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Four Somerville girls presented their views on rising rents and gentrification in the city to the City Council at their latest meeting last Thursday.
By Jennifer Grimes
The first to address their agenda to the Somerville City Council on May 23, were four middle school girls. Emily Aravalo, Maria Benavides, Seline Pierre, Leiosha O’Conner-Vital and Aidsa Rivera Arias stood courageously together at the podium, with a poster board in tow, to speak on behalf of those in their community who are struggling with the rising rents.
Though young, they were very clear: the rents in the Somerville neighborhoods are rising and one of the major factors contributing to this problem is the extension of the Green Line.
The girls went on to talk about the role their school played in the choice to advocate for their community. As a part of the Program Citizen Schools the four girls were able to join a group called Actives Art. “We talk about real world issues and put them into art to shine more light on them,” Pierre said.
After they chose to tackle affordable housing and the gentrification affecting many close friends and community members of Somerville, the girls took a poll. Aidsa gave the City Council members the information her and her friends collected, “90 percent of parents fear the rise in rent” while “60 percent of parents are worried about becoming homeless.”
For these girls it is a concern, one that could push families out of their homes and into the streets. Some of them spoke about how it felt to lose a friend at school because of the price tag on their homes. The unaffordability is forcing families to leave their community and their children to relocate schools.
Benavides said, “Our goal is to increase the affordable housing in Somerville.” In doing so these girls are using their creativity and their voices to advocate for their community. The Somerville City Council members applauded the girls for their bravery and activism. They did not say what they planned to do in order to lower the prices of housing, but they thought the topic that the girls brought up at the meeting was definitely one worth advocacy.
Infographic depicting the effects of gentrification in Somerville presented at last week’s City Council meeting.
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I appreciate the enthusiasm of these young people to talk about problems that affect them, their families and their peers. The challenge with housing is that it is regional and Somerville on its own can do nothing to have a significant impact on housing costs. However regional initiatives can. Consider requiring colleges and universities house all students in dorms (including grad students). A complete stop in all state and to cities that do not meet new housing goals. Improving commuter rail service to our own rust belt cities: Brockton, Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River.
Enough of half measures.
It’s great that young people are becoming aware of this issue, but if nobody is listening to the adults here, it’s not likely anyone will listen to them, either, unless they’re able to pay rent or buy a house and and choose not to. The only way prices will go down here is if either people stop coming here to live, or keep moving away.
The problem at the moment seems to be that the ones either choosing not to live here or the ones moving are those who can’t afford to live here, leaving it open for the well-to-do to fill those open spaces and making it even harder to find affordable housing.
“Gentrificatiion” doesn’t mean improving a city; it means increasing its value so that only upper-class people can afford to live there. Can anyone provide an example of how gentrification ever improved living conditions for an existing population without forcing them to move out?
The City can tell us all they want that they are trying to improve affordability. It doesn’t change the fact that they are the ones that decided to make housing costs too high for the average person to be here in the first place.
Somerville has lost its charm for me. It’s now become that particularly successful person who rose up from poverty and thinks they’re too good for those they left behind, instead of making it a point to help where they came from.
Live somewhere you can afford. The end. Somerville is expensive. But it’s not the only city in Massachusetts or the US.