e e e e e e e [Music] uh before we begin the program if anyone needs interpretation Haitian Creole or
Spanish their headsets on the back table so I just want to make sure that you know they are there great and if the elected officials and speakers could join us that would be great come into the shade why would we want to be in the sun
right good morning everyone uh for folks that don't know me and I think I know most of you my name is Sheila Dylan and I work for the city of Boston and I could not be happier than to be here today to kick off this one wonderful and
I would argue very very very historic day here in matapan the fairon apartments all 347 homes have been purchased by related affordable and will remain income restricted in perpetuity in addition the existing
tenants will never have their rent increased by more than 2% and the buildings will be well managed and invested in with critical Renovations starting immediately it's a new day it's a new day before I hand
over the speaking program I do personally want to thank a few very important people that are here today first and foremost the Falon tenant association and City Life you never ever ever gave up on this
I I'll confess there are days where I did I didn't show it but I did but you never ever did so thank you related affordable Kimberly Sherman stamler and her team they have worked so hard to make today a reality thank you so very
much the team at the mayor's office of housing Dan lesser Chris O'Keefe is here Rick but I think it's really important to take one one minute and thank Adam Goldstein I'm looking right at you Adam I don't think Adam has slept in
weeks as he's worked through every single detail and problem to get us here today so Adam thank you for your commitment to Falon our partner at the city BHA administrator Kenzie Bach I checked it last night there are 137 uh residents here that depend on
mobile section 8s from the BHA to pay their rent so the BHA is truly a very important partner here thank you Kenzie mty té and the staff at mhck mhck administers the Boston acquisition fund and the Fair Lawn Apartments is their
very first uh investment so cannot thank them enough and for all of the funders there there too many to mention I think the mayor may try but there they they put money in the fund to make Acquisitions like this possible so thank you so so much
our elected officials uh the mayor is going to mention them more but they have really every rally I went to every meeting with the tenants they have been here and they've called me repeatedly saying what is going on how can we be helpful what you know how can we make
this affordable how can we get new ownership so for years they have really worked alongside uh the mayor's office and certainly the tenants so thank you couldn't have better elected officials on this one and yep and finally our mayor mayor Michelle woo converting
these homes from a speculative asset to a safe and affordable Community was possible because the mayor has made historic investments in affordable housing you can't you can't be a player unless you have resources and because
the mayor pledged all of the arpa funding or most of the arpa funding that Boston received to make these Acquisitions possible is the reason that we are here today celebrating 100% affordable project so without further Ado I'm going to invite the mayor up
thank you please give a huge round of applause to the best housing Chief in the country Chief Sheila [Applause] Dylan thank you Sheila to you and your entire team at a time when there are so
many reasons to feel hopeless about the world it is so important that Boston continues to show that we are proof that if you never give up you keep just trying to bring people together and fight for the right things to happen for for people for families that we can make
a difference and I'm so grateful to everyone for your role in getting us here [Applause] today I yeah let's after the press conference we'll go do another rally just for fun fun here for for Old Time
sake um I am so thankful to stand shoulder-to-shoulder every day with elected officials and leaders in government um now having had a taste of what it's like in other places in the country concentrated in in my uh
experience in DC when I am home uh now that I can be out and about I am even more grateful for our city councilors our state representatives and senators and Community leaders and people who show no hesitancy whatsoever when
someone says that we have to do better so thank you to city council president ruy Luen thank you to state representative Brandy Fluker Reed to District councelor Enrique pepen and to all those who also have shown up time after time um and are
represented here in spirit thank you to our partners in the private and nonprofit sectors this is what Boston is about the Partnerships that make more possible so to Madame President of related Beal Kim Sherman stamler thank
you to your your team and for all your leadership to Gabrielle Renee who Champions housing affordability as a matapan organizer with City Life vaita orbana and of course of course Miss Annie Gordon and Miss Betty Lewis from
the Fair Lawn tenant association who have kept us in the fight for seven years and counting as you heard we are so excited to announce that all of the almost 350 units here at the fairon states will be
converted from market rate housing to permanently affordable housing the city of Boston is so proud to play a role in restoring faon as an affordable home because for decades these units were known that way an affordable place
to raise a family and take care of everything that your family needed but over the last few years especially the rent here was hiked up and up and up and families were forced out of faan out of matapan and out of the city of Boston
