NAHANT – With the town deciding to sell Coast Guard housing property, 15 tenants living in seven units are fighting for their homes.
The case has attracted Harvard student Isis Patterson’s attention.
Patterson, an urban planning student in Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, is working to connect the tenants with Harvard legal aid attorneys or law students. The legal team is helping tenants file paperwork in response to the eviction notice.
“These residents are facing a no-fault eviction. The city could do more to present alternative options, even if it’s related to the burden of the city not being able to afford the rest of the long term, like working with affordable housing developers or state agencies like DHCD, anything to be able to at least show any effort,” said Patterson.
In a series of finance reports, the town outlined plans to demolish all 12 properties because they planned to remove the in-ground oil storage tanks.
In early October, the Board of Selectmen voted yes to authorize the town administrator to begin the eviction process on the Coast Guard housing of 12 individual houses.
One solution Patterson and tenants are working to achieve is to see if the town could work with an affordable housing developer that would be willing to buy the property and thus preserve the affordability of those units and avoid the eviction of the tenants.
They started investigating a case concerning a building community workshop in Dallas that worked on affordability of preservation. Realizing a solution requires more time than tenants have, they started to look at other options, aware that tenants might get summons for an eviction.
Lauren Barton, a Coast Guard housing tenant, said “the Nahant’s housing market is skyrocketing and there are not many options for affordable housing.”
“I hate to see this happen. It’s not because of nonpayment,” said Mark Cullinan, vice chairman of the Board of Selectmen. “They were good tenants, they’re good residents and they’re good townies.”
The town has been working with the housing authority. Currently, there are 9,700 people on the waiting list at the housing authority properties with only around 40 units, according to Barletta. The town is seeking help from residents who have vacancy on their property.
On May 15 2021, the town meeting voted to dispose of the property of Coast Guard housing. Barton said voters may have been confused about what they were voting for.
A larger conversation on the CG housing needs to take place, according to Patterson.
Sylvia Chen can be reached at [email protected]
