Highlights Over 25 Years

MAHT has helped to preserve more than 9,700 units of at-risk housing as permanently affordable housing since 1983. Download our flyer that gives an overview of these victories.

Some MAHT Victories

In recent years, tenant groups organized by MAHT:

• Preserved East Canton Street Apartments (80 families in Boston's South End) as permanently affordable housing;
• Led the successful effort to preserve 128 units at Schoolhouse 77 as permanently affordable housing through an innovative strategy proposed by MAHT;
• Won $600,000 in benefits and protections for tenants at the 250 unit Loring Towers complex in Salem;
• Won Section 8 contract extensions at several buildings in Lowell and Needham. 
• Pioneered model responses to the new “expiring 40 year mortgage” crisis nationally;
• Won preservation of 226 affordable units at Bowdoin Apartments in Malden for 99 years;
• Won restoration of affordable housing and subsidies at the 156 apartments at Bradford Apartments in Lawrence for at least 30 years, the first time a building whose 40 year subsidies ran out has been restored as affordable housing;
• Won a five year extension of 266 Section 8 apartments in Brandywyne Apartments in East Boston, and
• Launched organizing campaigns at several other buildings, notably including the 967 unit Georgetowne Homes complex in Hyde Park.   
  
  2007 & 2008: Tenant Response to Section 8 Budget Crisis
  MAHT helped spearhead the tenant response nationally to the new Section 8 budget crisis generated by the Bush Administration, winning $2.8 billion in the Stimulus Bill and FY 09 Appropriation for HUD to solve this crisis in March 2009. 
  
  MAHT tenants were the first in the country to raise the issue at a local press conference in November 2007, participated in NAHT’s 2008 forum with the Obama campaign, protested at the Republican National Committee when the McCain campaign refused to respond, and demonstrated at the Boston McCain Headquarters in October 2008 to help draw public and Congressional attention to this crisis.  
  
  In March 2009, MAHT helped NAHT win a “Housing Preservation” priority in the Serve America Act, sponsored by Senator Kennedy, which expanded Americorps from 75,000 to 250,000 Members.   
  
  Victories in 2009

In 2009, MAHT:

* Helped pass Expiring Use legislation at the statehouse, the “Right of First Refusal” bill, which, although it doesn’t affect any building in the state at the moment, did help Georgetowne tenants by helping win a rent phase-in for them.  MAHT was the key organization responsible for passage of this legislation, having created the climate for passage through fourteen years of working at the statehouse.

* Helped Georgetowne Tenants United (GTU) win a rent "freeze" through 2010 and initial steps by Beacon Properties to renew the Section 8 contracts at the 967 unit Georgetowne complex in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood.  MAHT mobilized Georgetowne tenants in March when Beacon Properties announced plans to “opt out” of  Section 8 and convert to market rents.  GTU tenants knocked on doors, circulated petitions, and formed a Negotiating Committee to meet with Beacon. MAHT rallied more than 150 tenants from across the state at Georgetowne in June, and in Hyde Park’s Cleary Square on October 31st.

* Formed a new tenants organization for the 268 elderly and handicapped households at Blake Estates in Hyde Park, an “expiring mortgage” development where owner Beacon Properties has filed a One Year Opt Out Notice. 

* Helped North Shore Seniors Win Rent Rebates at Fairweather Tenants United in Salem. 

* Made “expiring use” housing  a leading issue in this year’s Boston elections. Georgetowne tenants led the way with a Save Our Homes rally in June.  Later, tenants delivered 400 postcards to City Hall demanding—and winning--a meeting with Mayor Menino.

* Organized the largest delegations at 3 forums organized by Mass VOTE, a nonpartisan civic engagement coalition. 

* Mobilized a record turn-out of tenants at Georgetowne and High Point Village for record turnouts at the City Preliminary and Final Elections.  More than 40% of the Georgetowne tenants contacted by MAHT in the September election voted, compared to a 33% voter turnout citywide. In November, Georgetowne tenants voted in record numbers.  [MAHT is one of several Boston organizations funded by the CEI Initiative, funded by the Miller, Hyams and Boston Foundations and Access Strategies Fund to increase voter turnout.

* As a result of persistent MAHT tenant organizing, Jonathan Realty—the owner of 273 apartments in 12 buildings across Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park and Roxbury—will extend the expiring Section 8 contract for another five years,  preserving affordability for low-income families.  In addition, MAHT tenants have won major repairs and a changed attitude from management.

* Assisted tenant leaders from Bradford Apartments in Lawrence in obtaining assurance from New York-based Omni Corporation that over-income tenants are not required to move as claimed by the management company, which was forcing over-income tenants to move out of the property by November 1, 2009.  This is the latest victory in MAHT’s four-year struggle to Save Our Homes at Bradford and is the first instance where affordable housing has been restored to a building that had past the end of its 40-year mortgage. 

* Helped ROXSE Tenant Council in Lower Roxbury remove the major obstacle blocking resident controlled ownership – ousting an entrenched long-time property manager who ran the property with an iron fist since the building was purchased from HUD in 2005. With MAHT’s help, RTC secured investigations by the Massachusetts and HUD Offices of Inspector General.  As a result, the owner entered negotiations with RTC, agreed to remove the property manager.  With the property manager gone, ROXSE tenant council has launched a training program to achieve majority resident controlled ownership within 18 months.