'Significant changes:' Elm Street tenants scramble for housing as eviction looms

NEW BEDFORD — Joseph Quigley, 72, sat on his living room couch in an apartment at 193 Elm Street Thursday morning, surrounded by memories from his career as a teacher and cartoonist.

He admitted that he should clean and organize the clutter, much of it material he used in class. A model dinosaur skeleton stood vigil over him as he swept the detritus from his chair and sat.

"What good is housework if you're going to leave?" Quigley said with a shrug.

About a month ago, deputies from the Bristol County Sheriff's Office knocked on his door and gave him a notice to vacate for possession.

"You are requested to leave the premises you now rent as my tenant," said the letter, signed by Isaiah Osofisan, manager of TI Partners V, LLC, the apartment complex's owner, on Sept. 29. "You have until [November 1, 2022], to leave or I will go to court and seek permission to evict you."

TI Partners became the official owners of 189-193 Elm Street two days prior, after they purchased the property for $2.4 million. Since, Quigley and the other tenants have been scrambling to find housing.

"I'm not happy," he said. "I know I have to leave eventually. But when and how? I don't know."

Quigley said the first signs that something was up came months earlier, when he and other tenants began to notice some improvements being made and more frequent inspections.

"They checked the fire alarm in June and again in September," he said. "Which is kind of odd to do for a once a year thing."

He said that in the summer, the previous owners, Standish Associates, LTD, dug up the parking lot to remove an underground gas tank, the remnants of a gas station previously on the site.

"I thought it was an [Environmental Protection Agency] thing," he said, for public safety. "I feel dumb about that now."

Rent was $650 a month seven years ago

When Quigley first moved in seven years ago, he paid $650 a month for rent, affordable on his $2,700 monthly income. Two years later, Standish raised the rent by $50 before raising it another $50 in 2019.

"Most of the people have moved here because it was affordable," Quigley said. "There's a lot of transients in this building," though he said incomes ranged from lower to middle income among residents. "Now, all of the sudden, it isn't."

Tenants given eviction notices

According to Osofisan, 13 of the 20 tenants at the building were given notices. He told The Standard-Times that he made efforts to work with tenants before the move.

An email, provided by Quigley, showed that five days prior, Osofisan sent an email announcing the purchase.

"My name is Isaiah Osofisan and I have been hired by the company who purchased [189-193 Elm Street] to manage the property," it opened. "There are significant changes that will be rolling out over the coming months and it is my job to discuss these plans with you and provide you with options."

The letter then notified tenants of the planned Nov. 1 renovations.

Osofisan told The Standard-Times that planned renovations include: a retrofitting for the HVAC system, total roof replacement due to leakage, fire and other safety issues, a redo of the parking lot, new masonry, and improvements for all apartments and common areas.

"The building was built and 1910 and has received very little love over the last half century," he said. "Many of the original systems in are still in place, including a 112-year-old electrical service."

Christen Boudreau said she has yet to receive a notice as of Thursday.

"I am slightly worried it is coming," she said, adding that she was homeless before she moved into the complex four years ago. "I've been hearing so many rumors."

Boudreau, like others on the properties, has her rent subsidized by a mental health agency. Otherwise, the $900 monthly income she receives for disability would not suffice.

She said she is still not sure of her situation and if she is evicted, is unsure of what to do regarding her living situation.

"Literally every day I am wondering what will happen," she said. "It is killing me.

"I hope [TI Partners] takes the people who live here into consideration."

Owner says they've offered help to transition tenants

Osofisan, told The Standard-Times in an email that after renovations, expected to take over a year, TI partners will rent for between $1,000 and $1,600 a month.

"These apartments are meant to be workforce housing for the people who live and work in New Bedford," he said. "95% of the tenants who live at our other properties work within 20 miles of the city and we expect that trend to continue with Elm St."

In addition, he said the company has made efforts to ease the transition.

"We have offered financial support in the form of cash payments or direct payments to new landlords to assist with the costs of securing new housing," he said. "We also offered to organize the logistics and to fund the tenant’s moving expenses. We have tapped our network of real estate contacts to locate and reserve apartments for the tenants who have engaged us in this process, and we have reserved multiple units from our existing portfolio in the city for residents of Elm St."

Quigley said that he reached out to speak with management for said help on Oct. 2. After a week without reply, he sent another email.

In his response the following day, Osofisan told Quigley the company would assist with up to 2X the rental costs regarding moving expenses, meaning he would receive about $1,600.

"Where in New Bedford can I pay first month, last month, and security deposit with that?" he said.

Osofisan said in the same email TI Partners would reach out to people in their network and advised him to use sites like Zillow, Hotpad, Realtor.com, and others in his search.

"What help is that?" Quigley asked rhetorically. "They should have let us know then so we would have the time to look."

