HOLYOKE — A malfunctioning heating system and mice regularly getting into food are among experiences for April Gagnon’s family at their Maple Street apartment.
“My children are physically and mentally sick from living in this place we live in,” Gagnon told the City Council’s Public Safety Committee at a public forum Monday, elaborating on the problems by describing the presence of rodent feces in the home. “I have never, ever in my lifetime lived in such nasty conditions.”
Cleopatra Pledger of Tokeneke Road said she has faced challenges in securing suitable housing due to past evictions caused by an inability to meet rent payments.“That was out of my control. It was nothing I could handle,” Pledger said.
“The rent is just too damn high. It’s ridiculous,” Pledger said.
Gagnon and Pledger were among 36 residents who spoke, and another 20 who attended the meeting, at Holyoke City Hall, many wearing shirts with the phrase “the rent is too high,” and lending support to a petition calling on the City Council to adopt a Tenant Bill of Rights. Such a bill of rights would ensure a series of protections for renters, including promoting affordability of rental housing stock, requiring prelease inspections, done by a city inspector, proving the housing stock meets various codes, and prohibiting landlords from asking about past criminal history.
The meeting was called by the local chapter of Neighbor to Neighbor, a statewide group that aims to bring together people of color, immigrants, women and the working class, and the Tenants Union of Western Massachusetts.
Katie Talbot, the Neighbor to Neighbor organizer for Holyoke, told councilors that city leaders too often ignore the needs, and the challenges, of the 64% of Holyoke residents who rent.
“For far too long we’ve been living in conditions that are uninhabitable,” Talbot said.
Talbot, who lives in Westfield, said she would like to be in Holyoke, but is priced out. “I cannot find housing in Holyoke that meets the needs of my family that I can afford,” Talbot said.
In addition to the Tenant Bill of Rights, the group is seeking an Office of Tenant Protections that would advocate on a daily basis for renters, regulations on cooperative housing and starting a conversation on restrictions and regulations against investment and hedge fund home ownership in the city.
Previously, At-Large Councilor Jose Maldonado-Velez entered an order to create an Office of Tenant Protections, though that will depend on funding.
Talbot said on Wednesday that Neighbor to Neighbor collected the required 50 signatures to call the public forum, and got even more people in support of the Tenant Bill of Rights as it was built out.
Neighbor to Neighbor, Talbot said, is part of People’s Action and its National Homes Guarantee effort that has been underway for the past two years.
To make the Office of Tenant Protection a reality, Talbot said she and others intend to meet with Mayor Joshua Garcia in the new year about finding Community Development Block grants or other grant money.
Such a project would put Holyoke at the forefront in the region, she said, observing that under state law the only avenue for renters to pursue complaints is through Housing Court, which can leave a mark on a person’s record.
“Implementing an alternative is necessary until we can change state law,” Talbot said.
She said the initiatives might be modeled after similar work being done in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Public Safety Committee was required to call the meeting, but councilors said no immediate action can be taken.
“The main goal out of this meeting was to listen,” said At Large Councilor Israel Rivera, who chairs the Public Safety Committee.
Ward 5 City Councilor Linda Vacon said councilors have been actively working to get more positions that would do enforcement of code violations as there is an awareness of the problems people are experiencing with rental housing.
Ward 2 City Councilor Will Puello said he would like to see more responsibility from the state, and better funding.
“Some of the things people are upset about are out of the control of the council,” Puello said. “A lot of this is where is the state share for Holyoke?”
Ward 4 City Councilor Kocayne Givner, who also sits on the Public Safety Committee, said councilors have significant power if aligned in their response in filing orders and making requests for funding.
“Something I can do is reach out and begin picking away at things,” Givner said.
Stephen Bosco, a Holyoke landlord who handles 220 rental units as Arrow Properties, said he doesn’t keep waiting lists anymore since the vacancies are so few. Bosco said the market is getting worse for tenants due to the limited supply of housing and options.
“I think to myself, something has to give, that it just can’t keep getting worse the way it does,” Bosco said.
Bosco said he has been keeping rents at 70 to 90% of the fair market rents as defined by the federal Housing and Urban Development.
“I’ve kept my rents lower than a lot of other landlords have,” Bosco said, adding that rent control might work if it could be modeled after what the state of Oregon has done, where adjustments are tied to the consumer price index.
Greg Virgilio, president of Virgilio Property Management, said tenants should be willing to call the city’s Board of Health and may not be aware that they have the right to have an inspection done on their apartment and right to corrective action.
The city might also model enforcement after Springfield, which also has a problem with the quality of rentals.
“I don’t think the city is tough enough on the bad landlords,” Virgilio said. In Springfield, uncorrected code violations lead a landlord to be in court within 30 days, he said.
Some tenants at the meeting said they hope the high rates of occupancy will stimulate production of more housing and put an end to issues, whether it be roaches entering one home from an upstairs apartment with hoarders to another apartment with leaking ceilings.
Niki Dawson of Lyman Street said she is part of Neighbor to Neighbor to create better housing.
“I honestly feel the system is failing me and my brothers and sisters,” Dawson said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
