A too-friendly landlord? Part 1, the property
Even as we seek to empower low-income residents with control over their lives and their property, every now and then we are reminded that running affordable housing is a complex business, and being a landlord doesn’t mean always being every resident’s friend, as we can see from the long and depressing story of
As reported in the Boston Herald:
The Boston Housing Authority intends to seize control of the crime-plagued Bromley-Heath housing development from its tenants for the second time in nine years, the Herald has learned.
BHA spokeswoman Lydia Agro refused to say exactly when the agency would take charge of the project, which is home to some 3,000 residents. But sources told the Herald the Bromley-Heath Tenants Management Corp. - which is still run by the elderly women who founded it in 1971, Mildred Hailey and Anna Mae Cole - will be ousted as soon as its contract with the BHA ends in six months. [Other reports say the contract ends
For more than thirty-five years, Bromley-Heath (technically, three phases including Bromley Park and Heath Street, and the now-demolished Bickford Street high-rise) has been seriously troubled.
Federal prosecutors said 40% of all shootings recorded on
What’s the cause? Conceptually, there are three logical possibilities:
- Management good, property bad.
- Management bad, property good.
- Management bad, property bad.
“Well, who’s right here?”
On such a question, judgment rests with the owner (the BHA).
As my professional colleague and friend Charlie Wilkins of the Compass Group has long commented, distinguishing among these cases is extraordinarily difficult, particularly when a property is very troubled, as Bromley-Heath unquestionably is:
According to [BHA spokeswoman Lydia] Agro, BHA director Sandra Henriquez has become increasingly concerned about violent crime in and around the development, which included the murder of a 13-year-old boy Friday night.
Last October,
There are many potential causes, most of which Bromley-Heath has:
Obsolescent physical structures. Not only does property not move, it endures in place — design limitations and construction deficiencies endure for decades. Begun in 1939, Bromley-Heath is one of the nation’s oldest (and hence most) basic public-housing properties:
The
Excessive density. Bromley-Heath’s 1,000 apartments — say, 1,500 kids — live on only 23 acres, or more than forty to the acre. For low-rise and mid-rise developments, that’s extremely dense. A typical garden apartment complex gets along with 12-15 to the acre, and most single-family homes, even in urban environments, are 4 to the acre or less).
Cultural isolation. Additionally, it is very large — over 1,000 apartments — and hence creates its own cultural and socioeconomic gravity:
Bromley-Heath: So large and so dense it is its own world.
Jamaica Plain had never before seen anything like the architecture and site plan of
Extreme poverty concentration. When extreme poverty is concentrated, few people have jobs — or at least, formal employment. And that leads to …
Nevertheless,
Presence of violent criminal element. All that density, and all those people in close proximity, make for a great unofficial marketplace for illegal activity:
The 1,000-unit Jamaica Plain project, long a magnet for violent crime and drug dealing, was the second-most-dangerous public-housing development in the city, according to
Like everyone else, violent criminals go home somewhere to sleep at night. All too frequently, where they sleep is in public housing, as revealed by this list of indictees
KENNETH WHIGHAM, SR., age 43, of 17 Horan Way, #181, Jamaica Plain, MA;
MYLES HAYNES, age 36, of 60 Bickford St., Jamaica Plain, MA; and
GERROD BROWN, age 22, of 934 Parker St.,
JAMEEL GIBBONS, age 21, of
CYRUS JONES, age 22, of
AURELIO BELTRE, age 35, of 7 Wenham St., #1, Jamaica Plain, MA.
KEITH R. ALLEN, age 34, of
RAYMOND BADGETT, age 18, of
ROBERT LOVING, age 38, of
LUIS RAMON ORTIZ, age 31, of
JIWAN BATTISTE, age 27, of
DAMIAN BUSH, age 22, of
TROY BISHOP, age 38, of
KENNETH WHIGHAM, JR., age 24, of
AMOS CARRASQUILLO, age 18, of 921 Parker St., #517, Jamaica Plain, MA;
NATHAN GARRASTEGUY, age 25, of 129 Parker St., #174, Jamaica Plain, MA; and
LUIS GARCIA, JR, age 20, of 15A Cornelia St.,
CARL BARROWS, age 18, of
All male, and many of them evidently residents of Bromley-Heath. But each crop of arrests just creates a market vacuum. The BHA has been in charge of Bromley-Heath before:
The last time the BHA took control of Bromley-Heath came in October 1998, after a police sweep that ended in the arrests of 38 people in connection with a high-level crack cocaine ring known as the “Heath Mob.”
Cartoon from November, 1998
As the cartoonist who drew the above wrote:
Today [November, 1998 — Ed.] it is under the leadership of Sandra Henriquez, generally described as a fair, compassionate Director with zero tolerance for corruption and racism. The week before I did this cartoon, in response to allegations of corrupt practices (including lax enforcement of drug measures), the BHA invaded TMC offices while Hailey and the rest of the leadership were out of town, changed the locks, fired the staff, and took over. Many public housing tenants and advocates believe the BHA had to do it, that the allegations were true, that Hailey and company had been in charge for too long, etc. Nevertheless I thought it was worthwhile mourning the abrupt end of an effort that had been so democratic and had done tenants so much good.
The violence is unending, and tragic:
Just a couple of months ago, city officials were hailing a truce between two gangs, Heath Street and H-Block, for bringing peace to a battle that had resulted in at least 20 shootings. The November slaying of Jahmol Norfleet, a reputed H-Block member, shattered the peace.
Mr. Norfleet was twenty when he was killed.
The slaying of Luis Gerena, 13, in Bromley-Heath Jan. 12 elevated the anxiety.
How to advertise gracious living?
Though he lived elsewhere, young Luis was shot — several times — at Bromley-Heath:
On Friday night, Gerena was shot several times inside the Bromley-Heath public housing development in Jamaica Plain, which is near his home. He became the third middle school student in as many weeks to die in a shooting; he was the second one from the Clarence R. Edwards Middle School in
Extended families that involve criminals. Extreme poverty concentration often means large families, headed by women, with several generations:
Of the 199 Bromley-Heath residents arrested between 2000 and 2005 for violent crimes including shootings, domestic violence and drugs, 82 are related by blood or marriage, according to a classified BPD report obtained by the Herald. Those 82 relatives live in just 13 apartments at Bromley-Heath.
Who let in those tenants?
Citywide last year, the BHA evicted 54 families for drug-related and violent-crime offenses, and filed court papers to move against 206 other residents for violations that did not include nonpayment of rent, Agro said.
Why aren’t these families being evicted?
[Continued tomorrow in Part 2.]
