Paul Bass photo
Alder — and now homeowner — Jose Crespo...
Laura Glesby photo
... and his new James Street house.
One of Alder Jose Crespo’s constituents wants her security deposit back — from a landlord who happens to be Alder Crespo.
Crespo, who represents Fair Haven’s Ward 16 on the Board of Alders, purchased his first-ever house — a vinyl-sided three-family home at 173 James St., right within the border of his ward — for $410,000 in mid-October.
He bought the house from a holding company affiliated with the massive local landlord Mandy Management, citing long-brewing aspirations of being a homeowner.
The third-floor apartment in that house happened to be the first-ever rental apartment of one of Crespo’s 24-year-old constituents.
That tenant had lived there for three years, paying $1,200 a month with help from a federal Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher. She said she was asked to leave due to the property’s sale, although Mandy Management said the company has no records of asking any tenants to leave.
In late September, she signed a voluntary agreement to move out of the apartment by the end of October, but she wound up not having another place to go by the month’s end. So she asked Crespo for a seven-day extension.
Crespo said he agreed to give her that seven-day extension in exchange for a pro-rated rent amount.
The tenant, who asked for anonymity in order to avoid harming her chances of finding another home, wound up staying an additional three days beyond that week, leaving on Nov. 10. She left after Crespo knocked on her door to ask her in person to leave, she said — moving to a temporary home (outside of Crespo’s ward) found by her realtor.
She wants the $1,200 security deposit back so that she can pay for the security deposit of her next apartment.
Crespo said he was never informed that the tenant was using a Section 8 voucher. (The tenant disagreed.) When the tenant asked Crespo to contact Section 8 for rent, Crespo declined. “My arrangement with you was with you alone,” he recounted over the phone. “There’s no agreement between the Housing Authority [the local agency that administers Section 8 vouchers] and myself.”
Now, Crespo and the tenant are disputing whether he owes her the security deposit on account of that unpaid 10 days of rent.
“The contract you and I made verbally which you had agreed to pay the rent for November 2024 in full was breached by you when you failed to provide me the rent,” Crespo told the tenant.
Coreen Toussaint, the vice president of the Housing Choice Voucher program at the city Housing Authority, said in a statement that the agency cannot disclose whether the Section 8 program issued any payments to the current or former landlord of 173 James St. on the tenant’s behalf.
According to Toussaint, Section 8 vouchers will issue payments to cover the designated portion of rent for as long as a tenant is occupying an apartment, regardless of whether or not the tenant previously agreed to move.
“Under state law, except under certain conditions, private landlords may not refuse to rent to tenants solely because they receive Section 8 rental assistance,” Toussaint wrote.
She noted that the Housing Authority plans to contact both Crespo and the tenant to work out a solution.
Meanwhile, Crespo and the tenant have been texting back and forth about the matter.
At one point, Crespo texted the tenant: “You have breached our agreement as I have not received any payment from you for November 2024 and failed to leave even after the seven days you requested as your items were still inside the apartment on or about November 10 when you finally confirmed leaving the apartment. With these actions you have forfeited your security.”
The tenant countered, “I am owed my security deposit because your apartment was left in good condition with only the pre-existing damage from when I moved in.”
“Any good, kind, and reasonable person would give me back my deposit,” she wrote. “If you were in my shoes then you would agree that the right and just thing is to return it.”
The tenant said that she had not wanted to leave the apartment – at least not in such a hurry.
“That was my first apartment. I loved that apartment. That was my very first apartment of my own,” the tenant said. “It was really, really a sad thing for me” to have to leave.
She said she decorated the apartment with candles, plug-in air fresheners, and “fluffy throw blankets.” She spent much of her free time in her home: “it was my sanctuary.”
The tenant said she recently lost her job working at a fast food restaurant because she had taken too many days off to look for new housing and pack up her belongings. She’s now looking for a permanent apartment on top of searching for a job.
“Moving is a process. It really was a lot,” she said. “It’s so stressful.”
Crespo, meanwhile, said he’s lived in a Blatchley Avenue rental — one that’s currently also owned by Mandy Management — for nearly three decades. He said that the house at 173 James St. is his first-ever property, and that he plans to move in there. He’s not yet sure which unit he’ll move into; the other two, he intends to rent.
Crespo said his relationship with the second-floor tenant, who’s still a resident of the house, has been positive; she could not be reached by the publication of this article.
“I am blessed to be able to say that I am now a homeowner,” he said proudly in a phone interview. “It’s very new for me, but I’m excited, thrilled.”
Crespo said he plans to power-wash the house’s exterior, to paint the front steps and spruce up the hallways “to make it more eye-catching.” He envisions someday updating the windows and replacing the roof.
Asked if he plans to raise the rent, Crespo said, “I would definitely look at market value, just as every property owner.” So, yes. While the third-floor tenant was paying $1,200 for a one-bedroom apartment, “the market value of a one bedroom is $1,580,” he pointed out.
“I just think that it’s kind of hard being young,” the tenant told the Independent. “Trying to — how do I say it — trying to survive, basically. Especially with someone who is supposed to be for the people, for housing the less fortunate.”
Crespo, however, maintained that the purchase reflects his commitment to his neighborhood.
As a new homeowner purchasing a home from a larger landlord, “I wanted to demonstrate that I want to invest in Fair Haven,” he said, “because that’s where my home is.”