HUD Hears Rindge Towers Complaints

Meeting Wednesday with groups representing tenants at the Rindge Towers housing project, officials of the Boston office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said they were "shocked" to hear complaints about the possible illegality of the management's recent evictions and rent increases.

Linda Conroy, special assistant to the area manager of HUD, said that representatives of the Federal Management Company, which operates the housing project for the federal government, had told them in a meeting a week earlier that eviction proceedings against more than 50 tenants were "strong but justified measures to evict those who were not paying rent."

Three weeks ago Rindge tenants charged at a City public hearing before the Cambridge City Council that the evictions, many of which affect residents who say they have receipts proving rent payments, were racially motivated.

Management representatives denied these charges at a council meeting a week later, arguing that all eviction notices were served legally for failure to pay rent.

But after City Councillors David E. Sullivan and Saundra Graham charged Wednesday that the owner's actions might possibly run counter to state law and HUD regulations. HUD representatives agreed to investigate the issue once tenants file their grievances in a formal written report.

"If the things they're alleging are true, we'd have to take some action," Conroy said.

Sullivan said that the fact that HUD found the tenant-management conflict surprising "shows that they haven't been talking very much to the tenants this year." "He added that he was" not pleased by the hands attitude of HUD in these matters."

"The Department has a responsibility to protect the interests of tenants in these buildings," he said, "and I don't think they are doing that adequately."

Graham also said she felt that HUD has not been very helpful to tenants in the past, adding that "their main interest is recovering their investments."

HUD also agreed to extend the deadline for tenants to comment on rent increases scheduled to go into effect June 1. Many of the building's residents do not speak English, Graham said, and were unaware that the deadline had already passed.

Class Action Suit

In a related development, Gary Ness of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau said he filed a class-action complaint. Thursday on behalf of all tenants, seeking a preliminary injunction on evictions.

A hearing will be held Friday in supreme court on the tenant's suit.