Anwar Faisal of Alpha Mgmt just bought 100 units in Somerville

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Controversial landlord expands empire into Somerville... Renters beware.

http://somerville.wickedlocal.com/news/20160216/landlord-blasted-in-spotlight-series-buys-100-units-in-city

Comments

Money!

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

Oh Boy!@%$ No matter the truth in the situation stated in that article the individual does not make himself sound any better. Lol @ market value

[ifotismeni]

oh boy :/

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Instead of banning more than 4 students living in an apartment, the city should ban this guy from owning more than 4 apartments.

[davisdenizen.livejournal.com]

Apartment buildings are being flipped a lot in that particular neighborhood and investors are definitely looking for a profit at the expense of renters. I imagine they think they can raise rents to the sky on the promise of the coming Green Line. It's shameful. To say that renters in that neighborhood can afford "market rate" is crazy. I don't understand why the city isn't doing something to stop this kind of unfettered greed which is forcing long-time residents out of their homes.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

A lot of it is that neighboring towns won't allow enough housing to be built. (Hell, the Union Square developments kept getting downsized because neighbors didn't want more apartments built...)

Greed is just profit motive which is how all of us get up in the morning and do our jobs. Where there's a demand for housing, people will pay for housing. If there's a sensible way to respond to that demand - by building enough housing for people - then people will do that. If we can't increase supply, then yeah, prices will go up.

Faisal, however, isn't merely profiting from the trendiness or desirability of these neighborhoods. He's providing illegally substandard housing and failing to maintain it.

With any luck the Somerville inspectional services department will be harder to fuck with than the Boston one, which is largely toothless.

[davisdenizen.livejournal.com]

I appreciate your comment, but I don't agree entirely with it. There are many long-time renters in Somerville who are valuable members of our community. The profit motive does not recognize that renters can be more important assets to a city than property values and that forces the people who make our neighborhoods desirable in the first place to desperately search for new places to live.

This affects not only residents, but also small businesses -- e.g. the Consignment Gallery on Highland whose wonderful owners did not want to move, but whose building was bought by a developer. The loss of that business is a blow to our community. Yes, change is inevitable, but we should also look at what is happening to the town that many of us love.

I am surprised, given the progressive politics espoused by many in this town, that there is no group speaking up for renters' rights. And I don't wish to see owners and renters at odds, either. Most owners are not profiteers or developers. Owning and maintaining a property and collecting fair rents is a business, jacking up rents and flipping buildings is greed.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Agreed entirely: There's a difference between unethical and ethical businesses.

The conflict between liberal politics and unaffordable housing is one that's gotten a lot of coverage recently:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/why-are-liberal-cities-so-unaffordable/382045/

I don't know what the equivalent organization in Somerville is, but A Better Cambridge (http://www.abettercambridge.org/) is working to address that. (Not to be confused with the anti-growth group Cambridge Residents Alliance).

[davisdenizen.livejournal.com]

Interesting article -- thanks for the link! I think another scary aspect is that often towns are talking about "affordable housing" for those in the lowest income tier; this article is addressing the crisis for those who make what used to be good salaries, but now lag far behind rental rates, especially because of the concomitant stagnation of salary raises.

I had noted the Cambridge organization and that was one of the reasons I was so puzzled that there was nothing equivalent in Somerville.

I appreciate the discussion -- let's hope there will be more of it, here and elsewhere. It's needed!

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

The conflict between liberal politics and unaffordable housing is one that's gotten a lot of coverage recently:

That doesn't surprise me -- well-educated professional workers are a Democratic-leaning class and can afford to live in an expensive city. And an expensive city drives out more working-class people, who tend to vote Republican these days.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

I don't quite get your complaint. You lease an apartment for a year, neither you nor the landlord has a commitment to renew the lease, that's the point of a lease. Rents are set by supply and demand, that's what defines the "market rate".

Of course, all that would change if the government (rather than private investors) built rental housing and charged what people "ought to pay", making the difference up from taxes. But it doesn't.

Or we could get rid of the tight zoning throughout the Boston area and let the investors build lots of rental housing and then the increased supply would drive prices down.