Miss Annie was one of the fairon residents facing eviction she's lived here for decades her son grew up here but she still had to go back to work rather than enjoy her well-earned retirement just to keep a roof over her
head we all know that the risk of rent hikes and the threat of eviction hang over every decision that families have to make is a groceries the doctors or just turning the heat up in the winter
it makes every lease signing a question of either finding the hundreds more dollars each month or digging up your roots and finding somewhere new to plant them starting over but rather than back down our Fair laon residents organized they turn to
the community and together they challenge the rent increases pushed for basic upkeep and quality of life improvements emailed and called your elected official over and over and over again thanks to your leadership your
resilience your strength that lives here right here at fairon you won I am so grateful to the fairon tenant association for leading this charge not only to keep these hundreds of families right here in the city where
they belong but for again being the example of what is possible if we just insist on being the best possible version of Boston that we can be now all that being said I love some fight but fights like this shouldn't
have to happen for our communities to stay together that's why all of us at the city have been working to preserve affordable housing where it exists and create even more where it is needed thanks to Chief Dylan and her team and all of our partners across the city over
the last few years we have built the most affordable housing in a generation in Boston we've cut permitting time for new affordable housing by more than 30% and are going to cut it by get to cutting it by nearly 50% by the end of the year we've secured more than a thousand
market rate units all across Boston made them permanently affordable 5 years ahead of schedule to the goals through the acquisition opportunity program and in December of last year launched a new Boston acquisition fund a public private partnership that will provide
low interest interest loans to those great developers who will turn market rate housing into permanently affordable housing just like we're seeing today the city is proud to support all of our residents here at Falon through a nearly $1 million investment $10 million
in the American Rescue plans approved by the Boston city council through the acquisition opportunity program and nearly a million through that Boston acquisition fund making Fair laon the first of many projects that we are excited to support and I want to shout
out as she mention I'm going to go through the roll call of all the investors who are here today who help support this Boston Children's Hospital Boston Medical Center Mass General Brigham the bar
Foundation the Boston foundation and and our fund administrator Massachusetts housing Investment corporation as you heard that roll call you might have thought well why why are all these hospitals being called out at a housing event it is because we live in
the best city in the world with the best healthc care in the world where our doctors and leaders recognize that housing is Health you need a safe healthy home in order to do everything else in your life
and thank you to related Beal City Life eer orbana fairon tenants Association for making sure that fairon is the best example of that we are going to keep working with our residents and Community organizers tenant associations and developers to make sure that housing remains affordable here and everywhere
in the city housing is a basic human right housing is a basic human right and we won't rest until every resident has an opportunity to find and be home here in Boston so um before I pass it over to
my colleagues uh to say a few words I am going [Music] to okay okay B alasa in faon in for in
gra um so thank you to everyone I'm going to just read the speaking program order and then everyone can kind of kick it to the next person it's taped up here so um next up is president Kim Sherman samler Then followed by Miss Gabrielle Renee then Miss Annie Gordon Miss Betty
Lewis and then um president Luis Jen rep Fluker Reed and uh councelor pipen all right Kim thank you good morning everybody thank you mayor woo and chief
Dylan um on behalf of related be I'm thrilled to be here today to join mayor woo the mayor's office of Housing and the fairon resident Community affordable housing is in our DNA related and for more than 50 years we have been committed to developing owning operating
and preserving affordable housing related currently owns and manages more than 61,000 affordable and Workforce apartments across the us including hundreds of hundreds of homes here in Boston and we know that housing affordability is an area where we can make a difference so in this opportunity
to transform fairon into % income restricted housing emerged we couldn't have been more excited Falon has a long Legacy of offering opportunities to matapan Residents giving people a chance to live within easy reach of all of the Career Education Health Care and Community Options that the city of
Boston provides our goal is to protect this Legacy and contribute to the economic health and well-being of the community of matapan and in the city overall by preserving the ability of current residents and future generations to live at faon
we also want to ensure that we are investing into your quality of life in the year ahead you will see improvements to individual units common spaces and core building infrastructure Transformations [Applause]
