The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 41

THE BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE MAY 1 1988 41 New Tent City is monument to 20-vear South End dream mm I ,1 liiiiffii. If fr-pB a rr fnn' in iwi Globe staff photosSuzanne Krelter the South End after almost 40 years in Rockland. Single parent Michelle Lyden holds 6-month-old Taylor Ashley Fullum in their Tent City apartment. James McLaurin, 65, who moved into Tent City last month and rents at market rate, said the location and ethnic and racial diversity were prime reasons he returned to Stop in for your free copy of our colorful 16-page brochure! 0 Scandinavian DesignGallery is proud to present a Freestyle leather extravaganza, featuring a luxurious collection of the best in leather furnishings from Italy. Designed for every taste.

Priced for every budget. And available only from us! WITH LEATHER By Gus Martins Contributing Reporter Michelle Lyden was only five years old and was living in Rhode Island when a 1968 struggle for land and housing began in Bos-Eton's South End. Facing homelessness 20 years later, the single parent of an infant daughter learned how community action can have a positive impact on people's lives. Her selection for a subsidized two-bedroom apartment in the new Tent City complex gave Lyden a crash course on the social and political struggles of the 1960s. ''I don't know all the people who were involved in the original protest, but I have met some really good people in the short time I have been here," she said.

While her story was told, other people who were more intimately connected with Tent City's history also relived their stories yesterday at ceremonies marking the opening of the complex. The celebration commemorated the two-decade struggle for housing, which culminated in construction of 276 apartments for tenants of varying income City and state officials joined the pioneers who waged a protest at the Dartmouth Street and Columbus Avenue site, where a parking lot once occupied a large tract of land. Result of collective action Mel King, a former state representative and a South End resident who was arrested during the April 26, 1968, protest, said the successful effort was the result of collective action by ordinary people. The name for the complex comes from the tent city erected on the site during the 1968 protest to dramatize the need for low-cost housing. "When we started, we were trying to accomplish that housing would be the priority of the Boston Redevelopment Authority and that-Us policies would reflect King, who once represented the South End district where Tent City stands.

"The second thing was convincing people that they had to play a role in the development of those policies and therefore the development of their communities." Since then a concerted and sometimes painstaking effort to build the units has taken place, said Michael Kane, the chairman of the Tent City Corporation. Families began moving into the 12-story apartment and town house complex last month. The development will house 203 low-and-moderate-income households and 66 market-rate renters. Twenty-five percent of the units will house families with less than $21,000 annual earnings, while 50 percent of the units are slated for moderate-income families. The mix of residents recalls the South End that James McLaurin remembers.

Likes location, diversity McLaurin, 65, who moved into a 12th-floor apartment last month and rents at market rate, said the location and ethnic and racial diversity were prime reasons he returned to his old neighborhood after almost 40 years in Rockland. He added that choosing a location where people are not discriminated against because of their economic standing speaks well for the city. "I feel as if Tent City "is restoring and bringing back a concept that I grew up in," he said. "I think it will show other communities that living together in a multiracial neighborhood can bring harmony to a neighborhood and the city." James McMillar said the one-bedroom apartment he shares with his wife in the complex ends a decade-long odyssey of uncertainty. McMillar, who cooked hamburgers; on the site during the 1968 protest, said that escalating rents and condominium conversions played havoc with their lives, forcing them to move five times in 10 years.

"I was living in a West Canton Street apartment when I heard that Tent City was having a protest," the Farmville, N.C. native said, recalling the 1968 sleep-in. "I decided to go out and see what was going on. I didn't know too much about it, but I heard that there would be lots of apartments, and I thought I could be lucky to get one." He said that when he learned that their appliction had been accepted, his 20-year dream was fulfilled. "I was so happy, I couldn't even express myself," said the boiler jepairman, who works for a Dorchfcter company.

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