Karen Hofreiter might credit her alma mater with teaching her a basic life lesson: everyone needs a home. The 23-year-old animal-shelter worker did not learn about the value of housing in classes at Boston University, from which she graduated last year. She learned about it this past spring, when she and fellow tenants in the BU-owned apartment building at 580 Comm Ave discovered they’d be evicted August 31. Explains Hofreiter, whose BU degree is, ironically, in economics, " I came at this thinking, ‘Rent control bad, free market good.’ Now I think, ‘You might own the building, but you don’t have a right to just uproot people.’  "

Hofreiter has since tried to press this moral argument — to little avail. After the eviction notices arrived in their mailboxes last April, she and 12 other tenants banded together to fight for their homes — their affordable homes. The 41-unit building consists of studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments that range in monthly rent from $450 to $800. Tenants " cannot afford to move to market-rate apartments, " Hofreiter says. " That’s like $300 more each month. " So the 580 Commonwealth Avenue Tenants Association wrote letters appealing to university officials. It staged rallies. It hosted forums. It even asked BU to meet with the group. So far, though, tenants say they’ve received one general response: you’re out of luck.

University spokesperson Kevin Carleton says that Boston University, which owns the property and assumed management of the building last year, has one reason for forcing out its tenants: the building requires serious repairs. " It needs a complete renovation, " he explains. The elevator has been declared unsafe, ceilings are collapsing, walls are caving in — " virtually anything you can imagine is wrong. " The work that must be done, he adds, is so extensive that the building cannot be occupied during rehabilitation.

Tenants readily admit the building needs lots of work. But they believe BU has failed to recognize the larger issue raised in the struggle to save their homes at 580 Comm Ave: the value of these affordable units to Kenmore Square. University officials have kept silent about their plans for the building, but tenants and their supporters — including the Fenway Community Development Corporation and Boston city councilors Mike Ross and Mickey Roache — suspect that officials will turn their backs on the community and reconstruct the building as a student dorm or classroom. " A large institution isn’t taking responsibility, " says Jethro Heiko, of the Fenway CDC. " Rather than preserve affordable units, BU prefers to destroy them. "

Yet Carleton insists that, if anything, BU is living up to its neighborly duty. " This building is a health and safety hazard, " he says. " It would be irresponsible for us to let tenants continue to live there. " But he also makes it clear the university isn’t terribly concerned about the loss of affordable housing. When asked whether BU is committed to keeping the building below market, he replies, " No.... We’re not about to rebuild it and absorb those costs. "

His answer won’t appease tenants, at least eight of whom expect to stay after their leases expire this Friday. Supporters have planned the first of several demonstrations at 580 Comm Ave for September 4. To hear them tell it, the university has a chance. It could still meet with the association; it could still commit to saving these below-market units.

Says Hofreiter, " BU is taking away affordable apartments when housing is in a crisis. Is that the face it should be portraying? "

Issue Date: August 30 - September 6, 2001