Surging rents leading to housing crisis in New Bedford

Though historically cheaper compared to the rest of Massachusetts due to the area's income profile, median home values in New Bedford increased by 55% since 2018, to $350,500, according to a recent study released by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

Help wanted:Residents call for action on New Bedford's housing crisis

This has led to surging rents and left 23% of households in New Bedford spending over 50% of their income on housing, significantly higher than the statewide average of 14%, according to United Interfaith Action.

This has led some to say that though it is a housing crisis, for city residents, it is more a crisis of low wages.

"One big challenge that we have in this community is that, yes, the rent is too high and for many of our neighbors to afford but the income is way, way, way too low," Michael Goodman, senior advisor to the Chancellor for economic development and strategic initiatives at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, told a recent meeting of the HOME Group. "If you look at wage rates, they’ve been rising pretty significantly, not enough to keep up with inflation."

Census data shows that almost 19% of New Bedford residents live in poverty.

Some blame South Coast Rail and the Boston salaries that will now find New Bedford a more attractive area to settle; but Goodman said that is a small part of the equation.

"What the train has done is put us on the radar screens of investors who are looking at the opportunity to buy multi-family homes and invest in them," he said, adding that the trains' planned schedule will make it difficult to sustain a daily commute to Boston for many. "That appears to be what we are seeing anecdotally."

Remote work a key factor in rent increases

He added that the greatest factor, from his perspective, is how the COVID-19 pandemic made remote work part of American work culture.

"If I could work from home [for a Boston company] and live here, then the quality of housing and the price of housing that's available here starts to look a lot more attractive," he said. "That’s a good part of the pressure that’s lead to the remarkable increases in pricing."

Sticker shock:HOME Group discusses origins of New Bedford housing crisis: Can suburbs help?

For his part, Mayor Jon Mitchell told The Standard-Times that the city set aside $11.2 million recently for its Housing Expansion Initiative, financing the construction of five complexes with over 100 units reserved for low-income residents.

“As with nearly every American city these days, escalating rents in New Bedford have made it difficult on many to find the housing they need," Mitchell said in an e-mailed statement. "While the City of course cannot influence the national economic forces at work, we have been making a concerted effort to increase the supply of housing units."

As of December 2020, slightly less than 12% of housing in New Bedford falls under the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Developments subsidized housing inventory. 

Regarding the Elm Street complex, Mitchell said that though the City cannot intervene in a lease dispute, the reports he read concern him.

"The particular case of the Elm Street residents, based on what has been reported, I believe they were not given fair notice of the landlord’s intentions," he said. "We strongly urge the tenants to reach out to South Coastal Counties Legal Services for assistance. Regardless of the legal merits of the case, I believe that landlords have a moral obligation to afford departing tenants a reasonable opportunity to seek new housing.”

Terra Incognita Partners

TI Partners V, LLC, was incorporated in March and is the fifth such company (after TI Partners I through IV) to come into existence since 2020 under the umbrella of Terra Incognita Partners, LLC, a Pittsfield-based real estate management firm incorporated in February 2021, according to the Corporations Database of the Secretary of State's Office.

"It’s important to mention that Terra Incognita Partners is not some shadowy investment firm operating from afar," Osofisan said. "It is a one-man company and everyone I work with is from New Bedford. I am in the city every day surrounded by a diverse team of local tradespeople and design professionals, pursuing projects that present unique challenges."

He said that the property has a checkered past and has been labeled a "nuisance property" by the City of New Bedford since 2017.

"As New Bedford continues to experience a renaissance, high quality, sustainable, and attainable housing should be an important part of that equation," Osofisan said. "I believe that Elm Street has the potential to be a positive and transformative project and to be a part of the rising tide that helps lift all ships in the Whaling City."

According to the Bristol County Register of Deeds, other addresses owned by TI entities in New Bedford include: 1502-1508 Purchase Street, 81 Summer Street, 70 Orchard Street, and 141 Allen Street.

Citywide response to Elm Street evictions

Since news of the evictions broke earlier this week, community service entities county-wide have stepped up to the plate.

On Tuesday, the HOME Group held a meeting where Quigley spoke and multiple service organizations, including PAACA, PACE, South Coastal Counties Legal Services, and more, offered help.

"There is a sense of urgency here because if people don't know their rights and responsibilities there's a greater possibility for missteps," Carl Alves, director of PAACA, said at the meeting. "Our concern is that folks leave their apartment, don't understand what their rights and responsibilities are, will spend their money renting out a hotel" leaving nothing for a new home.

The group quickly went into action Wednesday when Catholic Charities set up nearby to give tenants the opportunity to seek services. Alves later said in an email that five of the tenants expressed interest in services.

Contact Kevin G. Andrade at kandrade@s-t.com and follow him on Twitter: @KevinGAndrade. Support local journalism and subscribe to the Standard-Times today!

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: 'Significant changes:' Deadline approaches for tenants in scramble