The Select Board will ask Fall Town Meeting to appropriate $385,000 to facilitate moving up the deadline for relocating the tenants of the 28-unit Stephen Palmer apartments to Oct. 31, 2026, which is the latest date any of the leases expires. This would be six months before the building’s scheduled return to town control on May 3, 2027.
Tenants are pushing back against the new end date, arguing they expected to have until May 2027 to find new accommodations in a challenging housing market that will likely raise their rents by a multiple of what they have been paying at Stephen Palmer.
Town Meeting members have received communications from a majority of the tenants — nearly all of whom are seniors — expressing grave concern about securing new housing once their tenancies are ended. Shortening the time they have to find new housing, they argue, only makes it more challenging.
The 50-year lease on the property negotiated in 1977 does not contain a clause that requires the landlord, Stephen Palmer Associates, to return a vacant building to the town. This means the responsibility of emptying the building of tenants falls on the town, not the landlord.
SPA could collect rent up until the last day of the lease, as it has little financial incentive to facilitate the exit of paying tenants. That reality led the town to enter into negotiations with SPA with very little leverage and inevitably requiring it to compensate SPA for rental income it would forego by leaving units vacant once tenants started leaving.
“The longest lease a tenant currently holds with SPA runs through October 31, 2026,” Select Board member Marianne Cooley wrote in a statement explaining the rationale of the October date. “Other leases end earlier than that date.”
“In order to create an orderly transition with certainty for the tenants, SPA and the Town, the agreement negotiated with SPA provides for all current tenant leases being extended through October 31, 2026,” the statement continued, at which point tenants will be expected to vacate.
“Further, subject to Town Meeting approval of Article 5, the Town plans to provide additional support to tenants for relocation over the course of the upcoming year.”
The $385,000 being sought at Town Meeting would be used to compensate SPA for the rental income it would otherwise have received from tenants who move out before the May 3, 2027 lease expiration and for other expenses incurred.
The Select Board argues using May 2027 as an end date runs the risk of putting the town in the landlord business if all tenants haven’t successfully found new housing by that date. Members have expressed concern this could cost more than the $385,000 it is requesting and expose the town to liability issues that could end up costing even more.
“The Town is not set up to operate as a landlord for the intervening years or even for a short period of time,” Town Manager Katie King noted in an Oct. 10 memo to the Select Board.
Tenants in jeopardy
While the scenario for the town has been challenging, the situation for many of the tenants is profound.
The building has always been intended for Needham residents over 55. While no mandated requirement exists regarding affordability and the income profile of the tenants is not known, rents have consistently been well below market rate since the building was converted from an elementary school in 1977.
The tenants, whose average age is 72, pay on average $1,100 per month for the 20 one-bedroom and 8 two-bedroom apartments, which range in size from 575 to 750 square feet.
The tenants anticipated needing to move out by May 2027 and had been planning accordingly, according to letters they wrote to Town Meeting members asking them to deny the Select Board request.
Judith McIntyre, a Stephen Palmer tenant, expressed her concerns both at the Oct. 14 Select Board meeting when Stephen Palmer was discussed and in a subsequent letter to Town Meeting members.
“The additional six months which we had naturally anticipated may not mean a great deal to the others, but they do mean a great deal to us,” she wrote. “It grants us just that much more needed time to plan our move and relocate elsewhere — not an easy task as most would agree.
“The Stephen Palmer Apartment residents are not asking the town of Needham to become landlords. We are asking that the town honor the original lease of May 3, 2027 and restore the six months. Please grant us the time — and the dignity — we need to plan our next chapter.”
Another letter signed by a majority of the tenants also argued for adhering to the anticipated May 3, 2027 moveout date.
“Allowing our tenancies to expire as currently scheduled would not only give residents more time to plan and relocate but would also save Needham taxpayers money, as we would continue paying rent and utilities during that additional six-month period.”
Should Town Meeting vote against the article, the agreement between the town and SPA would become null and void.
Should Town Meeting approve the agreement, Town Meeting would then move to the next article on the warrant to amend the FY2026 town budget to fund the $385,000 via a transfer from the Reserve Fund to the Town Manager’s budget.
If both articles pass, the Select Board has indicated it will seek future reserve fund transfers from the Finance Committee to provide direct relocation assistance of up to $10,000 per tenant during the transition. This process would be administered by HousingToHome, a relocation consultancy whose hiring was funded by an earlier $150,000 Town Meeting vote. HousingToHome would be available to begin working with Stephen Palmer residents as of Nov. 1 if the article passes.
In addition to receiving direct, one-to-one assistance from HousingToHome, tenants are eligible for reimbursement of certain relocation costs, including the rent differential between their future and current rent for up to 4 months, security deposit, moving costs and application fees.
Tenants seemed less than enthusiastic about this offer in their letter to Town Meeting members.
“Many of us simply cannot afford the upfront costs of moving, such as first and last month’s rent, security deposits, moving expenses, and related expenses,” they wrote.
“The offer of reimbursement after the fact does little to help us now and creates undue financial hardship. Even more troubling, there is no guarantee that comparable, low-cost housing for seniors will be available in Needham, making it likely that some of us will be forced to leave the community altogether.”
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