Did Council President Ruthzee Louijeune have an obligation to disclose the sweetheart business deal she conducted with Jose Masso - the same Wu Cabinet Head who helped sell Harriet Tubman House to a big developer with funding from a bank Wu owns stock in?
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First elected by the voters in November 2021, Louijeune was inaugurated by Mayor Michelle Wu on January 3, 2022. That next month, on February 28, 2022, Louijeune purchased a single-family home in Mattapan from Jose Masso, now Chief of Human Services for Mayor Wu.
Louijuene, a staunch advocate of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA), was integral in securing city-backed funds for the organization mere months into her first term.Â
As MAHA’s tax records show, the organization received a substantial increase in funding and, in June of 2022, Louijeune even appeared alongside its Executive Director Symone Crawford in a television interview to lobby on behalf of MAHA.
Furthermore, and according to Louijeune’s campaign website, the Councilor had previously offered her legal services as an attorney to MAHA:
While it is unclear whether or not Louijeune has a legal obligation to disclose her affiliation with MAHA, it can certainly be argued she has an ethical obligation to disclose, especially if she benefitted from any of the financial incentives and/or programs offered through the organization.
It would also seem Louijeune, at the very least, had an ethical obligation to disclose her buying the house from Jose Masso, a long-term fixture in Boston’s non-profit community and current cabinet head in Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration.
Masso originally bought the distressed Mattapan property for only $139,999 in 2009. In January 2022, Masso listed it for sale at a purchase price of $489,000 which Louijeune purchased just a few weeks later on February 28, 2022, for $530,000, or 8% ($41,000) over the asking price.
According to public records and financial disclosure reports, Louijeune obtained a $424,000 mortgage from Rockland Trust to purchase the home. She made a 20% down payment of $106,000 and secured a 30-year mortgage from Rockland at an exceptionally low fixed interest rate of 2.99%. At the time of her purchase, the average fixed rate on 30-year mortgages was around 4.4%, – a full 1.4% higher than the rate offered to Councilor Louijeune. Rockland Trust also happens to be the financial institution that Mayor Wu and her husband Conor Pewarski are still invested in.
In fact, Pewarski was himself a mortgage broker for East Boston Savings Bank, whose assets were bought by Rockland during the same period that Louijeune (a longtime friend of the Mayor and fellow mentee of Elizabeth Warren) was getting her apparent white-glove treatment from Rockland Trust.
According to her financial disclosure forms, Louijeune’s only income in 2022 was her city council salary of $103,000, which she began receiving about six weeks before she closed on her home.
Anyone who’s applied for a mortgage knows that banks do not look favorably on applicants who have less than two years of verified income – a scant six weeks of income would render the vast majority of mortgage applicants ineligible for even a high-interest loan. But for the well-connected new councilor, Rockland Trust, it seems, was willing to expedite a $424,000 loan and at a significantly advantageous interest rate to boot.Â
While her disclosure forms do not detail the sources of income, if any, for the years 2020 and 2021, Louijeune’s well-publicized campaign for office during that time made it clear that being a candidate for the Boston City Council was her full-time job. Before that, Louijeune worked on Elizabeth Warren’s campaign; a high-profile but not necessarily high-paying gig. Warren’s FEC filings show payments to Louijeune ended in January 2021.
Rockland Trust itself is a well-connected lender that partners with various city and state programs to provide mortgages to lower-income and first-time home buyers through a variety of publicly funded programs. This relationship between the city of Boston and Rockland has certainly paid off for Rockland, as the bank has been awarded contracts to finance a plethora of lucrative Boston-specific development projects worth tens of millions of dollars.
One of these explosively controversial projects funded by Rockland involved the sale and demolition of the historic Harriet Tubman House in the South End.
A landmark within the city, the Harriet Tubman House was deed-restricted until recent years until a large developer. in coordination with a South End non-profit that owned the property, successfully lobbied the BRA/BPDA to lift its restrictions and allow the sale.
At the time of the bitterly controversial sale that turned the historical landmark into luxury condos , the executive director of the non-profit that owned the site (United South End Settlements) was none other than Jose Masso.
Shortly after completing this deal to turn over the Tubman House and beloved community center to the luxury development team, Masso sold his home to Louijeune in an exceptionally quick transaction financed by the same bank and at abnormally favorable terms to the new councilor.
It’s also important to note that the owner of this luxury development team, New Boston Ventures, has made significant contributions to both Wu and Louijeune.
Yet none of this has been disclosed by Louijeune according to records maintained by the city of Boston’s Clerk’s office. As such, BAN has contacted Council President Louijeune several times asking for clarification on this story. Louijeune has completely ignored our several attempts.
The following are the unanswered questions that BAN has previously submitted to Councilor Louijeune in writing and that we are now publicly asking. We welcome the Councilor’s response to our inquiries and look forward to updating our readers with her reply:
- Did you take advantage of any programs to assist you in the purchase of the home? If so, which programs?
You received a 30-year mortgage at a fixed interest rate of 2.99% from Rockland Trust for this purchase. The 30-year fixed rate for borrowers at Rockland Trust at that time was approximately 4.4%. Can you explain the circumstances that made it possible for you to receive an interest rate 33% lower than the going rate at the time?
You purchased your home from José Massó, the City of Boston cabinet chief of Human Services. Was the property you purchased offered on the open market before you purchased it? If so, what was the asking price on the home when it was listed on the open market? If not, how did you become aware that the home was available for purchase? Did you receive any assistance from the seller or his associates in applying and qualifying for financing for the purchase of the property?
You received a mortgage for $424,000, or 80% of the purchase price of the home. Did you take advantage of any home-buying programs to assist you in the raising of the $106,000 down payment? If so, what were the program(s)? If not, what were the sources of the $106,000 down payment?
Did you take advantage of any programs to assist you in covering the closing costs of the purchase of your home? If so, what program(s)? If not, what were the source(s) of the funds to cover closing costs?
Did you take advantage of any programs to assist first-time home buyers? If so, which program(s)?
Did you take advantage of any programs that provide funds for down payments on home purchases? If so, which programs?
In 2021, what was the source of your income? Did the income you earned in 2021 qualify you for a $430,000 mortgage at 2.99% fixed interest? Conventional mortgages typically require 2+ years of verified annual income of more than $130,000 to qualify for the mortgage you received. Was your income in 2020 and 2021 verifiable and in the range of $130,000?
Was your income in 2021 reported on a W-2? If some or all of your income in 2021 was not reported on a W-2, how was that income reported to the IRS?
Did you provide income verification for the 2 years before the purchase of your home in 2022 to Rockland Trust, as is required for conventional mortgages? If not, please describe the income verification process that Rockland Trust required for your mortgage.
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