Residents and local union leaders spoke out Wednesday against what they describe as safety issues and worker mistreatment at the ongoing Clarendon Hill affordable housing project in Somerville.
At a press conference in front of City Hall, speakers demanded that the developer, Preservation of Affordable Housing, and main contractor, Dellbrook Construction, release all documents related to the project. A representative for Dellbrook declined to comment for this story.
The public Clarendon Hill project, overseen by the Somerville Housing Authority, is a massive redevelopment of a site that will include several hundred units of affordable housing once complete. Construction began in May 2023 on the modular units, which are prefabricated in Littleton and assembled on-site.
“Production of modular housing, hailed by some in the industry as a solution to the affordable housing crisis, is putting workers and communities at risk by lowering construction standards and by undercutting workers’ wages and public safety,” says a press release by the Massachusetts Building Trades Union.
The union said that, under state law, workers at the Littleton site should be getting the prevailing wage, a minimum wage that applies to workers on public works projects and is enforced by the Department of Labor Standards. The Somerville City Council filed a home rule petition at the start of construction that was meant to guarantee that both sites would operate under prevailing wage requirements.
Multiple workers at the Littleton site have filed complaints with the Attorney General’s Office alleging wage theft. Frank Callahan, president of the MBTU, said in an interview that some workers in Littleton were being paid between $21 and $24 an hour, significantly less than the rate for any prevailing wage job in Massachusetts.
“I was doing the same job as the people there and I was earning much less,” said painter Rair Xavier Coelho, according to the English subtitles for a video published on MBTU’s website.
Callahan said that he has also heard complaints from workers in Somerville, including some who say they have not been paid in a month.
Workers and union leaders described poor working conditions at the site. Nilson Gomes, a welder, said in the video that he was sometimes asked to wear someone else’s mask as personal protective equipment, or not given a mask at all. A picture that the union said was of the workers’ bathroom at the Littleton site shows a large patch of mud and dirt on a tile floor.
“We were already feeling very bad due to the working conditions,” said machine operator Guilherme De Oliveira in the video, speaking in Portuguese with English subtitles. “A lot of pressure, a lot of demands. There were no glasses, no masks, no air circulation, no water fountains. Everything was broken.”
The project has also received multiple citations from the state for having unlicensed workers install fire sprinklers, according to a packet of official materials provided by the union; speakers at the press conference said that the construction is likely not up to safety standards. Two images published by the union show sprinklers that they say were installed wrong, including one that had been concealed behind a finishing plate, “making it appear to be in working condition.” Another shows a crack in a structural weld.
Poah and the Somerville Community Corporation, “its partners, contractors and sub-contractors, are committed to abiding by all laws and meeting all government standards for prevailing wages, benefits and transparency,” senior communications director for Poah Maria Plati wrote in a statement to Cambridge Day. “Clarendon’s main contractor is a highly qualified, experienced builder of quality affordable housing with successful projects all over the state that house thousands of low-income families and seniors.”
The union has filed Freedom of Information Act requests for documents related to payroll and inspection history at the property. Callahan said these documents should be public record, because the property is a public-private partnership, but they have not been released.
“I have questions for Poah and Dellbrook: Where are the safety inspections? Who did the inspections? Where are the certified payrolls? What are they hiding?” vice president for the International Association of Firefighters District 3 Jay Colbert asked at the press conference. “This project is putting workers and communities at risk by lowering construction standards. Clarendon Hill is a prime example of what is wrong with modular housing.”
Plati reaffirmed Poah’s commitment to the project and its development practices. “Poah has been working in good faith, with full transparency, with all private and public partners to deliver this important affordable housing development,” Plati wrote. “Poah and its contractors and subcontractors are committed to building safe, sustainable and high-quality affordable housing. We look forward to welcoming the Clarendon residents home to their new apartments in just a few months.”
Callahan said that he viewed issues with craftsmanship as related to the lack of transparency and poor working conditions at the site. “A lot of that work is being redone right now at great expense,” he said. “If they paid the proper wages at the front end … they wouldn’t have these problems”
“That’s typically what you get when you allow these contractors to exploit the workforce,” he said. “That’s what you’re paying for.”
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