In another time, a visit by the state housing secretary to an affordable apartment complex in the throes of being dismantled by a developer seeking to cash in on the commonwealth’s high price of housing would be cause for at least some measure of hope and solidarity.
AYER State Housing Secretary Ed Augustus visited with the embattled tenants of Devenscrest on Tuesday morning to both listen to their concerns and communicate how the state could support them.
It has been more than two years since Brady Sullivan Properties, an out-of-state real estate investment company with a troubling history, purchased 110 rental homes at Devenscrest in Ayer – and immediately sent eviction notices to some of the tenants and said it intended to displace the rest.