like Transformations like this one are incredibly complex and require countless hours of conversations collaboration and hard work from all parties they also depends on partnership and I want to express our many thanks to Mayor
[Applause] woo the mayor's chief of housing Sheila Dylan and her team everyone on our related Beal and related affordable team including Nick Bame Dave Pearson Patrick Barry and Daisha
Miller Community Partners including City Life Vita orvana [Applause] Senator Miranda representative fluka Reed council president Ruth Lee Louis Jun councelor Pepin and the elected officials who work so hard for this
community BHA administrator Kenzie Bach all of our financing Partners the team at win management who will continue to manage faon and finally and most importantly to the faon tenants Association and fairon residents
[Music] many of whom have called Fon home for decades we are thrilled to be with you in this exciting next chapter thank you I'm going to turn it over to Gabrielle [Applause] [Music]
re okay good morning everyone good morning uh good morning my name is Gabrielle I'm a community organizer with City Live Viana yeah yeah yeah and CD life with B has been in uh the organizing and helping and supporting
families since 1973 but I came to City Life in 2016 when I to was experiencing housing and security uh in 2018 when we heard about this um the DSF purchase we um the
tenants here um actually one of the first tenants who came to City Life for support was Miss Linda s Sinclair unfortunately she's no longer with us Miss Linda passed away last year but we have co-founded members here miss any
Betty and uh many you know yes they came in they they decided that you know the offer that uh DSF was giving them the offer to either pay up or Shipe out they didn't like that offer they decided to stand up and fight back I I am a fighter
yes I'm a fighter so I decided to come here as a community commity organizer with City Life I was asked to come here to support this community and I'm excited because after 606 years of fighting we are able to have the victory that we have today and and it's awesome because
housing just like the mayor just mentioned is a social determinance of Health housing is a human right and we believe that when we fight when we fight win and we fought and we won and we are so excited for the families here at Fon
but but you know what for me I'm not I'm not I'm not tired yet and I'm not I'm not I'm not where I need to be because I know they are families just outside of felon right now who are experiencing housing and security and we need to have something that could be that could help
them and I know that uh we've been fighting for a long time Katie is shaking her head because we've been fighting for a long time for R control you know when control would not only help would not have only helped the families here but also families throughout Boston and throughout the
state we need to have affordable homes we need to have H habitable homes because families cannot afford to be constantly having to be pushed out of the community that they love so much when the trend station came across the street after 20 years of people in the
community here fighting so hard I'm part of the community I remember folks in the community here coming to our church in the basement talking about we need the stop here at Fon at uh in matter happen the Blue Line stop but instead of getting the Blue Line stop and the
people here enjoying the blue line so many F I'm sorry the purple line the purple line stop yes the blue line that's another Victory but the purple line the purple line stop instead of getting that and the people here enjoying it so many families have been
displaced but the one who stood up and fought didn't get displaced and I'm so happy for them we need to have affordable homes and we need to have R control 1990 uh 994 I remember vividly when when control was voted against we
need to lift the B against you know we need to live the B and also too we have another legislation uh topa topa has been in the state house right tenant opportunity to Purchase Act we need to be able to have the right to purchase
our homes before a speculative investor comes to the community and try to push families out of the community you know I love manin but I love even more the people who are here miss and Betty they at my surate mothers I call
them miss any and bet I will Misha I call everybody that I love Miss especially older women because we believe that they've done so much work and they deserve to be in their homes I'm looking at Miss Margaret when I came here to tell everybody about the victory
that we are experiencing today she was already on her way out she had already signed a move out agreement after 22 years in her home housing is a human right housing is a human right and we need to have families like the families
who are in front of me here give them an opportunity to have uh to have a life and to not have a life to constantly having to worry about where I'm going to be if I'm going to stay in my community because when you don't know if you're going to stay guess what you don't get to build a community so I take my my
neighbor Mary for being here tonight because today because she knows that how important the community is for me and she knows how important neighbors are for me and she knows that I will continue to fight not only to stay in my home but I'll continue to fight to have everybody stay in their homes thank you
[Applause] good morning everyone morning my name is Andy I'm a tenant leader here at fairon uh tenant association along with my friends here and um I've lived here at
