.
According to a recent Metropolitan Area Planning Council report recently cited by Sen. Eldridge, one in five homes sold in Eastern Massachusetts from 2004 to 2018 went to individuals or groups like Brady Sullivan — private investors scooping up lower cost housing so they can either jack up rents, or flip the property to someone else who will.
That trend has undoubtedly continued, even in the face of an affordable housing crunch that had already reached crisis levels before this mass refugee migration.
We’d like to believe there’s some light at the end of the Devenscrest tenants’ struggle, but if there is, it will come from private sources like the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute or that benevolent middleman who’s attempting to broker the sale of Devenscrest.
As for the beleaguered commonwealth, its priorities lay elsewhere.