(This is the second article of a three-part series. The first article appeared yesterday, and a photo feature will appear tomorrow.)

ONE YEAR ago this month, Harvard notified 182 tenants in the area of the Medical School that their homes would be torn down to make room for construction of the Affiliated Hospitals Center (AHC). The tenants, who were told that their homes would be taken in two to five years, were not at that time organized into a tenants' union. Even after the eviction notices had been received, there were many difficulties in building an organization of affected tenants.

"People were afraid that if they organized, they would be kicked out instantly with no housing," said Mrs. Beatriz Powers. "And people just didn't have any incentive. When we canvassed, some would say 'Five years from now, who know?'"

The Roxbury Tenants of Harvard, which now has more than 100 members, has been struggling with the University to keep these homes standing and to ensure the existence of comparable relocation housing should the tenants be evicted.

The tenants began to organize after the occupation of University Hall and the subsequent appearance of student canvassers in the medical area.

"At the time, I wasn't impressed with the occupation of University Hall," said Robert S. Parks. "At first I wasn't even impressed with the students who canvassed us. It took a lot of convincing to make me think we weren't helpless. But it sort of changed "my whole philosophy."

At the beginning of August, a delegation of tenants presented Dr. Robert H. Ebert, dean of the faculty of Medicine, with a petition signed by 175 tenants. It demanded

that Harvard improve maintenance and initiate repair of safety hazards in their homes;

that the AHC be built only where no homes would be destroyed and only if it provided low-cost medical care for the surrounding community; and

that Harvard immediately reveal its construction and expansion plans for the medical area.

None of these demands were met in August, and none have been met since. But out of the canvassing for this petition grew the tenants' association. Parks was elected president, and the tenants turned their attention to saving their neighborhood.

"It was a beautiful neighborhood before Harvard bought in," said Mrs. Theresa Parks. "You'd walk down the street and you'd see flowers and gardens, because the owners were living here. The houses were livable, and, you know, nice. When Harvard arrived, the whole character of the neighborhood changed. You'd walk down the street and pick out the houses that Harvard owned, and the ones that people owned."

"I think the bad maintenance was deliberate," added Edward M. Stanton. "They really wanted people to move out. It was all tactics, you know. But it worked."

Many people have been forced out of their homes in the medical area by Harvard's "tactics," and there are now about thirty low-income apartments that are vacant. Harvard has not rented these apartments, despite the fact that a critical housing shortage now exists in Boston. The windows in these apartments are boarded up, and their doors are padlocked shut. Occasionally, whole buildings are demolished, and empty lots and piles of rubble are left behind. The entire neighborhood bears a mark of extinction.

These episodes have had their effect on the tenants' association. Though tenants still wish to keep their present homes, they have now centered their efforts on ensuring that the University keeps its promises on such items as maintenance repair and comparable relocation housing at comparable rents.