The Vultures are Circling Our House
By Michael Grunko
A couple of years ago our phone rang and my wife absentmindedly picked it up without checking to see who was calling.
She answered, and the person on the other end barged in with “Hello. Do you know your home is worth over a million dollars? And we have cash!”
My quick-thinking wife took this all in and replied “OK, put it in a suitcase and I’ll meet you on the front porch.” Then she hung up. She hates those calls.
We bought our three-family house in 1971 after living in an apartment near Porter Square for three years. We were both working at the Fernald State School in Waltham. We worked in direct care with adults who had developmental disabilities. The pay for this work, about $100 per week.
For 47 years we have lived in the same first floor apartment. Our daughter was born that same year, our son four-and-a-half years later. At one time or another, all three of my wife’s sisters have lived here. My wife did at-home day care here for ten years. We held meetings, hosted over-crowed holiday dinners and planned campaigns. Now she does after-school care for our grandchildren.
We repaired and replaced porches, windows, bathrooms, hot water heaters, boilers, siding and floors. We have had so many appliance repairs that we are on a first-name basis with Tony at Dell Appliance Repair. With the help of our tenants we paid off our mortgage. We retired.
In a given week we get several unsolicited offers to sell our home. The offers come from the real estate “vultures” circling around every Somerville neighborhood. On our block there are only four or five families left who were here when we moved in. Over the years we have welcomed new neighbors and tenants. We watched their kids grow up and return to care for their aging parents. When walking our dog, we get excited when we meet the babies and children growing up near us.
We do not want to lose this community. We cherish our neighborhood’s increased diversity. We will not “take the money and run.”
Today, our street has six recently sold houses undergoing renovations. Between them, at least six affordable rental units will be lost. At this rate, and at the exorbitant prices these units will sell for, there is no prospect that there will be any blue-collar families moving in.
In 2017 Somerville voters decided to elect aldermen who pledged to support affordable housing.
Now comes the challenge.
A few years ago we agreed to pay extra taxes to adopt the Community Preservation Act.
Now the Board of Aldermen (BOA) is considering the adoption of a law that would impose a transfer fee on the profit from the sale of Somerville property. The proceeds would go to an “Affordable Housing Trust Fund.” That fund would subsidize mortgages to allow our neighbors to own their own homes in Somerville. I think it is the necessary step we must take if we want to save Somerville’s economic diversity and its vitality.
Everyone wants more affordable housing, but to make it happen we must have a reliable source of revenue. Without a reliable source of revenue to fund affordable housing initiatives, these initiatives will never be anything but a feel-good story that nibbles around the edges. If we want to have any chance of keeping Somerville a place where folks from all walks of life can live, we need to be serious about investing in our community
The value of our house has increased, not because of some brilliant bit of financial genius on our part, but rather because of good luck. If ever we (or, more likely our kids) decide to sell, I think it is only fair that we share a bit of that “good luck” with the neighbors that make living here so worthwhile.
