The state has broadened who can seek payment for abuse while at the former Youth Development Center. 

Gov. Chris Sununu signed Senate Bill 591 Friday, which immediately expands the type of abuse eligible for payment but also increases settlement payment caps and gives individuals six more months to submit claims.

Under the new law, lawmakers added $60 million to the original $100 million Youth Development Center settlement fund to expand and increase compensation to victims. 

Until Friday, the state considered claims for only sexual and physical assault, and it capped awards at $1.5 million for sexual assault or a combination of sexual and physical assault and at $150,000 for physical abuse alone.

Now, there is an additional cateogry for “egregious” sexual abuse, defined as “wanton or cruel” abuse, that goes beyond what most victims experience. Those claims would be capped at $2.5 million.

Also new is a category for “other” abuse, which could include unlawful restraint, confinement, strip searches, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. 

The two attorneys who represent nearly 1,000 former YDC residents have encouraged them to sue the state rather than settle because of limits on payments and eligible abuse. The attorneys told lawmakers they’d encourage their clients to settle instead under the bill.

In a statement Friday, Attorney General John Formella, whose office oversees the settlement process, thanked lawmakers, the governor, and the two attorneys who represent nearly 1,000 former YDC residents for supporting the legislation signed into law Friday.

“As we move forward, we are committed to working closely with (the fund’s administrator), plaintiffs’ counsel, and, most importantly, the victims themselves, to ensure that the implementation of these changes is conducted with fairness, respect, and efficiency,” Formella said. “Together, we are dedicated to providing victims with the justice and closure they deserve.”

Claims, which will now be accepted until May, can be filed via the Attorney General’s website, ydcclaims.nh.gov. 

The New Hampshire Spartans basketball program entered multiple teams at last weekend’s Zero Gravity Boys National Finals in Massachusetts, and the Hampton-based organization brought home two championships.

Both the Spartans’ eighth-grade and sixth-grade teams won all six of their games in their respective divisions, and won the championship.

“These are two very special teams,” Spartans owner/director Chris Coates said. “Our kids are confident. They’ve been going to big events since they were in fifth grade; they are not fazed by these big tournaments. We have some tough kids, both mentally and physically.”

The eighth-grade team beat the Middlesex Magic, 47-44 in the championship game. Hampton’s Kash Bailey was named tournament MVP and was placed on the all-tournament first team. Other members of the team include Nicholas Minutelli (Newmarket), Colin Morse (Exeter), Kavery Daniel (Rye), Will Jernigan (Lee), Peter Leggett (Dover), John Valhouli (Hampton), Dillon Salinas (Dover), Oscar Sims (Greenland) and Sawyer Demers (Rochester). Chad Cyr was the head coach.

The sixth-grade team beat the Schenectady Envy, 62-50 in the championship game. Rye’s Colin Swartz was named tournament MVP and was placed on the all-tournament first team. Other members of the team include Owen Conway, Jake Renna, Nick Pearl, and Ty Sullivan, all of Rye; Brennan Moriarty and Ethan Brown of Kittery, Maine; Tyler Minutelli of Newmarket, Owen Pierce of Durham; and Matthew Linteris of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Coates was head coach.

MANCHESTER, NH – About three dozen people gathered outside Brady Sullivan Tower Friday afternoon to call attention to tenants of an Ayer, Mass., complex, owned by Brady Sullivan Properties, who are facing the prospect of eviction from what are presently low-priced, affordable apartments.

The protesters held signs calling for an eviction freeze and rent control.  Other signs declared, “Housing is a human right,” and “Don’t Evict Negotiate!” One protester held a silver shield, with a house at its center, with the words, “No one leaves.”

Members of the Granite State Organizing Project, which advocates for tenants and has helped those in New Hampshire being ousted from their apartments through “renovation evictions,” joined the Massachusetts tenants in the protest.

Jessica Margeson noted that Brady Sullivan had done the same thing to tenants of a housing complex on Kennard Road in the city.  In 2020, Brady Sullivan Properties bought the rundown complex, consisting of 23 buildings that included duplexes and garden-style apartment buildings, among others.  The complex was owned by John Vratsenes, who managed it for 50 years.  He died in 2017.

Immediately rents – that were as low as $750 – were increased by a couple of hundred dollars a month.  As tenants moved, apartments were renovated.  Four years later, the apartments rent for $1,700 for a one-bedroom and $3,100 for a three-bedroom.

