Time to take Echo Village by eminent domain
“There is a housing crisis deepening in Amherst. We’ve all been reading about the student housing problems and how that situation is causing local and out-of town landlords to buy up any existing homes they can and convert them into student apartments. One of the outcomes of that practice occurs when affordable housing is either bought in order to house students at a much higher profit than with the existing affordable housing status or affordable housing units are legally transformed into “market rate” units.
The purchase of Echo Village by the Cherewatti family this year is an example of the former practice and the conversion of Rolling Green by the owners (a corporation headquartered in Chicago) the latter. The result: 66 units that have been lived in by families who can’t afford the market rate in Amherst are becoming unaffordable to them.”
Gutting, Kevin. Gazettnet.com 1 October 2013.