Eviction filings in Lowertown rose for a third straight quarter even as citywide rent growth slowed to its lowest pace in years, according to court records reviewed by the Times, a divergence that housing advocates say reflects deepening strain in the neighborhood hit hardest by the past decade's factory closures.
Eviction filings against Lowertown tenants reached 412 in Wentworth County Superior Court over the past quarter, up from 337 during the same stretch a year earlier, according to court records reviewed by the Times. The 22 percent increase came even as the average asking rent across Bellwater rose just 1.8 percent citywide, the slowest quarterly pace recorded since the tech sector’s expansion took hold.
“If you only looked at the citywide rent index, you’d think the housing market was calming down,” said Gloria Reyes, executive director of the Wentworth County Legal Aid Society, which represents roughly a third of tenants facing eviction hearings in the county. “In Lowertown, it is doing the opposite. We are seeing more filings, faster timelines, and less ability for people to catch up once they fall behind.”
A neighborhood absorbing pressure from next door
Castillo and other advocates say the divergence reflects Lowertown’s position next to Foundry Row, where rents have climbed as biotech firms and startups reshape the neighborhood. Landlords in Lowertown, she said, have increasingly moved to convert long-term leases into shorter terms or month-to-month arrangements, both of which make it easier to remove a tenant who falls behind on rent rather than negotiate a payment plan.
City Council Member Terrence Boudreaux, who represents Lowertown, said the filings data confirms what he hears from constituents at nearly every office hours session. “People come in and tell me their rent didn’t go up that much, but their hours got cut, or a family member’s medical bills piled up, and suddenly they’re three weeks behind and getting a notice taped to the door,” Boudreaux said. He pointed to a pending lawsuit over affordable units at the Foundry District Lofts as evidence that promises tied to Foundry Row’s redevelopment have not reached the tenants who need them most.
Boudreaux said he intends to bring a reinvestment proposal to the full council in the coming weeks aimed at Lowertown specifically, an effort he described as separate from citywide housing measures that have focused on newer developments. “We can’t just regulate what gets built going forward,” he said. “We have to do something for the housing that’s already here and the people already living in it.”
Not everyone agrees the numbers point to a crisis unique to Lowertown. Frank Dalca, president of the Wentworth County Rental Housing Association, which represents roughly 140 small and mid-sized landlords, said filings do not equal actual displacement, since many cases are resolved before a tenant is removed. “An eviction filing is often the start of a negotiation, not the end of one,” Dalca said. “Landlords have their own costs rising, from insurance to maintenance, and filing is sometimes the only tool available to get a conversation started with a tenant who has stopped responding.”
I got the notice in the mail on a Tuesday and by Friday I had a court date. Nobody called me first. Nobody asked if I could work something out.
Latasha Byers, Lowertown tenant facing an eviction hearing next month
Latasha Byers, a 34-year-old home health aide who has rented a two-bedroom apartment on Delancy Street for six years, said she fell behind after her hours were cut during a slow stretch at the agency where she works. She has a hearing scheduled next month and said she has not been able to reach her landlord directly, communicating instead through a property management company that took over the building roughly a year ago.
Court data shows a shrinking window to respond
According to the Legal Aid Society’s review of court filings, the median time between an eviction notice and a scheduled hearing in Lowertown cases has fallen to 11 days, down from 19 days three years ago. Castillo said the compressed timeline makes it harder for tenants to secure legal help or emergency rental assistance before a judgment is entered against them.
- 412 eviction filings against Lowertown tenants over the past quarter, up 22 percent year over year
- Citywide average asking rent grew 1.8 percent over the same period, the slowest pace in years
- Median time from notice to hearing in Lowertown cases has fallen to 11 days, down from 19
Dalca disputed that shorter timelines reflect landlords acting in bad faith, saying state court rules, not landlord preference, govern scheduling. “If the courts are moving faster, that’s a court system question, not a conspiracy,” he said. He added that many of his association’s members have raised their own concerns about rising eviction filings, since turnover and vacancy periods cost landlords money as well.
City Manager Marcus Whitfield’s office said it is reviewing the eviction data as part of a broader look at housing stability programs funded through the city’s community development budget. A spokesperson said the city currently funds emergency rental assistance capped at three months per household, an amount Castillo said has not kept pace with the size of the gaps tenants are now facing.
For Byers, the numbers are less important than the calendar. She said she has picked up extra shifts in hopes of paying down what she owes before her court date, but is not confident it will be enough. “I’m not trying to get out of paying what I owe,” she said. “I just need a little time, and it feels like nobody in this whole process is set up to give me any.”
Boudreaux said he plans to invite both Castillo and representatives of the landlord association to testify when his reinvestment proposal comes before the council’s housing committee, arguing that any fix has to account for pressures on both sides of the ledger. “I don’t think most landlords in Lowertown are looking to push people out,” he said. “But the data says something is breaking down between a bad month and a courtroom, and we need to figure out what.”