The tenants of Medford’s 22-26 Bradlee Road were a community from all walks of life. Single renters, senior citizens, families, and working individuals alike were the lifeblood of the Medford apartment building. Some of the renters came and went, others lived there for decades. For many years, the tenants of 22-26 Bradlee Road lived in silent, happy harmony. However, this age-long peace ended in early Fall 2022, when the real estate company, Savage Properties, acquired the building to its growing housing empire. Regardless of identity, socioeconomic status, or duration of residency, every tenant of 22-26 Bradlee was served a notice to quit in a series of mass ‘no-fault’ evictions issued by Savage Properties.
‘No-fault’ evictions are evictions where a landlord evicts a tenant who has done nothing to violate their lease. This means that even a tenant who has never damaged property or missed a rent payment can still be lawfully evicted in the state of Massachusetts if a landlord wills it.
After the end of Boston’s eviction moratorium in March 2022, no-fault and non-payment evictions spiked when rental payments resumed. Katie McCann is one of the communications directors at City Life/Vida Urbana (CLVU), a nonprofit organization that helps tenants fight against housing injustices. She and her colleagues at CLVU helped to secure Boston’s moratorium in March 2020 and assisted evicted tenants after it ended two years later. “[The end of the moratorium] definitely caused evictions…[which] disproportionately affected people of color. We definitely saw a big increase, both in non-payment evictions of tenants who were behind on their rent…or whose landlords were refusing to accept rental assistance. But then we also saw some more no-fault evictions and more landlords.... trying to make....a lot more profit off their buildings,” said McCann.
Amanda and Kristin are victims of Massachusetts’ unfair ‘no-fault’ eviction policy. Before Savage’s wave of no-fault evictions at 22-26 Bradlee Road, Amanda and Kristin lived together as roommates for 13 years in the building. They received one of roughly 20 eviction notices served by Savage Properties in early 2022.
Of the originally evicted tenants, Amanda and Kristin are the only ones who remain at 22-26 Bradlee Road. Amanda and Kristin were able to stay past their eviction deadline because of their noncompliance: instead of bowing their heads to Savage Properties, they’re fighting their no-fault eviction in housing court. The long-winded nature of housing court has bought Amanda and Kristin more time in their 22-26 apartment, but their court case with Savage Properties remains ongoing.
“They didn't even give us the option for raised rent, they were just kicking people out…They gave us all 30 day notices, but then they eventually said it was 60 days. We had to sign some weird one-month lease that we refused to sign…And then slowly everyone started moving one by one…. They're saying that they want to renovate... so they evicted this mass amount of people. But then very soon after, without even fixing up some of the apartments, they had new people in them for $500.00 more rent” said Kristin.
When asked to comment on 22-26 Bradlee’s eviction wave, Savage Properties wrote, “22-26 Bradlee Road in Medford was purchased…with the intent of renovating all the building's kitchens and bathrooms, which is desperately needed. In order to complete this work, it is necessary that the unit not be occupied. Each tenant was given notice that their [apartment] was intended to be renovated.”
Both Kristin and Amanda are currently paying their old rate of $1,400 a month for rent, but with Savage’s proposed renovations, their rent would rise by a little less than 50 percent. “[With the new renovations] we would have to pay $2,600. And our apartment is tiny, a pretty newly renovated 500 square foot apartment…. No matter what they do to this apartment, it's never gonna be worth $2,600,” said Amanda.
In the wake of the eviction wave at Bradlee Road, Amanda and Kristin are the only original Bradlee tenants left. “We’re the last ones standing,” said Amanda. Her and Kristin have been able to stand against Savage Properties through CLVU’s legal support in housing court.
CLVU refers to their eviction-fighting strategy as the ‘sword and shield’ approach, the sword being symbolic for public pressure and the shield for legal defense.
Through this strategy, CLVU seeks negotiations for the tenants it fights for. CLVU has had countless no-fault eviction cases dismissed through this legal action. “It’s not that they haven't missed their rental payments, it's literally a no-fault eviction.... Most of the time, [about] 99% of the time, those eviction cases are thrown out,” said Gaby Cartagena, one of the communications directors of CLVU.
Despite CLVU’s success rate with no-fault evictions in Boston’s housing courts, the majority of 22-26 Bradlee Road’s previous tenants complied with Savage’s no-fault evictions and moved out because of fear.
In Savage Properties’ statement, they write, “No Bradlee Road tenant has been evicted from the property and all but one of the tenancies has been resolved amicably. ” Amanda and Kristin, of course, represent the one tenancy that hasn’t been settled. Savage Properties purports that no tenant has been evicted from Bradlee Road, but this statement is misleading. Legally, no evictions have been filed because the residents that were served notices moved out in order to avoid housing court. “They moved out of fear because they feared the eviction process and thought that fighting back wouldn't get them anywhere. But for Amanda and Kristin, it's bought them a lot of time,” said Gaby Cartagena.
Savage’s previous housing abuses serve as leverage for CLVU, Amanda, and Kristin in housing court. Savage Properties, like most of the Greater Boston Area’s property management companies, has a history of negligence in its leased buildings. Amanda and Kristin recalled the many times that Savage Properties endangered their safety by ignoring their maintenance requests. “We had our kitchen sink replaced not that long ago. The plumber actually fell through the floor of the ... bottom of the cabinet because it was so covered in mold... They haven’t come back to look at it, so we just have a big hole under our sink that’s covered by a piece of wood” said Amanda.
Other negligence by Savage includes outdated kitchen appliances, “The fire department was here a couple of weeks ago because our entire apartment smelled like gas and our stove didn’t work….The fire department said that our stove is illegal. And [Savage’s] response was, ‘well, that's why we want to renovate.’ … And even after all that they’ve been ignoring it,” said Kristin.
Following the mass eviction of 22-26 Bradlee Road’s tenants, Amanda and Kristin helped form the Bradlee Road Tenant Association in an attempt to regain previous tenants’ housing rights. CLVU and its tenant organizers have rallied the voices of Medford politicians to try and enact change from Savage Properties: the Medford mayor, Breanna Lungo-Koehn, and city councilors Morell, Bears, Caraviello, Collins, Scarpelli, and Tseng have written multiple letters to the real estate company to urge negotiations for the Bradlee Road Tenant Association. Medford’s mayor and councilors wrote, “Market forces may create tempting opportunities for luxury renovations & increased rents-- but as city leaders, we say stability & wellbeing of our community comes first.”
Amanda and Kristin’s fight against their eviction in housing court is just one example of thousands of housing injustices in the Greater Boston Area. CLVU and the tenants it serves advocate for rent control in their fight against eviction and rising rent prices. Rent control would put a cap on the amount property management companies can charge for monthly rent and prevent unfair price increases. Despite the good that it would bring to tenants, rent control is banned in Massachusetts due to the influence of powerful real estate companies. As long as rent control is unavailable in Massachusetts, its tenants will continue to be manipulated by real estate companies for profit.
