Nahant residents face eviction as town plans to knock down affordable Coast Guard housing

NAHANT – For Susan Alessi and several of her longtime neighbors, the love story of living in Nahant is shaping up to end in heartache.

“I came on Memorial weekend in 1978 and never left. I love Nahant,” Susan Alessi said.

They rent what’s known as “Coast Guard housing,” which the town bought from the federal government almost 20 years ago. But there’s still a nearly $2 million dollar loan to be paid.

Last fall, town leaders informed the renters they had 12 months to find a new home. It had been voted on that spring, May 2021. Now the clock’s ticking on these renters’ evictions.

“They decided to go with the plan of demolishing all 12 Coast Guard homes and leveling the land,” Alessi said. “It’s been daily search for over a year now. I’m on a fixed income, social security. Affordable housing? There is none.”

The Nahant Board of Selectmen said they’re doing everything they can to help. But town leaders admitted “it’s tough.”

“There are 9,700 people on the wait list at the Housing Authority, for only 40-something units. I think they have one vacancy right now,” Town Administrator Antonio Barletta said.

For Alessi, no loss could come close to what she’s already suffered. Her daughter died in this house. But even after offering to pay higher rent to stay, she and her neighbors feel desperate.

“These are our homes. We’re not to be discarded like property,” she said.