Tenants of Boston foreclosed homes for sale have found a lifeline among housing advocates who held a rally to demand protection for them. Housing advocates have demanded protection for tenants in apartment buildings that are U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) subsidized.
The rally, which was held in Cleary Square in Boston, Massachusetts, was aimed to show support for treaties and proposed legislation that would provide help to low income families to stay in their apartments at affordable market rates. The rally was planned and initiated by the Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants, a coalition of tenants in HUD-subsidized apartments.
According to industry experts, about 1,750 HUD-subsidized apartments were converted by their owners to market rates. An additional 8,000 apartments are at risk, including 250 elderly houses at Blake Estates and 967 apartments at Georgetowne.
The housing advocates are committed to changing federal, state and local law that would give non-profit organizations and local governments the right to first refusal to purchase HUD-subsidized apartments that are being occupied by renters at market rates.
The group also calls for the reinstitution of several tenant protections that have been lost in the past 20 years. Furthermore, they also called on the federal government to sign the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, giving all people housing rights.
Tenants are just some of the unsuspecting victims of the growing Boston foreclosed homes for sale. Many of them do not even know that the apartments they have been renting are into foreclosures because landlords either neglected to inform them or just do not care anymore. This resulted to many tenants finding themselves being evicted through no fault of their own.
An increasing number of apartments in the city have been foreclosed or are going into foreclosure. According to industry experts, during the peak of the housing market, many landlords bought properties at high prices thinking that the increasing rental rates would allow them to recover their investments immediately.
When the housing market collapsed, they found themselves having apartment buildings with many vacant units. With home prices at below market value, people who have the financial means prefer to buy cheap foreclosure properties rather than rent.
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