4 ms·
> [T]here's a fight going on > in Somerville...to allow more > than four unrelated individuals > to share a house. And they're > facing fierc
by jt2190 11y ago
> [T]here's a fight going on
> in Somerville...to allow more
> than four unrelated individuals
> to share a house. And they're
> facing fierce resistance.
As they should. The solution is not to cram 17 students into a house. The solution is to build more housing. Boston is full of slumlords who gouge students, landlords who resist new development because it would force them to provide decent living conditions at a reasonable profit.
- wcummings 11y agoThe law is Boston reads "4 unrelated undergraduates". The fight is to change the language in Somerville to match (it reads "4 unrelated persons" now). It's about allowing found-families and co-ops, not students.
- jt2190 11y agoSome landlords want to remove any limit on number of tenants occupying a single unit, related or not. [1] [1] http://somerville.wickedlocal.com/article/20160127/NEWS/160126306 http://somerville.wickedlocal.com/article/20160127/NEWS/1601...
- maxander 11y agoIndeed, the ideal solution would be to build more housing in the places and price-points where they're so in demand- but that's a large material effort. Lifting the 4-people restriction would just require the town government to stop actively trying to make life difficult for people. And its also true, this kind of rule exists for a reason- in my experience, the sardine-student-housing lifestyle stops being fun at about 8 or 9 people to half as many bedrooms. But I guarantee you that Somerville is already full of such situations, and they're all much worse off because they're illegal- these people's landlords can get away with anything, because if their tenant's complain to the town everyone living in the building will get evicted.