Brady Sullivan generally followed the same playbook in Ayer, Mass.  The company bought the rundown apartment complex housing 110 families consisting of low-income residents that included bus drivers, child care and retail wokrers, retirees and the disabled.  Like Kennard Road, the complex had been family-owned and operated for 50 years.  Brady Sullivan, however, didn’t increase the rents, which were about $900 a month.  Instead, as tenants left, they renovated the apartments and then hiked up the rents.

The renovated apartments start at $2,200 a month for a one-bedroom.

Attorney Ann Jochnick, who represents the tenant association, said some tenants moved out after Brady Sullivan bought the complex because they knew they would be unable to pay the anticipated higher rents.

Devenscrest Management LLC,  Brady Sullivan’s company which bought the complex, issued a statement on Thursday saying no tenant is being evicted unless they haven’t paid their rent or they committed a serious violation of their lease.

They said the Devenscrest Tenant Association owes more than $30,000 in unpaid rents, but Jochnick said the association doesn’t owe any money at all.  (The organization isn’t a tenant.) Management also said some members have not paid rent for years.

The company said they’ve repeatedly asked residents to meet with them in various forums but they have refused.

“Over the years, we have made multiple proposals to these residents to address their concerns and ensure they could continue to be long-term residents of Devenscrest Village by paying substantially reduced rental rates. They have not responded at all,” management said in a statement. “We have also asked the Tenant Association’s representatives to work together with us to connect residents with available resources and services. They have not done so in any way.”

Jochnick said she would love for management to inform them of these available resources and services.  She said what previously was available has dried up and other programs are no longer accepting applications.

Brady Sullivan also said they invested millions of dollars in Devenscrest Village, with renovated apartments having new upgraded electrical systems, all new kitchens and bathrooms, new appliances, new heat and added central air conditional and other major upgrades.

The company maintains the tenant association’s view represents a small minority and that nearly 75% of the original residents of Devenscrest Village “chose to renew their leases at substantially below fair market rates, upgrade to a renovated apartment at a discounted rate or successfully relocate with our financial assistance. It is incredibly unfortunate that the Tenant Association, which does not speak for the majority of residents at Devenscrest Village, seeks to tarnish such a vibrant community of hard-working individuals and families.”

The company said, “Rather than trying to bully us into selling Devenscrest Village, it would be far more productive for the Tenant Association and their representatives to help residents secure financial assistance to remain long-term residents of Devenscrest Village at the reduced rental rates that are still being offered to them.”

“That’s kind of ironic,” said Jochnick of Brady Sullivan’s comment that the tenants were trying to bully it into selling the apartment complex to them.

Jochnick said tenants found a developer who was willing to pay Brady Sullivan $4 million more than it paid for the apartment complex in 2021.

“We view this as a win-win situation,” she said.  “Brady Sullivan makes a big profit and the tenants will save their homes.  We think we can make the rents affordable.  Brady Sullivan can walk off with a really good profit and be a good guy.”

She also said the only person from Brady Sullivan who reached out to tenants  was the attorney  hired for the eviction process. The tenant association, in issuing a statement, said half of the 110 residents have left the complex after Brady Sullivan’s purchase because they worried about the threat of eviction or were driven off by the doubling of rents in renovated apartments.  The vast majority of those remaining are up to date on their rents.

What Brady Sullivan means when talking about tenants not reaching out to them, the tenant group said, is that “individual tenants have not been willing to talk about quietly leaving their homes, so that Devenscrest can be turned into a high income community at rents that few existing residents can afford – in order to make enormous profits.”

Tenants formed the Devenscrest Tenant Association because they have nowhere to go because they can’t afford the high rents.“The Devenscrest tenants want what we all want and what we all deserve to have – safe and truly affordable housing,” Maddy August, using a bullhorn, told those gathered on the corner of Elm Street.

August, a GSOP member, said the issue of renovation evictions is not just a Massachusetts issue and, like Margeson, pointed out that Brady Sullivan has done the same thing in Manchester.

What the Devenscrest residents did, however, was organize, she said.

“And organizing is powerful and yes maybe even frightening to some,” she said, pointing at Brady Sullivan Tower.  “Do you wonder why (pointing again at the tower) Brady Sullivan won’t even talk to the Devenscrest tenants?  Could it be fear?  Do you think that Brady Sullivan knows that if people realized the power they have through organization, the world that Brady Sullivan knows could change?  Because change is possible when we work together.  Let’s change the world so that everybody can have safe and truly affordable housing.”