"Gimme Shelter" episode of RadioOpenSource about Somerville development

[mem_winterhill]

Hey neighbors--

This just came across my twitter feed, I haven't had time to listen. But it seems relevant to our little organization. 

http://radioopensource.org/gimme-shelter/  

"In cities across the country, working and middle-class Americans are struggling to keep their homes, pay their rent, and fight off eviction and foreclosure. Somerville, Massachusetts has an acute case of a national dilemma—call it a case study in gentrification; Boston’s Brooklyn or the Oakland of Massachusetts. "

In addition, the thread I caught also referenced some other Somerville-related media that I hadn't seen before. Check out these stories:

Somerville’s turn to ‘sewer socialism’   and Public sector must protect communities  by Benjamin Bradlow. (I can't access the FT one, but I'm going to see if it's available from the library). 

Here was the thread: https://twitter.com/bhbradlow/status/954383797369307137

Comments

[mem_winterhill]

One of the people in this show has an organization that helps renters who face eviction issues. Steve Meacham from City Life / Vida Urbana.

http://www.clvu.org/

I'd love to have them talk to our group at some point.

[mem_winterhill]

And here's the Financial Times piece. https://twitter.com/bhbradlow/status/954434718736506880

[mem_winterhill]

I just came across something else interesting on this front, and wanted to store it in my cheek pouches for future use.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/24/evicted-tenants-landlords-lawyers-disparity-housing-crisis

"In the Massachusetts city of Quincy, a pilot project to provide lawyers to tenants led to two-thirds of represented tenants staying in their homes, compared with one-third of unrepresented tenants. And those with lawyers received almost five times the financial benefit, such as damages and cancellation of past rent."