Posted Apr 18, 2018 at 2:13 PM
A coalition of community groups and unions are campaigning to ensure that a for-profit developer pays prevailing wages and uses union labor on a public-private partnership to rebuild the public housing at Clarendon Hills.
The for-profit developer, Redgate, along with non-profit developers Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) and Somerville Community Corporation (SCC),are planning to renovate Clarendon Hill Apartments in Somerville and build market rate units to pay for it.
Public-private partnerships like this are part of a trend in to finance the redevelopment of existing public housing. The developers seek to minimize costs by getting a pass on the state’s prevailing wage law.
“We agree that the residents of Clarendon Hill should reside in the best housing possible, and that high quality affordable housing in Somerville should be accessible to all,” said Jaril Gauthier, a sheetmetal worker and Somerville resident. “However, we are opposed to the notion of betraying one important mission for another, especially when a private interest stands to make tens of millions of dollars off this so-called public-private “partnership.”