Massachusetts Attorney General reaches deal to keep Fenway women’s rooming building affordable (Boston Herald)
A March 22 Boston Herald article about a rooming house in the Fenway neighborhood quoted Margaret Turner, Senior Attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services. An excerpt from the article is below.
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One of the lowest-cost housing options for women in Boston will remain that way following an agreement secured with the state attorney general’s office.
The Our Lady Guild House, a single-occupancy rooming building on Charlesgate West, lists its smallest room, a 10-by-11 footer, at $810 and its largest, a 12-by-14, at $950 — Boston steals, especially at easy walking distance to several arts and parks, including Fenway.
The property is owned by the Daughters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception, though state’s filing lists a separate entity named for the building since 1981, and has its building open for residency by about 130 “women of all faiths and national origins” — but the Attorney General’s office said a sale is pending that could could have put the affordability of this housing in jeopardy.
On Wednesday, the AG’s office announced that it had secured a deal with the owners and management of the House that provides “protections against evictions and rent increases while the sale of the building is pending,” settles allegations of age and disability discrimination against long-term tenants and secured a $115,000 penalty payment that will be mainly distributed to seven long-term residents of the House.