fairon for 50 years faon is my home matapan is my community I was one of the community members here in mat pan who advocated for a train stop in our neighborhood because we were unfair Aly disconnected
from the city excuse me after years of advocating for the train stop in 2018 we finally got the commuter rail across the street that should have been
great news for us but we hardly had a chance to celebrate it before a national in uh Investment Group DSF oh I'm sor sorry bought our buildings and rebranded it soar at the
te as in south mpan at the tea those cor corporate investors demanded huge rent increases we tenants could not afford they made it clear they wanted us out of these buildings DSF Corporation
wanted to profit off of our Sweat Sweat Equity and and hard work just to make more money and to uh invite a a I'm sorry I'm sorry and to attra attract
attract a different kind of Resident I'm sorry but we're here today because it didn't work we came together to form a tenant association and organized to stay in our
homes today we proudly say that our tenant organizing resulted in a major victory we we can stay in our homes and now 347
units uh in matapan are permanently affordable and rent controlled we w we want this to be a message to everyone across the city that when we fight we
win okay and get to my next page here the work wasn't easy it took six years of hard tiring and stressful days of fighting to stay in our homes and we should have never had to fight like that
to stay in our homes we know communities like mat pan should be able to have amenities like the commuter rail without being pushed out of our homes that's why I also want to take to talk about the need to cap the rent here
in Boston and throughout Massachusetts because rent control would have prevented six years of fighting in the first place residents in matapan Roxberry Brockton Fall River and people across
the states people like us should be able to help things like a public transit without fear of being evicted from their home and since I've lived here in Fairline for 50 years I was here when when we had
rent control and I saw firsthand the stability that it was in the community and the city and then I saw rent increase after it was taken away in 1994 now as most of us know and spec no
rents and speculations have gone absolutely out of control so we call on our state legislators to lift the ban on rent control and to pass the tenants opportunity to Purchase Act
which which would have also prevented this fight as well and having said that I would like to thank the mayor and the legislators our legislators for being here with us today and thank you to everyone for being here and for all your
support and uh I'll pass it to my neighbor Betty [Music] [Applause] now I got
it thank you thank you everyone for being here today my name is Betty and I live here at Fon state for 42 years plus years and I'm also a member of the tener
Association here um um along with Annie we fought when our neighbors we fought to keep our homes safe for everyone and keep us affordable but at no Prevail so I we
want to acknowledge the neighbors who no longer are with us and one they sister is our friend Miss Jenny who was sick and she couldn't afford her rent nor her insulin and so she's no longer with us and a lot of people that was here that
was part some was part of the tennis Association they left because they couldn't afford the rents and because all the condition that was going on here they said they wouldn't they didn't like it so they want to leave and find some placees I always wonder where those people went to where they where they
find housing at I always question why why don't you stand here and fight with us because if you fight we can win this and you know but that's okay we're here we're still here the ones that started are still here now we now we're happy about lady
Bill to purchase and um we just want to say that we want to work with you guys the management that you have over there we hope it's a good management because the one we had before was not not not getting good they was very rude to
people they would lock the doors on us cut off the lights they wouldn't even stay they you couldn't know even when they was in the in department so we was really in need of help and they wasn't there to help us to fix things they you know they talk to them about our rents
but they kept raising the rents my rent was so high that I excuse me that I couldn't afford it and like Miss Andy said we fought for six years to be here today and I'm so happy that we're here I'm so happy to see the faces here I'm
so happy to see the the people that stood behind us we we want to thank the people that was here that was helping us uh we had City life so with our city life I don't know where I would be or where we would be
because we they took us in they loved us and they told us how to fight and I also want to thank the people who backs we stood up on Whose shoulders we stood on to carry us through the people that went to Ries with us the people that was standing out there in the cold with us
you know it was freezing and we was out here rattling no matter who it was not even for for s for felon but for anybody that needed home we was right there fighting in cold and this place here our story is a victory it's not a
matter about manaan it's about all of Massachusetts the houses everything that's why we said Annie said we need the legislators to pass toppa we need legisl to pass the rent control bill because we need we need help people like Gabriel said there are people all over
the city all over the state that I need for help and we need to be the city need to stand up and help us because we who are going to help us we don't help ourselves and you guys have to stand up with us we cannot have you sitting there in the office and and making regulations
