Boston City Hall was the scene last Tuesday for a rally and public hearing packed by municipal workers who voiced their frustrations about the two-decades-old law that forces them to live in the Hub.
Soaring home prices and rents spurred nearly 200 city workers to protest Boston’s residency requirement last week.
Librarians, paramedics, firefighters, public works employees and other municipal workers packed City Hall for a rally and public hearing on Tuesday to voice their frustrations about the two-decades-old law that forces them to live in Boston.
One 64-year-old Boston librarian said she works part-time as a supermarket cashier and, after her husband’s death, was forced to sell her East Boston home despite having two jobs. While searching for an apartment she could afford, the widowed librarian saw affordable apartment listings in Revere and Lynnfield but couldn’t move there.
“I work 50 hours per week and still have trouble paying the rent,” she said.
Similar stories were repeated throughout the hearing, with many saying the residency requirement also poses obstacles for employers trying to recruit new workers.
The residency requirement was passed in 1976 to keep workers from fleeing the city during a tough economy when others were leaving Boston’s neighborhoods. The issue was re-enforced by city leaders in the mid-1990s.
Unions representing city workers want the law changed because they say Boston’s skyrocketing home prices and rents make it impossible to find housing they can afford.
They also argue the requirement is being enforced in an “inequitable” manner. Union contracts, for example, have different effectives, with some stating that workers hired before January 1998 must live in the city, and others citing a different year.
Union leaders are proposing a uniform date of Jan. 1, 1998, for the residency requirement. They also want employees who have reached their seventh year of city employment to be exempt from the rule, and want the city to set aside 1,000 units of rent-controlled apartments.
‘A Real Burden’
City Councilor Maureen Feeney, who ordered the public hearing, said she had “great reservations” about the residency requirement, but added that some of the proposed changes wouldn’t work.
The dates in contract agreements were the result of union negotiations that city leaders have no control over, said Feeney.
“We [city councilors] do not have the power to be at the collective bargaining table with you,” said Feeney, who represents Dorchester.
Also, by giving “preferential treatment” to workers who have been employed by the city for seven years or more, Feeney said the city would be forcing the lowest-paid employees – the least likely to be able to afford prices and rents in Boston – to remain in the city.
City Councilors Charles Turner, James Kelly, Brian Honan and Maura Hennigan said they supported residency requirement but were willing to re-examine the issue given the higher home prices and rents.
“As city workers we’re not among the highest paid, and housing can be a real burden for us,” said Honan.
A look at home prices shows why housing can be a burden for many low- and moderate-income residents.
The median price for a condominium in South Boston last year was $235,000, up from $162,900 in 1999, according to The Warren Group, parent company of Banker & Tradesman. For single-family homes in South Boston, the median price rose $30,000 in two years, from $209,000 in 1999 to $239,000 last year.
In East Boston, the median price for a condominium shot up to $113,000 last year from $79,900 in 1999. Median single-family home prices, meanwhile, rose $55,000 in two years – from $115,000 to $170,000.
Rents in some Boston neighborhoods have soared to $1,600 for a one-bedroom or two-bedroom unit, two times as high as what a city renter earning the median income can afford, according to the Boston Tenant Coalition. The group estimates that 42 percent of the state’s households pay more than 30 percent of their income for rent.
“I know that it is impossible to find an affordable rental or an affordable home,” said Hennigan.
Several city workers urged Boston banks to get more involved in helping municipal workers with zero-down-payment housing programs.
MassHousing has such a loan program in partnership with Plymouth Savings Bank and numerous other banks that helps full-time municipal employees in the communities where the banks have a branch.
