EASTHAMPTON — Two Pine Valley tenants have won their eviction cases following what they and many other tenants of Pine Valley Realty have called unfair hikes in rent.
The two Pine Valley tenants, Mona Shadi and Roland De Caires, were notified by Pine Valley Realty of rent increases of $300 and $350 last August. When their leases were up in October, both tenants refused to pay the higher amount and continued to pay their existing rent, as is in their right under Massachusetts law, leading to mediation between the parties.
In December, a press conference was held inside Easthampton City Hall by the Pine Valley Tenants Association, who were joined by the Easthampton Tenants Union, Northampton Tenants, other tenant advocates and state Rep. Homar Gomez. Tenants and organizers collected more than 600 signed letters from community members expressing their support, and the letters were hand-delivered to the Pine Valley Realty office following the conference in an attempt to get landlord Matthew Gawle to negotiate in good faith.
These requests were denied, and Gawle initiated no-fault evictions against Shadi and De Caires.
Through organized actions by the Easthampton Tenants Union and the legal counsel of Joel Feldman, whose Springfield firm specializes in tenants’ rights, a successful outcome was reached after two pre-trial mediation sessions. The two neighbors will now pay increases of only $45 and $50, respectively, locked in with a one-year lease and will receive substantial monetary damages.
“These Easthampton tenants were glad to work out a resolution of their cases through the mediation process, rather than having to defend themselves in an eviction trail,” said Feldman. “The results here show the benefits of landlords being willing to meet at the earliest possible time with their tenants and then negotiating face-to-face, rather than unilaterally putting their tenants at risk of eviction and potential homelessness.”
Also part of the negotiation was a demand that Pine Valley Realty engage in collective bargaining for all of its tenants. A meeting date is currently being set.
Following the December press conference, Gawle and his wife Donna told Reminder Publishing through a joint statement that the rent increases were in response to the rising cost of living.
“We have explained our situation to the tenants, who requested negotiations. We kept rent as low as possible for as long as possible,” they said in December. “We are open to finding solutions to keep local landlords and tenants in Easthampton. However, we feel the community has spoken.”
When contacted about the mediated cases, Pine Valley Realty did not respond for comment by print time.
Reflecting on the course of events, Shadi highlighted the critical importance of both organizing with other tenants and having access to legal counsel. She noted that on average, there are 40,000 evictions in Massachusetts every year, with 25% of those being no-fault. Meanwhile, only 7% of tenants who are evicted have legal representation.
While this is a successful example of collective action in the face of unfair rent hikes, Easthampton Tenants Union member Ilene Roizman told Reminder Publishing that many other tenants agreed to pay more because they believed they had no choice.
“That’s one of the two things we were trying to emphasize, is having access to legal counsel is critical and most people don’t. As part of the legal process, there is an opportunity for both sides to sit down with their lawyers and try to hash it out, and that’s what they did,” said Roizman. “As far as the other tenants are concerned, that’s where the other component of the big picture comes in: the organizing. By organizing and forming their own tenants’ association, and working for collective bargaining, they will be able to negotiate. And the intention is to negotiate for everyone.”
With the support of the Easthampton Tenants Union, Pine Valley tenants continue to organize and take action against rent increases and maintenance issues that have been ignored for years. Gawle owns multiple apartment complexes in Easthampton that total around 230 units.
Roizman said that while this was a win for tenants’ rights in Easthampton, it was not a permanent fix to the issues in housing availability and affordability. She shared that in the State House, there is a new ballot initiative called the Massachusetts Rent Control Initiative. The proposed ballot initiative would cap annual residential rent increases at 5% or by the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower, in an effort to address housing affordability and reverse the 1994 state ban on rent control.
“We have wins now, but we’re also prepared to keep fighting. We’re also prepared to keep negotiating if we have to, and in the meantime, we’re going to push very hard to try and get that bill passed,” Roizman said.
Roizman said, regardless of the initiative’s status, the work and education around tenants’ rights will continue.
“Solidarity is powerful. Collective action works. It takes a lot of effort and commitment. It takes a lot of people working together with similar goals, cooperating and sharing resources, and providing education. Knowledge is power. The more we know, the more we can do,” said Roizman. “Citizen participation is essential to a healthy democracy. We’re encouraging people to get involved. We are letting people know that they have rights, and that we can help each other exercise our rights, and that we don’t have to put up with the status quo. I’ve been very encouraged seeing so many people step up and do good work and contribute substantially to improving the situation for renters in Easthampton, especially.”
The Easthampton Tenants Union was formed to build solidarity among renters and others in the community in response to unreasonable rent hikes and poor management by landlords and property owners, and provide support, encouragement, resources, referrals and expertise. Its mission is to empower people in standing up for their legal rights and foster solidarity across the city of Easthampton and the surrounding community.
“Collective action is something we’re not used to, right. Usually, we think of it in terms of workers’ unions, where people are unionizing for better wages, or they’re unionizing for better working conditions. This is very different, but the premise is similar,” Roizman said. This is a group of people who have a common interest. Who are saying, ‘we have rights, and we want to exercise those rights, and we have an arrangement with somebody who owns the property we live in, and we want to keep living here and make it work.’”
For more information on the Easthampton Tenants Union, visit easthamptontenantsunion.org.
