Medford Square Tenants To Rally Against Mass Evictions

MEDFORD, MA — On Friday, May 6, the Bradlee Road Tenant Association will rally outside their 34-unit building at 6:30 p.m., demanding negotiations with their landlord, Savage Properties.

Savage handed out notices to quit to all tenants-at-will, but the residents, many of whom have lived at Bradlee Road for several years, are fighting to stay in their homes.

Twenty two to 26 Bradlee Road is located just outside Medford Square. According to the Bradlee Road Tenant Association, the building was a close community for a long time and tenants often shared responsibilities like shoveling, cleaning common areas, and looking after one another.

In March 2021, Malden owner Joseph DiNanno sold the building to Boston’s Savage Properties. In March 2022, Savage sent out mass no-fault 30-day notices to quit to all tenants-at-will in the building. The tenants with leases in the building received 20-25% or more rent increases.

“We aren't activists. We're just residents who want to stay in our homes,” Liza Maloney of the Bradlee Road Tenant Association said in a statement. “We come from all walks of life--some are seniors with no computer or computer skills to search for another home, a resident on public assistance, families with children in the Medford school system, and working professionals. Some have lived here for 22 to 25 years. To ask residents to simply pack up their lives and find new housing on such short notice is an unbelievably cruel task. And for many, it’s proven to be legitimately impossible.”

Several tenants left Bradlee Road after receiving notices to quit, including one senior who lived in the building for 25 years and another who lived there for 22 years. Both moved to new locations with higher rents and are struggling to pay these new costs. Other tenants stayed and formed the Tenant Association in April 2022. Shortly after, they sent a public letter to Savage Properties, emphasizing the callousness of their displacement of long-time residents and pointing out the many code violations existing under their ownership in the building.

“City Life sees way too many situations like this. Unfortunately, it’s not unusual,” Steve Meacham, an City Life/Vida Urbana organizer, said in a statement. “No-fault evictions like this are cruel and violent. They shouldn’t be allowed– that’s why we support [tenant protections like] rent control”.

Due to the increasingly common rent hikes, clearing of buildings, and mass evictions in Massachusetts, advocates are demanding passage of a housing justice agenda which is currently stuck in the legislative extension and facing a big deadline on May 9th: legislation on local rent control, the COVID-19 Housing Equity Bill, which will pause evictions and foreclosures as we recover from the pandemic, and the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act.