Due to an agreement made with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Northeastern students living in certain apartments on Hemenway Street are being forced to vacate their housing by Jan. 1.
The number of students living in those apartment buildings went over a number agreed upon with the city. Northeastern had no choice but to ask students living at 142-148 Hemenway St. to move between semesters to either Coventry or Douglass Park.
“Over a period of time the question came up about whether we continued to be in compliance [with the agreement] and when that question was raised we worked with the city,” said Bob Gittens, vice president in the Office of Government Relations and Community Affairs. “There was a need to make sure we were in compliance with that as quickly as possible.”
The agreement, which was approved by the Boston Board of Appeals in 1983, stated that in order for Northeastern to move students into the Hemenway Street apartments, they must also keep affordable, low-and-middle-income housing available in those buildings.
“That agreement says that there will be seven affordable units available to members of the community who qualify as low-income and eight affordable units for moderate-income households,” Gittens said.
After a protest by the Fenway Community Development Corporation (Fenway CDC) and surrounding neighborhood members in front of the buildings on Aug. 31, Northeastern began conversations with the city to make 15 units of affordable housing available.
On Nov. 1, Greta Merrick, a sophomore graphic design major living in 142 Hemenway St., received a phone call saying she and her three roommates were being asked to move out of their apartment and into Coventry, the brand-new residence hall on Coventry Street.
However, Nov. 1 was the same day as the deadline to get their housing deposit back for next semester. The roommates, all sophomores, had no time to ponder the possibility of moving off campus and felt pressured to accept the available housing, Merrick said.
“We were given the choice to leave [on-campus housing] if we wanted, I just thought it was really suspicious that they waited ’till the last minute,” Merrick said.
Marina Iannalfo, associate dean of housing services, said she contacted the students as soon as she heard they were going to have to relocate.
“The conversation started at the end of August or early September but we really weren’t sure when it was going to come into effect,” Iannalfo said. “We didn’t know if it was going to be Jan. 1 or June 1, and the day we found out it was going to be Jan. 1 was the day we contacted the students.”
One of Merrick’s roommates, pharmacy major Katie Hall, wrote a letter to Housing Services in a protest against being pushed to make a decision they were not ready for, and their deadline to get the deposit back was extended to Dec. 4.
“There was the deadline to get your deposit back [Nov. 1]. We didn’t have any time to think about if we wanted to stay or go off campus,” Hall said.
Iannalfo said most of the students were being moved into Coventry and Douglass Park because available vacant rooms could house groups of students without splitting up roommates. The students will pay only what they were originally paying for their Hemenway Street apartments, even if their new housing would have been more expensive, Iannalfo said.
Although the girls are scheduled to move into their new room in Coventry between semesters, they are still shaken by the events and resent the fact they were not informed sooner.
“I was honestly a little mad because I knew they already forecasted there was going to be problems with [the building situation],” said marketing major Sarah Desilets. “Even [if they thought they could get the extension and] were going to have to move us out in May, the entire housing year is September to September. [The university] should have said something — it’s an inconvenience.”
Iannalfo said as far as she knows, all 29 students asked to move have been assigned new housing and the university is making attempts to help the students transition smoothly, such as offering the university moving company’s services.
Merrick said although she appreciates the university’s efforts to assist them, she wishes she had been informed about the problem sooner.
“I just feel like the best thing they could have done was to tell us earlier,” she said.