but you don't see the people that are out here that're losing their home they standing on the street we need your help to stay in our home we need you to pass the rent control bill to help us and we need that not yesterday we need it today and we need to TOA the ten opportunity
to purchase that because people need to know that we if they have someone to come in and buy the community they could also have a nonprofit organization put up the money to buy The Profit of the state let them stay in their home and I thank me woo for all the opportunities and everything that she's put in practice right now and it look sounds
really good but I'm praying that everything and no disrespect to you may wo I just pray that everything that you know been said here today is coming true and I thank everybody for being here I'm I'm I have I'm going on my own here I
have a list here but I can't go by that I have to take what I have to say from my heart you know so so as we all tell you about our neighbors and fellon we want to say to you please come out even those that wasn't here before we need you we need
you as a to help us join the tener Association and be a part of the fight for all of us not only for your home but for other people home and I like to thank everyone that's here uh I know that we are um in a victory right now
and I thank God for the victory I thank City Life I thank the mayor I thank the the housing store they Sheila Dylan Adam Steinberg I think all of them who are who fought so hard to get this approved and we needed this and I thank related
bill for Ping this property because we want to have a relationship with them and the people in the office because we cannot have our tenants being afraid to talk to them because of retaliation things need done things need to be done we need to be able to talk to them we need to have a communication between
related Bill and us the ten Association we need people to come together and we need to fight we need the the office managers just talk with us not shut us out because we are people we need a house we need a home it take take it
like it was you what would you do right you know you can't treat people any kind of way respect we give you respect we're not going to let you talk mess with us because we are people too and we deserve a [Applause]
home and I want to say one other thing city life thank the city life for help help us I want to thank the mayor mayor woo I want to thank all the people that are here the pressers for covering us for covering us all during the time we going through our troubles and uh also
want to thank the new honor and to thank to everyone and what we say when we go to a rally when we fight we win when we fight we win and we have won this today thank you very much [Applause]
good morning everyone it is a beautiful day in mapan literally and figuratively Miss Annie Miss Betty Manny thank you for all of your work and your efforts to make this possible this is your Victory this is
your Victory and you just took us along for the ride and so I just want to say thank you to you I want to say thank you to city life you know when DSF yes City Life I remember when we were going down you know we protested here in the cold during covid with masks on and I
remember City Life telling me we going on a Newberry Street I'm like we going shopping they like no that's where dsf's office is and we went down to Newberry Street and we were arguing we were fighting with them so you all persisted and made this happen when DSF bought this property in 2018 they put in their
press release the reason why this is a good good purchase is because it's Transit oriented housing but it's the transit oriented housing that you all fought for that you all deserve to reap the benefits of in the same way that Gabrielle was talking about the connectivity the for fighting for the
commuter rail I live right behind here technically in High Park but the commuter rail that we hear at night when we go to sleep that's our commuter rail that didn't have a stop there before but for the advocacy of so many here so I want to thank uh the mayor I want to thank Chief Dylan I want to thank my
colleagues who have been in this fight writing letters to DSF and standing with all of you I think this is a beautiful moment in housing Justice this is a beautiful moment that shows what people power looks like when we are intentional about using our dollars and putting
people before a profit it has been a joy to be on the city council working alongside the mayor to invest historic investments in housing in the acquisition opportunity program to say that we need to build Alternatives and we need to invest in Alternatives so I just want to thank everyone who's
involved in making today possible Madame President uh one Madam president to another thank you for your commitment to this community to I know related affordable will be a good partner because you have matap Pan's own Aisha here who cares deeply about this community right and so it matters when
we have people who are from our communities championing and fighting for us so just know that I am always here for y'all as a legislator and as a neighbor and as someone who cares deeply about making sure that matap pan is respected in the way that every every other neighborhood is respected we have a lot of black residents here we have a
lot of Haitian residents my my Haitian sister here and to the Haitian residents who are who live here V okay we have to join in the fight we need to participate to make sure that housing as the mayor has said as everyone has said is a basic human right it is not a commodity it is something
