Neighborhoods lose as rents rise
Home prices have skyrocketed as ever-rising rents paid by students attract investors who can easily outbid any family.
Part 1
Globe Spotlight Investigation
A house jammed with students, a life of promise lost
It was a quirky, old place, but it was home to Binland Lee and her 13 housemates. It was also blatantly illegal, from basement bedrooms without permits to the unit with only one way out — where Binland happily lived and where she died when fire struck last spring.
Part 2
Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff
Overcrowded and at risk: a way of life and, sometimes death, for student tenants
Every year they come, thousands of students whose dreams help drive Boston, but who must increasingly scrounge for housing off campus. A Globe investigation finds they are easy targets for scofflaw landlords whom the city seems unable, or unwilling, to control.
Part 3
Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff
A devastating mismatch: city vs. scofflaw landlords
Some of the giants in the student rental trade also lead the pack in code offenses. Their victims are tenants — and a college town’s reputation.
Lax security puts student tenants at risk
At an Allston building known as Aerosmith’s former home, security lapses were evident even before two students were raped in their apartment.
--150x150.jpeg)
