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Back in the 1990s, Roxbury and Dorchester residents pressured city officials to crack down on what many saw as a proliferation of rooming houses in the neighborhoods, complaining that homes that once housed families and long-term residents were being replaced with rent-by-the-week rooms that attracted transients, prostitution and drug dealing. Thirty years later, prospective rooming house operators face a battery of regulatory hurdles that make it almost impossible to open such an establishment. But, as the adage goes, what is old is new. City councilors Henry Santana and Liz Breadon on Oct. 22 filed a hearing order on single-room-occupancy dwellings — or SROs as they’re commonly known — seeking ways to expand the city low-cost housing stock. “The units are forms of permanent and affordable housing for thousands of Bostonians, but they have the untapped potential to house many more,” Santana said. “Over the years, the number of SROs has drastically gone down, due in large part to urban renewal policies, gentrification, and hostile zoning laws.” Santana said he wants to explore policies that could facilitate the creation of more SROs in Boston. There are currently 3,500 SROs operating in Boston, according to Santana, a decrease from the more than 9,500 that were operating in 1970, but more than the 2,000 that were operating in 1990. Few SROs are operated independently, offering rooms to all comers. Most are in operation to provide housing to specific groups, such as the buildings operated by Pine Street Inn, aimed at providing stable housing for formerly homeless people. In Roxbury and Dorchester, there is a high concentration of sober homes — rooming houses where people who struggle with addiction are often sent by judges as a condition of their release from incarceration. Because people suffering from addiction are protected under the Americans With Disabilities Act, sober home operators are able to open such facilities over the opposition of abutters. The proliferation of sober homes has contributed to an increase in the number of SROs in Boston. In contrast to the current crop of population-specific SROs, back in the 1970s and ’80s, rooming houses served low-income populations, single men and women, people exiting incarceration and others for whom paying rent by the month for a single room and a shared kitchen and bath made economic sense. That may also be the case today, says Mike Kozu, executive director of Project RIGHT, which serves the Grove Hall neighborhood in Roxbury and Dorchester. “There’s clearly a need,” he said. “You have a lot of young adults who are working and make too much to live in subsidized housing.” But, Kozu says, management of such units is key. “The question is, who has the capacity to run them,” he said. Kozu recalls the struggle Grove Hall residents undertook in the 1990s to shut down the poorly run, crime riddled rooming houses that proliferated in the neighborhood. “Enforcement takes so long,” he said. “It took us years to get them out of here.” Kozu and others in the Grove Hall area, where there are seven sober homes operating, say good management is key. “We know there are responsible SRO management teams and irresponsible ones,” said Connie Forbes, secretary of the Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association. In recent years, neighborhood residents pressed the city to crack down on problem sober home properties, many of which housed more than one person in each room — a violation of the city’s zoning code. Kozu said homes operated by nonprofits don’t always manage their residents well. “You have open drug use, a lot of late-night congregating, more car break ins and thefts around them,” he said.  The Dartmouth Hotel. (Yawu Miller photo) In Nubian Square, Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation, manages the Sargent Prince House and the Dartmouth Hotel, buildings with studio and one-bedroom apartments that house formerly homeless people. Interim Executive Director Evelyn Friedman says robust management is critically important for those properties. “Just a couple of people who are disruptive can upset the whole neighborhood,” she said. Nuestra staffs both buildings with live-in managers and social workers and around the clock security. “In order to do it right, you need to have services, security and a watchful eye,” Friedman said. Santana’s order for a hearing on SROs has not yet been scheduled, but it sparked interest. In addition to Breadon, councilors Gabriela Coletta Zapata, Sharon Durkin, Julia Mejia, Ben Webber and Brian Worrell have signed on. Breadon said that given city’s housing affordability crisis, everything should be on the table. “I think we have to look at every possible type of housing to address our housing crisis,” she said. “There's no one-size-fits-all.” This article originally appeared in The Dorchester Reporter.
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