that everyone needs it's not a widget it's not a car it's not a chair it's something that we all need at tonight and so I just want to thank again all The Advocates all of my colleagues in government the mayor Chief Dylan this is a beautiful beautiful moment in matap pan and may there be so many more to come thank
you good morning everyone um for those who don't know me my name is Brandy Fluker Reed formerly Brandy Fluker Oakley um and I say that because I walked here today with my husband and he's the Dorchester kid so I have to tell him how much of a gym matapan is as a Matan native as someone who bought her
house in matapan whose mama still lives in matapan and will ride or die for matapan and so I live on the other side of blue laugh but thank you to the advocacy of the communter rail which I ride we cut straight through that platform came on down coming highway and I was telling him the story how this train used to go straight through pass
through our community like we didn't have to get downtown and go to work and doctor's appointments too and didn't stop for us at all and it was the advocacy of the residents that made it possible made it possible for me to ride the Fairmont line today made it possible for me to take a 10-minute walk from my house as opposed to cutting down reg
road coming around 20 minutes okay and it's because of your advocacy y'all may not know but today is Harriet Tubman's birthday and I say that yeah we're going to celebrate that but Miss Betty Miss Annie Manny our Ally y'all are our modern day Harriet
Tubman when I ran for office I said that our community knows what it needs to solve its problems we've been living here we've been going through it we know what we need often times what happens is the power Brokers don't listen to us or believe us when we say what we need and
I just want to say your advocacy the leadership the way you were able to Coral this crowd City Life for getting involved is a testament that we know what we need and if folks listen to us we can get what we need and do what's right so thank you thank you thank you for your leadership also want to acknowledge while we're the electeds
here when this fought when this fight started we had Senator Collins who always showed up and was there for Community also rep Dan Cullen who filed the TOA ACT first and foremost got it through the house and we are still fighting for it so I just want to acknowledge them even though white men get a bad rep these days they did their
part as it relates to housing and just also want to acknowledge that in the legislature we passed that Monumental housing Bond bill just last session and we continue to fight because we know that without housing we're not going to make it as a commonwealth so thank you for your leadership and enjoy this beautiful day to celebrate I now pass it to District 5
city counselor Enrique Pepin good morning everyone morning my name is Enrique pep and I have the honor of being your District councelor here in matapan and today I woke up and I said it's going to be a good day because we're going to be able to preserve housing in matapan make sure
that it remains affordable and when I thought about that I thought about why I even got into government in the first place because this is how my this is why I ran for office my family went through this when I was a child and I know that happens every single day in the city of
Boston and when I think about the residents of matapan which I'm looking at right now you guys are proud about matapan you guys are proud to make sure that this is still your home and you have an ally in me to make sure that it continues to be your home CU this is a
beautiful neighborhood and you all you all deserve to make sure that you were able to afford to stay here and everyone's mentioned in that commun rail it is because of the residence and it will be the first electric Comm Uno in the state of
Massachusetts shout out to the state legislator for that listen um when it comes to priorities in the city of Boston affordability is the number one issue affordability is Health it is what is going to continue to allow families to call Boston home and it is the number
one priority in the city in the city of Boston in the city council I will continue to vote for any grants that will push for affordability in city of Bon thank you all for having me here today congratulations to the matapan residents take care [Applause]
do any of the journalists here have questions for um any of the folks up here or our amazing tenant leaders for you know I was here 60 years ago I look so daunting I felt so sorry because I I felt very strongly 6 months
lat you wouldn't be here tell talk about how persevering what it means what it accomplishes and that's exactly what you guys did thank you um first of all it it was a a really hard fight as I said but then
we were determined that um as as the leg um Miss Reed said we knew we know what we need and we knew what the community needs so we fought for that and then in my opinion there are um disabled people
here older people like myself living on fixed incomes and there are mothers families young families single mothers and all of these people have at some point or have to now work two jobs that to be able to pay that rent so in that
sense it was it was just something that had to be done and uh I'm just so over the moon right now that we were able to to uh be successful at it and I'm very proud of all my f of community members of in fairon here a det tenant
association that work with us very hardly to get this done so we are all very very elated at how it turned [Applause] [Music] out okay let's take a big group picture with everyone who had a role in this
thank you so much for coming e e