— Photos courtesy of Kevin Foster

On Monday morning, March 21, more than 70 residents, organizers and activists, and elected officials joined the Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS) at the entrance of the re-opened MBTA Lechmere Station for a bilingual Somerville community press conference called, “Don’t Let the Green Line Become the Gentrification Line!” The event preceded the MassDOT grand opening ceremony for the MBTA Green Line Extension (GLX).

At the community press conference, organizers celebrated the long-awaited arrival of the GLX and allowed residents who are experiencing gentrification first-hand to share their stories. The aim was to highlight the injustice that in Somerville, working class residents who need this transit most are the ones facing displacement first due to rampant real estate speculation, building sales, and unaffordable rent increases and property taxes. 

One of the speakers, Vanessa Vela, is in the struggle for a new and affordable lease after her building near Gilman Square was sold in September 2021. The developer/investor who purchased her building is remodeling each unit into luxury rentals marketed at three times the original rents paid by tenants, and refuses to negotiate with Vela for a renewed tenancy.

“The opening of the GLX in Somerville has a bittersweet taste to immigrants and the hardworking class due to the gentrification that is happening in the past couple of years, mostly during the pandemic,” said Vela, a longtime Somerville resident and immigrant from El Salvador. “I am tired of seeing how the people most affected by all this tyranny are people of color, Latinos, and hardworking people whose voices have been silenced.”

Union United is a coalition of neighborhood residents, non-profit organizations, small businesses, and labor unions that formed in 2014 in response to rapidly increasing gentrification in the Union Square neighborhood. The coalition joined CAAS as a co-sponsor of the event.

“While the city government threw its full weight behind the GLX, it did little to respond to the inevitable gentrification and displacement pressures that would accompany it. Its inclusionary zoning and linkage efforts were overshadowed by soaring rents and taxes on property near future T stops,” said Sandra Brown, Union Square resident and member of Union United, at the press conference.

The organizers implore that since the Red Line came to Davis Square in 1985, Somerville has known for decades about the unintended consequences that new transit can bring to a community: building sales, condo conversions, skyrocketing rents and property taxes, the loss of working class and immigrant residents and small businesses – the transformation of entire neighborhoods. Now with the GLX open, they say, ‘we cannot let history repeat itself.’

The organizers called on lawmakers at the local, state, and federal officials to work on an immediate, intentional anti-displacement plan that, at minimum, includes the following:

1. Preserves and increases affordable housing, especially for residents making below $30k/year
2. Place limits on investor purchases so that housing is treated as a human right in Somerville, not as an opportunity for profit-minded greed
3. Increases tenant protections, such as enacting good cause evictions and mitigating unaffordable rent increases through rent stabilization
4. Is implemented with an equity lens to protect our most vulnerable Somerville residents

Elected officials in attendance included Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, Somerville City Councilors Charlotte Kelly, Jake Wilson, Willie Burnley Jr, Kristen Strezo, JT Scott, Judy Pineda Neufeld, Ben Ewen-Campen, State Senator Pat Jehlen, State Representatives Christine Barber, Mike Connolly, and Erika Uyterhoeven, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, and Senator Ed Markey.

A full recap of the Somerville Community Press Conference with video recording, photos, and additional media coverage can be found at:

https://www.caasomerville.org/news-items/2022/3/22/somerville-glx-community-presser

About the Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS)

The Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS) is the City of Somerville’s federally designated anti-poverty agency since 1981. Its mission is to help local families and individuals achieve financial security while working to eliminate the root causes of economic injustice. To learn more, visit: caasomerville.org.