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Boston state rep would end city's last vestige of rent control
By adamg on Fri, 08/03/2007 - 1:50pm
Rep. Martin Walsh, a Dorchester Democrat, is co-sponsoring a bill that would end rent-control provisions for occupants of mobile-home parks - a move that could affect residents of Boston's only trailer park.
Although voters statewide voted to eliminate rent control in 1994, the measure exempted trailer-park residents, such as the people who live at the Boston Trailer Park off VFW Parkway in West Roxbury.
Walsh's bill would eliminate the exemption - giving poor residents up to a year to adjust before becoming subject to market rates.
The West Roxbury Bulletin reports the residents are, not surprisingly, none too happy. West Roxbury state Rep. Mike Rush and state Sen. Marian Walsh have vowed to fight the bill. Walsh spent more than a decade in an ultimately successful fight to keep the trailer park's then owner, car dealer James Clair, from simply plowing the whole thing under so he could expand his dealerships. In 2004, Clair deeded most of the land to a non-profit housing venture.
Martin Walsh's campaign-finance records show $1,500 in contributions on Dec. 29, 2006 from people associated with a Carver trailer-park concern: Owner David Piper Sr., his son and a worker.
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Comments
A total disgrace.
It's disgraceful that Rent Control has been killed, when there are so many people who're living on the streets, in shelters, or in horrible substandard housing, or people who're either having to invest half their monthly income into paying rent or moving out of their present residences.
"Substandard housing" does
"Substandard housing" does not even begin to describe many apartments that I've looked at in the past. Buildings that have been abandoned for decades look better than some structures around here that contain $1200+ a month 1 bedroom units.
Filth piled up in the hallways? Check.
Common areas seemingly held together with 70 years of paint? Check.
Mailboxes ripped open? Check.
Non-functional fire alarm systems? Check.
Hygiene-challenged firetraps are endemic, and prospective renters are expected to pay a premium on top of the already outrageous fees for the "privilege" of living somewhere that is not likely to be detrimental to their health and safety.
Very true, Arborway.
It's equally disgraceful that so many renters have to pay through the nose for apartments that're unsafe to live in. Moreover, the demise of Rent Control has made an already horrible situation worse....not better.