Eviction of YW Boston resident, 75, shapes documentary, campaign

Her youngest son, Sian-Pierre Regis, a journalist in New York, decided to fight and make a documentary about his mother’s fate. YW Boston’s mission, as the organization is now called, is “to eradicate racism, to empower women,” he says. It’s written on a plaque on the building. Evicting his aging mother, who had raised two black children there, he said, was “against her mission in the most real way.”

It’s also inhuman, said Regis, who moved when he left for college in 2002: “They tried to get rid of a 75-year-old woman without caring what would happen next.

Regis’ documentary “Duty Free” airs on PBS Monday night as part of its Independent Lens series (and can be streamed online and through the app for free through December 21). The film, which was screened in theaters in May, Much of the focus is on her and her mother’s journey to fill her bucket list while she is unemployed, and addresses age discrimination and the financial needs of older people. But behind Danigelis’ impending eviction from the YWCA building looms the overwhelming need for affordable housing for seniors, especially in high-cost places like Massachusetts.

Statewide, nearly 64% of single women and nearly 56% of single men over 65 are economically insecure, according to a June report from the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging at the University of Massachusetts in Boston – the highest rates in the country. For couples, it’s 30 percent, the fourth highest rate.

The most important factor is the cost of housing, said center director Jan Mutchler. Age discrimination also plays a role, she said, noting that older job seekers remain unemployed longer than the rest of the population.

The 140 Clarendon St. Building opened in 1929 to house the Boston YWCA, the first formal organization of its kind in the country, dating from 1866. Its mission was to provide “a decent and economical home for girls, many of whom are were away from home for the first time trying to make a living, ”according to the National Register of Historic Places listing form. The YWCA eventually opened up to men and began to reorient its mission towards diversity and inclusion work. In 2000, the organization formed a for-profit corporation to expand its ability to earn money on the building, paving the way for the opening of Hotel 140 in 2005. Danigelis was hired to help manage the 55-room hotel, in exchange for free rent and a small salary.

“Duty Free” begins with the dismissal of Danigelis 12 years later. Maloney Properties, who managed the building and was his employer, told him that this was a restructuring and that his position was being abolished. His accommodation, which at that time was linked to his work, was also being lost.

Her eldest son, who has schizophrenia, has lived in his own unit in the building since 2005.

“My mother’s whole life was spent in this building,” Regis says in the film.

Danigelis tried to find a job while Regis was working to get his accommodation. Regis offered to turn his apartment into a subsidized unit, with part of his income going towards rent. (Prior to starting work in exchange for rent, Danigelis paid $ 1,549 per month.) Maloney Properties told Regis that his income from Social Security and unemployment was too high for a subsidy, and that a low income housing tax credit did not work. . But following the release of the trailer for Régis’ documentary and the media coverage that followed, Danigelis signed a deal. in 2019 not to “denigrate, criticize, condemn or attack” its owners, and was allowed to stay until May 2020.

In an email to The Globe, Maloney Properties President Janet Frazier wrote: “Because we were concerned about her welfare after she left our job, she was allowed to continue to reside in the ‘building for almost 4 years and paid a total of $ 60 in rent during that time. At this point, the decision to continue to reside rested with YW Boston and Ms. Danigelis.

YW Boston did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Danigelis was 27 when she arrived in the United States from Liverpool to promote British tourism in Detroit. Ten years later, she was recruited to work in what is now the Fairmont Copley Plaza, in Boston. Two weeks after becoming a domestic worker, she was beaten and raped as she left her room, an attack reported in the Boston Globe when the suspect was arrested. The advice she sought after was her first introduction to the YWCA.

In the spring of 2017, Danigelis landed a job as a housekeeping supervisor at the Hilton Boston Back Bay, working for a man who had previously been his employee at Boston Park Plaza. But she was fired when the pandemic hit, and when her extended YWCA tenure ended, she moved in with Regis and her partner to New York.

Meanwhile, the YW Boston building had suffered its own drama. It went on sale in 2019 and a buyer was to modernize the hotel and convert some of the apartments to high-end units. But the deal fell through during the pandemic, and the building was sold last year, for the reduced price of $ 51.5 million, to developers Beacon Communities and Mount Vernon Co., who plan to convert it into a development. of affordable housing of 210 units, almost half set aside for former homeless residents.

“Poetic justice,” said Régis.

Danigelis’ son has re-applied for housing in the building and is allowed to stay.

Still, the area is a highly desirable location for luxury developers. Directly behind 140 Clarendon St., a gleaming 35-story tower is rising, the Raffles Boston Back Bay Hotel & Residences, which will feature a spa and rooftop terrace when it opens in next year.

Danigelis, now 80, and Regis have become advocates for older workers. In early October, they appeared virtually with the Director-General of the World Health Organization, who presented a WHO screening of “Duty Free” and noted the need to change the “negative narrative on age and aging “. Later that month, they traveled to Washington DC to meet with the MP behind a bill that bans employers from using age to rank or limit job applicants.

“We, unlike most of the poor, had a platform and were able to shine a light on that,” Regis said. With 10,000 people turning 65 every day, he noted, “it’s going to happen more and more.”

Danigelis is happy that her experience, as difficult as it is, highlights the difficulties that many older people face. “I’m a strong person,” she said, “but let me tell you, I was on the brink.”


Katie Johnston can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @ktkjohnston.



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