HousingWestern Mass tenants are getting organized

Published by The Shoestring

NORTHAMPTON – On one of the first days of the new semester, dozens of people gathered outside the gates of one of the wealthiest landlords in Northampton: Smith College. 

“We demand that Smith roll back these egregious rent increases and return to the rent cap agreement,” Rahel Teka, an undergraduate at Smith, shouted through a megaphone. “We deride the college’s attempt to market itself as a progressive institution and claim that it has a symbiotic relationship with Northampton. Housing is a human right!”

Smith College owns about 100 rental units in the Northampton area, Smith’s student newspaper, The Sophian, reported in May. In response to recent rent increases of over 20% for some households this year, Smith College’s tenants in the West Street neighborhood have been meeting regularly to learn more about their rights and how they could fight back. 

And they’re not alone: across western Massachusetts, tenants are getting organized. The West Street neighborhood is one of at least five tenant groups that have formed recently to organize for cheaper rents in the region. Others include tenants at Pleasant View Apartments in Easthampton, who are facing rent hikes after the complex’s purchase by Connecticut-based investors, and homeowners at the West Street Village Mobile Home Park in Ludlow, where the new owner, Gold Rush Properties 1, decided to more than double their lot rent. 

“This isn’t about landlords raising rents because their expenses are higher,” Ilene Roizman, an Easthampton tenant, said in a statement ahead of a “renters rally” in front of City Hall this summer. “These are private equity firms buying properties as investments solely to extract profit, with no concern for the needs of tenants or the condition of buildings. Their excessive rent increases are driving up the cost of housing for everyone.” 

The new organizing comes at a time when a housing crisis continues to fester across the region. A report that the UMass Donahue Institute released this summer found that despite the economy recovering from the 2020 pandemic-related recession, there remains a limited supply of housing. The region has built fewer housing units per capita than the rest of the state and nation, the report found, and residents are increasingly competing with investors looking to profit from rental properties.

“The housing crisis has continued and families and individuals across the region are struggling to make rent or find affordable homeownership opportunities,” the researchers wrote. “This leaves vulnerable populations experiencing housing instability and at risk of homelessness. Furthermore, racial inequity persists across the region as Black and Hispanic households are more likely to be cost-burdened and less likely to be homeowners than their white counterparts.”

But tenants are fighting back. On Sunday, Oct. 5, the housing justice organization Springfield No One Leaves is hosting a “Know Your Rights” clinic for West Street Village residents, with help from Joel Feldman, a Springfield-based housing attorney,

“It’s a movement that’s growing, and they’re all supporting each other now,” Feldman said. “Most people just don’t have any sense of what their rights are about rent increases, what their rights are in the eviction process, what their rights are to organize, what the rights are not to get retaliated against.” 

Katie Talbot, the organizing director for Springfield No One Leaves, said the organization has been teaming up with tenants and homeowners across western Massachusetts to help them with these kinds of training, organizing, legislative advocacy, and direct action.

“Rent is too goddamn high,” Talbot shouted outside the Smith College gates. “If you are interested in organizing a tenant union at your building, holler at me.” 

SNOL, which started in 2010 as a community coalition focused on fighting predatory lenders and foreclosures during the housing crisis, is currently staffed entirely by people who have experienced housing insecurity in their personal lives. 

“I think people recognize that there is power in collective organizing,” Teka said. “I think, for so many people in the area, they see that this is an avenue to channel their support, to channel their energy. And we’re hoping that this isn’t just like a one-time thing.”

Some tenants reported that Smith College is like any other multi-property landlord, with sometimes shoddy maintenance and excessive fees. The only difference is that the college is exempt from paying taxes on its downtown campus, and is sitting on a $2.6 billion endowment.

“There’s this idea that Smith is this good actor in the city of Northampton, and brings all this … money and culture into the city, when in reality it’s the people that live here are the ones that do that,” Talbot told The Shoestring. “Smith doesn’t pay what they should be paying in taxes because they’re tax exempt, but yet, they make profit on our need for housing, and then they’re going to continue to make more profit by increasing people’s rents.”

In a statement, Smith College media relations director Carolyn McDaniel said the college is “a vital part of the community, a good neighbor to its citizens, and a partner in the city’s success.” She also said that Smith owns about 1% of the city’s rental housing stock.

“These properties are not operated for profit; our financial goal is to cover costs while providing housing and acting as responsible landlords for employees and city residents,” McDaniel said. “As expenses such as property taxes and maintenance continue to rise, we make rent adjustments to cover our costs.”

The new local wave of housing rights advocacy is multifaceted. Organizers are using social media, flyers, and public comment opportunities to draw attention to the housing crisis and connect with more people affected by it. They are also advocating for legislative changes and running for local office. 

“We’re fighting fundamentally for a Northampton that is affordable and livable for everyone,” Ward 5 City Council candidate Luke Rotello, who has made housing a central part of his platform, told The Shoestring. “That’s always been an uphill battle, and we are hoping to light a serious fire under their butts.”

Earlier this month, Rotello finished second in the preliminary election, moving on to the general election by defeating the longtime city councilor and local real estate broker David Murphy.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2023, more than half of the renters in Northampton were considered “cost burdened,” meaning they paid more than 30% of their income towards rent. Rotello estimated that if Smith College paid about one-quarter of the taxes that the downtown campus property is assessed at, it would give the city between $3 million and $6 million annually. Instead, he said the college periodically gifts sums of money to the city. 

“So as we’re confronting these budget crises, we are also really feeling the lack of Smith’s consistent presence,” Rotello said. “There’s no actual sustained commitment or agreement with the city. There’s no sense of meaningful, sustained civic obligation. Hey, this is a huge part of our community. It’s a huge employer in our community. It’s a huge landlord in our community. Reasonably, they need to participate, and they need to actually pay something of a fair share to our city, which is struggling to make ends meet.”

Rotello joined dozens of demonstrators who marched from the rally outside Smith to the Northampton City Council chambers with signs and chants to show their support for affordable housing and rent control.

Voters narrowly passed a ballot initiative in 1994 that banned rent control statewide (except at mobile home parks). Today, a proposed bill titled “An Act enabling cities and towns to stabilize rents and protect tenants” would overturn that ban and allow municipalities to establish and enforce rent control measures. 

The Northampton City Council unanimously approved a symbolic resolution in support of the bill at its Sept. 4 meeting, joining the cities of Easthampton, Boston, and Somerville, which have all passed similar resolutions or home-rule petitions. 

A new ballot initiative goes even further by mandating rent control statewide, not just allowing it. It’s An would limit rent increases to 5% annually on non-owner-occupied rentals with at least four units. SNOL is one of at least 40 organizations statewide campaigning to pass the ballot initiative with the Keep Massachusetts Home coalition.

“We’re also taking the fight for rent control to the voters of Massachusetts, because our legislators ain’t doing shit, and we need it,” Talbot said of the ballot initiative. 

Talbot’s advice to anyone struggling with a rent hike or difficult landlord: talk to your neighbors, then call someone like the housing attorney Joel Feldman or an organization like Springfield No One Leaves.

“Let us do the research that needs to be done around who your landlord is, and where the money’s going and things like that,” Talbot said.

Correction: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Ilene Roizman’s name.