“Shortages and insecurity in on-campus housing continue to push students to look for housing elsewhere—in surrounding communities.” Housing instability within Somerville continues to worsen as universities struggle to accommodate their rising student populations. Meanwhile, rental prices in surrounding communities increase. The growing divide between students and the community puts pressure on city officials, universities, and […]
OPINION: ONE TOOL AGAINST DISPLACEMENT, RENT HIKES, SPECULATION
“TOPA would allow communities to slow displacement and gentrification by removing some homes from the for-profit, speculative, escalating market, and making them permanently affordable.” Speculators are driving up prices, blocking new home-buyers, and promoting destabilization of neighborhoods, displacement of long-time residents, and gentrification. Is this inevitable? Those issues were the topic of my last newsletter. […]
EASTBOUND AND GOWN
“We have a lot of Central Americans, and we also have a wave of Arab/Middle Eastern. But what’s different now is, at least with the final wave, people are feeling they’re being pushed out.”
UNWILLING CONVERTS
Somerville’s largest condo grab in history yields relative tenant win in tense market Greg Santos moved into Somerville’s Millbrook Lofts apartment complex with his girlfriend in August 2017, looking forward to using its dedicated art space. Married couple Luciano Betoldi and Maria d’Orey, both from Portugal, immigrated to the US in January and started renting […]