• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • 5 DOUBLE-U’S
    • MASTHEAD
    • DISTRIBUTION
    • ADVERTISE
    • SUBMISSIONS
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • Close
  • BECOME A MEMBER

Dig Bos

The Dig - Boston's Only Newspaper

READ CURRENT STREET ISSUE

DIG Year End 2020

FREE RADICAL: WHEN THEY FIGHT, THEY WIN (CITY REALTY EDITION)

Written by EMILY HOPKINS Posted December 1, 2014 Filed Under: News, NEWS+OPINIONS

FreeRad_RealEstate

CRM Property Management, widely known as City Realty, agreed to a settlement on Tuesday after only two days in housing court. The case dealt with the treatment of their tenants, Lucky Ormorodion and his family, whose foreclosed home was bought by the company in 2012. The settlement includes $20,000 in damages and legal fees awarded to Lucky, as well as a one-year lease with up to five years of autorenewal at a 3 percent rent increase. Bottom line: Lucky keeps his home, and there’s very little City Reality can do to change that.

 

In court, the brutal mismanagement of Lucky’s home and possessions resurfaced. As reported in DigBoston, in June 2012, Lucky’s then-pregnant wife Susan was home alone with her two young children when she heard somebody moving things. Upon investigation she discovered three men who said they were from City Realty and had received instructions to clear all of the items from the basement. Confused and concerned, she asked repeatedly what they were doing. The men told her that they had permission—she believed they said the fire department—to clear the basement. Distraught, she returned to her kids and waited.

 

Lucky and Susan never saw their stuff again. Among the missing items: marriage and naturalization certificates, hardware equipment, and her wedding dress. On Tuesday, tears surfaced as Susan described the gown—her church at the time threw a bridal shower to help her buy the dress. She says she planned on giving it to one of her daughters.

 

Lucky’s plight has some idiosyncratic tangents—most complaints against City Realty, for one, don’t involve thousands of dollars worth of missing property. But at its core, this is merely one case on a list of City Realty transgressions that many tenants, and particularly local housing nonprofit City Life/Vida Urbana, have been fighting. City Realty’s business model is to gobble up foreclosed homes, renovate them, raise the rent, and turn a profit. It’s simple house-flipping, unless you consider that many of these properties have tenants. In Lucky’s case, he was told to pay hundreds of dollars more than what he’d previously been paying.

 

Lucky’s is just one of many cases being brought against City Realty. In the next few months, Greater Boston Legal Services and Harvard Legal Aid, which both provide legal counsel and advice to members of City Life/Vida Urbana, will bring cases to court, and there’s also the recent victory of Ray Fernandes to consider. Ray was close to buying back his family’s house out of foreclosure, but City Realty snatched it out from under him for only $3,000 more. Like Lucky, Ray settled his case, and will stay put.

 

Finally, City Realty has become a notorious household name in Boston’s slumlord landscape. At a hearing on October 20 called by City Councilor Tito Jackson, tenants, activists, and city officials lambasted the realty group, accusing its CEOs of disrupting communities to turn a profit. In June, for example, CEO Fred Starikov told Jamaica Plain residents that bedbugs were in fact an STD, though his point in saying this can only be inferred since the crowd would not let him continue. And let’s not forget the time a City Realty employee landed on the front page of the Metro flipping off a group of housing activists and tenants. Come to think of it, that may have been the most sincere and authentic interaction they have ever had with the public.

 

 

FURTHER READING

WILL BOSTON HELP LEAD THE COUNTRY OUT OF FORECLOSURE?

THIS IS CITY LIFE TERRITORY

FREE RADICAL: SLUMLORD MILLIONAIRES

TROUBLE ON THE HOMEFRONT

DEFENDING BOSTON’S RAPIDLY SHRINKING CHINATOWN

BETWEEN A SHACK AND A FAR PLACE

CHINATOWN UNDER SIEGE

EMILY HOPKINS
More from author
  • EMILY HOPKINS
    https://digboston.com/author/emily-hopkins/
    A DEPARTURE: AFTER FOUR YEARS OF BLISTERING COLUMNS, A FREE RADICAL CHANGE
  • EMILY HOPKINS
    https://digboston.com/author/emily-hopkins/
    PAST INCARCERATION: REMEMBERING CHARLESTOWN'S FORGOTTEN PRISON
  • EMILY HOPKINS
    https://digboston.com/author/emily-hopkins/
    WHY BOTHER? ON RENEWING URBAN RENEWAL IN BOSTON.
  • EMILY HOPKINS
    https://digboston.com/author/emily-hopkins/
    THE THIN BLUE PAYWALL

