A Housing Solution for Needham: MOVE TO EVICT!

NEEDHAM, MA -  The Needham Housing Authority (NHA) has devised a new innovative solution to the problem of the paucity of affordable housing in the Town.  This is so easy, it is brilliant.

Here it is.  If you are a landlord, a developer, or a housing authority in a wealthy town that wants to convert public assets to private management, then, in order to create more units of housing, supposedly, for the homeless and the needy, what you can do to make room for more tenants, who can pay,  is simply evict the current tenants, who cannot.   More housing, more income.  Its brilliant.

Of course, it doesn't make perfect sense.  But eviction, as a form of housing management, doesn't make much sense either, unless you are a bully Town and a landlord that would kick an old man out, onto the street, rather than try to solve the problem.

The problem for Joseph Amrhine, 73, a tenant of public housing in Needham, is that on 10:00 AM Monday July 14, 2025 he was evicted from his Chambers Street apartment, after three years of bungling indifference in the courts and with the landlord.   Its been a cavalcade of incompetence and disappointment. 

In Joseph's case, he was on the waiting list for two and a half years, during the pandemic, before moving into his new home in public housing.  For his three years, as a tenant, he has never been financially stable and he admits to disabilities in his physical and mental health, for which he is getting treatment and counseling.  Unfortunately, his 16 unit apartment building has been rife with what the cops call "neighbor trouble."  This situation is one that all the residents are attempting to survive.  

The Housing Authority cannot seem to own up to its part in creating and maintaining an unhealthy social environment.  And Joseph is not always shy and quiet about expressing his anger and frustration at the hand fate has dealt him and his cohort.

Unfortunately,  NHA tends to take a situation and make it worse.  When one of Joseph's advisors went to the NHA offices to talk with the Executive Director, on Joseph's behalf, somehow, somewhere, between the NHA office, Joseph's friend, and Joseph, himself, his legal papers got lost.

Similarly, at Housing Court in Canton, a set of photographs, showing the condition of the apartment, were not seen by the judge, which, when this was pointed out, the case was, in effect,  sent back and reopened for further review.   The original judge, of course, did not appreciate that his rulings were questioned.

In the end, Joseph's capacity to handle the criminal charges, the eviction, his health, and his emotional state were brought into consideration, in Court, but almost informally, and by chance.  The fact is that proper legal counsel could have been provided.   Essentially, through multiple proceedings, he was never fully appraised of what he was agreeing to, and, in fact, what the heck was going on.

As an aside...

One egregious instance of a lack of legal aid for a tenant, which is to say, poor, or no, legal advice, was the Elderly Housing tenancy at Linden Street of Trecina Burnett, who was a trans woman, or, at least, a cross-dressing man, who, without benefit of counsel, admitted to charges of lewd behavior brought against her by the Needham Police, all of which, then impacted her status, as an acceptable applicant for a place in public housing.  She was told, informally, on extra judicial occasions, and, in a clearly threatening manner, that she was going to be evicted.  She was concerned and distressed, according to neighborhood confidants, about her housing prospects, and the stress, no doubt, contributed to the cardiac arrest that killed her, in 2023, at age 67.

Regarding the prejudice against men who are angry, I am, personally, not afraid of an angry man, unless, of course, he's coming at me with a weapon and I cannot get away.  I am more afraid of women who talk about a man behind their back in ways that will ruin his reputation and get him evicted.

Specifically what scares me is the woman in Joseph's building, who is a functioning alcoholic, who knows how the criminal justice system works, and who, if you believe it, has falsely accused him of a supposedly violent attack against an elderly grandmother, Nina Salapatas, who died in 2024 at age 90.  The incident never went to court and there's no apparent police report, but the character assassination persists with the rumor mongers.  This prejudice has colored the processes and procedures used against him.