Tenants, Management allege harassment in Stoneham complex
Published on August 11th, 1999
STONEHAM, MA - Providing for others is honorable, but not often easy. Bob Veazie wants to take his 60- year-old mother into his family's home, a Section 8 (subsidized) town house in the Mountain View Terrace Apartments off Montvale Avenue.
Mountain View Terrace Property Manager Ann Danley wants to maintain the quality of Veazie's property and the nearly 200 other units in the complex.
Danley lives on site — by choice — and is an employee of the Tambone Management Corporation, which manages the property for a limited partnership of private owners calling themselves 7th AP.
Last week Veazie asked Danley if his mother could stay with him, and she said no.
Danley told Veazie if his mother was not out by Friday, Tambone would begin court action against his family to evict them.
Tambone Corporation President Anthony Tambone did not return phone calls.
The threat of eviction and other disagreements between the Veazie family and Danley, such as an argument over using a lawn sprinkler to cool off, have led the Veazies to circulate a petition among tenants alleging harassment and asking management to fire Danley.
As of Friday there were 17 signatures on the petition.
According to Housing and Urban Development officials, the Veazies could theoretically have up to six people in their three-bedroom unit, depending on square footage requirements detailed in the public health code (70 square feet of bedroom space for one person and 50 square feet for every additional person).
Danley did not know the square footage offhand but said this would be checked as part of a formal application process.
Bob, his wife Dawn, son Matthew, eight, and daughters Tattiana, 10, and Shawna, 5, are the only names on the existing lease with the Tambone Corporation. Bob's mother, Terri Johns, would make six. But a young nephew, Jay, was also living with the Veazie's for a short period.
When Danley said Johns could not stay, according to Danley, she did not know the nephew was going.
Veazie said his nephew is leaving, and he wants his mother to stay as the legal sixth resident of the unit. He said the square footage meets the regulations.
Danley said, and Veazie did not deny, that the mother and nephew were both in Veazie's home as of Friday in violation of the lease.
"I cannot throw my mother out in the street," Veazie said. "She was with my brother, but he lost his house, so she needed a place to stay all of a sudden."
But, the lease reads, "The resident agrees...To request and obtain written permission from the management in advance of any increase in household size for reasons other than the birth or adoption of a child, submitting at the time of the request a revised application for residency, including the proposed new household member(s). Failure to obtain such permission from Management shall be sufficient grounds for Management to terminate this Agreement..."
"I told him to find her a room or to put her in a homeless shelter temporarily," Danley said.
Veazie was uncomfortable with the options, questioning the safety of such housing for his aging mother.
However, a final option may exist for the Veazies, besides shipping off mom.
"If they were to submit a proper written application with her (Terri Johns) name on it, calculating for her earnings, it would be reviewed for eligibility," Danley said.
Rental rates are set according to earnings in Section 8 subsidized housing, so Johns' income potential would be a factor readjusting what the family would owe each month.
On Friday Veazie said he was going to file a written request to add his mother to the lease.
On Tuesday, Aug.10, Johns said that the application would be in by the end of the day.
She is still in the apartment.
However, the Veazies are not withdrawing their petition.
Danley allowed the Veazies to defer payments owed as a result of a retroactive rent increase resulting from a recalculation of Bob's earnings from a job he held before leaving work due to a fall in a supermarket.
She allowed the nephew to stay when he needed a place. She did not take action while the home was temporarily over-housed after Johns found herself suddenly out of her former home.
And Danley did not act to evict the Veazies this time, granting them the option to go back and formally ask for what they had done already in violation of the lease.
"I think their petition is a form of harassment," Danley said. "But I am not going anywhere."
No one seems to be going anywhere for now. After a weekend of discord all is very similar to how it was last week. A property manager running a tight ship and a man looking out for his mother are still doing just that.
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