Filed Under: News, NEWS+OPINIONS

WHAT’S NEW

DEAR GLOBE READERS LAUNCHES AS PUBLIC INFORMATION CAMPAIGN

DEAR GLOBE READERS LAUNCHES AS PUBLIC INFORMATION CAMPAIGN

SOULDIER STORY: JOEL MASSICOT ON MIXING MARTIAL ARTS, DANCE, AND MILITARY INFLUENCES

SOULDIER STORY: JOEL MASSICOT ON MIXING MARTIAL ARTS, DANCE, AND MILITARY INFLUENCES

THE END OF THE WORLD IN AN AIRBNB

THE END OF THE WORLD IN AN AIRBNB

MEETING THREATS WITH HOPE AND COURAGE

MEETING THREATS WITH HOPE AND COURAGE

TITANIC SHIFTS: DEMS SWAP DECK CHAIRS AMIDST GOP-PROVOKED TSUNAMI

TITANIC SHIFTS: DEMS SWAP DECK CHAIRS AMIDST GOP-PROVOKED TSUNAMI

NEARLY A YEAR INTO PANDEMIC, MASS CATS ARE STILL SHORT ON FOOD

NEARLY A YEAR INTO PANDEMIC, MASS CATS ARE STILL SHORT ON FOOD

Primary Sidebar

HEMPIRE FREEDOM PACK 25% OFF

FEATURED EVENT

Most Popular

  • APPOINTED SOMERVILLE OFFICIAL SPURS OUTRAGE WITH TWEETS FROM DC MOB SCENE by MARC LEVY
  • Aerial View Parkman Bandstand at Boston Common. CC BY-SA 4.0 2017 by AbhiSuryawanshi. NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 PROTEST ON BOSTON COMMON, 4 PM by MATTHEW ANDREWS
  • VIDEO: COP WHO BRAGGED THAT HE HIT PROTESTERS SHOWS HOW BAD APPLES THRIVE IN BOSTON by CHRIS FARAONE
  • PRISON HORRORS BY THE NUMBERS by SARAH BETANCOURT
  • IT’S HARDER THAN EVER TO FIND A BATHROOM IN BOSTON. WHAT’S THE CITY DOING ABOUT IT? by ZACK HUFFMAN

READ CURRENT MEMBER EDITION

DIG Member 1.9 – 11/26/20

READ CURRENT STREET ISSUE

DIG Year End 2020

Footer

digbos

BETTER #BOSTON #ARTS: JAINA CIPRIANO. “The solut BETTER #BOSTON #ARTS: JAINA CIPRIANO. “The solution lies in collaborative spaces.” https://digboston.com/better-boston-arts-jaina-cipriano/ #bosarts #artist #interview #future #vision @CiprianoJaina #Massachusetts #coronavirus #COVID19
“It started as a vision I had while listening to “It started as a vision I had while listening to the song over and over again during the early stages of the quarantine.” https://digboston.com/the-quins-talk-making-awesome-videos-in-quarantine/ #interview #video #music #art #arts #Boston #Massachusetts #coronavirus #COVID19
“We were all caught pretty off guard when the pa “We were all caught pretty off guard when the pandemic hit, but I think that using the resources that we have available to us we have been able to meet the demand at every step.” https://digboston.com/handling-the-herd-how-boston-built-its-massive-covid-testing-apparatus/ #politics #Boston #Massachusetts #coronavirus #COVID19
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker started the new year Republican Gov. Charlie Baker started the new year by vetoing a sweeping #climate change bill. https://digboston.com/titanic-shifts-dems-swap-deck-chairs-amidst-gop-provoked-tsunami/ #politics #news #Democrats #GOP #Boston #Massachusetts #USA #veto
“Trump was voted out. However, this is not a man “Trump was voted out. However, this is not a mandate for #Biden and #Harris.” https://digboston.com/photos-recap-no-honeymoon-for-biden-rally-in-boston/ #photo #rally #march #left #protest #inauguration #Boston #Massachusetts
OPINION: IS DISSENT ANTI-NATIONALISM OR PATRIOTISM OPINION: IS DISSENT ANTI-NATIONALISM OR PATRIOTISM? #Boston #protest for Indian farmers, Saturday 1/23/21, 12-1 pm at the #Massachusetts State House https://digboston.com/opinion-is-dissent-anti-nationalism-or-patriotism/ #India #politics #food #farmer #protest #justice #solidarity @monica_gill1
HOW ONE MASS TOWN TOOK EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TO A HOW ONE MASS TOWN TOOK EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TO APPEASE A CONTROVERSIAL COP https://digboston.com/no-justice-how-officials-in-one-mass-town-took-extraordinary-measures-to-appease-a-controversial-cop/ #ArlingtonMA #police #reform #cop #racism #controversy #BlackLivesMatter #Massachusetts
Ghost kitchens simply don’t have a need for host Ghost kitchens simply don’t have a need for hosts, servers, bartenders, bussers … What happens to those #jobs if virtual kitchens continue to flourish? https://digboston.com/ghost-story-virtual-kitchens-appear-to-be-the-next-big-thing-but-at-what-cost/ #restaurant #labor #work #Boston #Massachusetts #coronavirus #COVID19
“I don’t think we’re going to wake up on Jan “I don’t think we’re going to wake up on Jan. 7 in the same country we went to bed in on the 6th.” https://digboston.com/former-mass-gubernatorial-candidate-predicted-violence-before-assault-on-capitol/ #politics #Massachusetts #national #Capitol #WashingtonDC #MAGA
RADICAL AND RELEVANT: THE LIFE OF HARRY BRILL http RADICAL AND RELEVANT: THE LIFE OF HARRY BRILL https://digboston.com/radical-and-relevant-the-life-of-harry-brill/ #obituary #organizer #radical #sociologist #democracy #politics @UMassBoston @BklynCollege411 @UCBerkeley #Boston #Massachusetts #NewYorkCity #Berkeley #California
Load More... Follow on Instagram
Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Submissions

Advertise

Privacy Policy

Customer Service

Distribution

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an e-mail blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: [email protected] To reach Editorial: [email protected] For internship opportunities: [email protected]