Thomas Breen photo
Tom Giardino and Ricardo at home on Howe Street.
After facing a gentrification-sparked 65 percent rent hike he couldn’t afford, 81-year-old Gaetano “Tom” Giardino will remain in his Howe Street studio apartment after all now that his landlord has agreed to a compromise.
His cat Ricardo won a reprieve as well.
Giardino, who works as a security guard and has lived in a ground-floor studio apartment at 100 Howe St. for 21 years, came to that new rental accord on Wednesday evening with Cambridge Realty Partners Principal Nick Falker, whose company bought the building for nearly $12 million in February.
The new landlord had initially planned on raising Giardino’s monthly rent from $695 to $1,150 starting Aug. 1. Giardino filed a complaint about the proposed 65 percent rent increase with the city’s Fair Rent Commission. His story prompted this soul-searching public debate about the human costs of gentrification in a fast-changing edge of downtown.
After the Independent reported on Giardino’s plight, Falker and his property manager met with him and worked out a new agreement.
While the terms of that lease are confidential, Giardino and Falker confirmed that the new rent will be more than the tenant’s current rate but much less than $1,150. Giardino will also be able to keep his cat, Ricardo, while the initial lease had barred tenants from having pets.
“I feel a lot better,” Giardino said with a smile from his still-cluttered apartment on Thursday afternoon.
He picked up his 13-year-old cat Ricardo, his sole roommate, and looked at the flower paintings and photographs stacked on a desk by his bed.
“I can put those back on the walls now,” he said.
100 Howe St.
Falker, who told the Independent earlier this week that his company plans to invest $1.25 million into structural and aesthetic improvements at 100 Howe, said Friday that he never had any intention of pushing Giardino out onto the street.
He said he happily worked out a new lease with the tenant as soon as he learned more about Giardino’s backstory.
“We were not aware of Mr. Giardino’s history and circumstances prior to hearing from the Fair Rent Commission,” Falker said in a statement. “He chose to contact the Fair Rent Commission rather than contact us, as is his right. We believe that we would have worked this out quickly with Mr. Giardino had he contacted us directly. I enjoyed meeting and speaking with Mr. Giardino and we are pleased he is staying at 100 Howe.”
Shelley White, a New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLAA) attorney, had planned on representing the Howe Street tenant at an informal meeting with the landlord and Fair Rent Commission Executive Director Otis Johnson scheduled for Thursday morning. That meeting never took place, as the tenant and landlord struck a deal the night before.
Falker “assured Mr. Giardino that he wants to keep him as a tenant,” White told the Independent, “and they worked out an agreement that will enable Mr. Giardino to stay at 100 Howe. He was exceedingly gracious and generous.”
Giardino in his apartment earlier in the week.
Giardino, who had taken off the past two days from his full-time job as a security guard in preparation for the Fair Rent Commission meeting that never wound up taking place, expressed relief at not having to worry about losing his apartment and living on the street come August.
He lives off nearly $1,200 in monthly Social Security benefits and $499 in weekly take-home pay as a security guard. He said he’s catching up on mounds of credit card bills, and knows he won’t be able to continue working full time forever.
Giardino said the new lease gives him time to find a more sustainably affordable place for him to live in a neighborhood that is booming with new market-rate apartments. He’s not sure where that will be, he said. But now, at least, he has some time to figure that out out.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve got a year.”
Nothin' like a little embarrassing press exposure.
Nice job, NHI.
And you probably don't need me to remind you, but please don't limit it to soft-spoken elderly Italian folks with cats.