By Patrick McGroarty
News Editor

For 23 years, Kathleen Sullivan has rented a first floor apartment in the building at 2165 Dorchester Avenue. Sullivan, 61, grew up in the three-decker next door, which, she points out with a knowing wink, was recently converted to condos. Retired and medically dependant on frequent trips to nearby Caritas Carney Hospital, she often wonders if rising rent will place her out of her apartment and the neighborhood she loves.

"I think the thing that concerns me, and I know I'm not alone: I'm ok right now, but a year from now, what happens?" she asked.

Sullivan currently pays $940 a month for two bedrooms. She fears if rent creeps past $1000 a month, she'll have to move into senior-designated housing in a facility like the Keystone Apartments.

Leaving the building she has lived in for 23 years, first with her mother and now alone, would be difficult and upsetting. She relies on the Carney for dialysis to treat her Kidney Disease, and she enjoys the diversity of residents that pass through her building.

"There are a handful residents who have been in here with me since the beginning," she said. "We also get a lot of resident medical students who are here to work at the Carney, and a lot of young Irish. But they come in four or five at a time, so it's cheaper. Once again, where do we fit in?"

Preliminary data from a real estate trends report prepared by the city's Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) for the fiscal year 2005/2006 that will be released this fall shows that average rental rates remained flat across Dorchester in the past year.

But Tim Davis, senior research and policy development analyst for DND, said that does not mean that last year's rents were reasonable to begin with, and does not take into account the rising costs of fuel, health insurance, or other necessities of life.

"I think it's clear that in the late 1990s and the early 21st century we were seeing increases that made rents unaffordable for many people," said Davis. "Just because we haven't seen an increase this year doesn't mean that level was any more affordable last year."

Sullivan insists that her complaint is not with her particular landlord, who she said has always treated her fairly. Rather, her concern with other lifelong neighborhood residents and Bostonians citywide in situations similar to her own: Dependant on rental housing, locked in to a fixed income, and at-risk for health problems that could dig into an already tight personal budget.

"There's no short term or easy solution," said Thomas Callahan, executive director of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA). "Sometimes we advocate for tenant organizing, where tenants try to reach an agreement with their landlord to limit future rent increases, but there's no legal requirement for a landlord to do it."

Another tool in creating affordable rental units is federal and state issued tax credits awarded to developers who designate certain units as "affordable."

All 74 rental units in to-be-constructed Trinity development at Ashmont station will be income restricted, meaning they will be reserved for households at or below 60 percent of the area median income (roughly $88,000 for family of four). According to Trinity Vice President Vince Droser, that means rental rates for a one-bedroom today would be around $800 to $900 a month.

The income restricted designation allowed Trinity to receive state and federal tax credits to be sold off to project investors, without which, Droser said, the Ashmont development and projects like it would not be economically viable.

"Property costs and construction costs are enormous in the city, and the tax credits provide another source of revenue for developers," he said.

Droser said that a shortage of federal funding and stiff competition for state tax credits has compounded the affordable housing crunch, but does not excuse developers from looking for solutions.

"It's hard to just wring your hands and say the government should do more," said Droser. "This city does more than most cities around the country, investing in developing housing for people of limited resources. To make cities viable, we have to make housing affordable."

Lisa Donovan grew up in Neponset and has lived in Harbor Point with her husband for the last ten years.

"I've always rented, and I have no intention of buying a house around here," said Donovan. "When I do, in a few years, it'll be down South, someplace warm."

Rent has gone up in the past decade, said Donovan, but not excessively so, and the amenities available to residents at Harbor Point are far better than the services her offered at her previous home.

"At least here when I call, somebody comes out to fix things."

But she said her daughter, a recent college graduate, found affordable rental units in the neighborhood much more elusive, and chose to move out of the neighborhood rather than stretch to pay rents that were out of her price range.

"My daughter couldn't afford to live anywhere around here unless she brought in three or four roommates, and she said she wasn't doing that again after college," said Donovan with a laugh. In March, Donovan's daughter purchased a three-bedroom home in Nashua, New Hampshire with her fiancé. The home was cheaper than many of the condos they had looked at in Boston, larger, and in better condition.

The quality of condos and rental units across Dorchester varies wildly, but Phil Carver, President of the Popes Hill Neighborhood Association, believes that condo conversion actually encourages occupants to improve the quality of their home. Carver, who owns the home that he grew up in on McKone Street, acknowledges that the rental community of his childhood has faded away, but said that's not necessarily a bad thing.

"Anybody that you knew growing up that rented, they're gone, or have bought single family homes in Dorchester," said Carver. "For Dorchester to have this influx of condos has really taken over these old battleships and put a nice new dress on them. With a lot of renters, older people and college kids, there's no accountability. Renters don't vote. They don't go to community meetings because they don't care, and they're not invested."

Carver said the changing dynamic of a neighborhood was not only unavoidable, but welcome.

"Neighborhoods are cyclical. Look at Blue Hill Avenue, which used to be all Jewish, or Roslindale where they want to rename streets to reflect their Hispanic heritage. The city is evolving and changing."

Sullivan, too, knows the city is changing, and hopes the new Boston won't leave her behind.

"It's overwhelming sometimes, but I do okay," she said. "I'm looking a little bit down the road and wondering where we're gonna go."