I live in a slumlord situation. I've lived in this apartment for close to a decade but currently am not on he lease.

Contact the Inspectional Services Department for the City of Boston. An inspector will come to your apartment and conduct an inspection to determine whether your unit contains sanitary code violations. (The Massachusetts State Sanitary Code governs all aspects of living conditions in Massachusetts.) If your unit contains structural violations - which sounds very likely - your landlord will receive a notice of violation and be given a timetable for correcting the violations. The Inspectional Services Department will follow up to make sure that the work is done. If the work is not done, the Inspectional Services Department could file a quasi-criminal action against your landlord in the Boston Housing Court.

Under Massachusetts law, (Mass. General Laws Chapter 186, Section18), your landlord is prohibited from evicting you or changing the terms and conditions of your tenancy in retaliation for your reporting of code violations. If your landlord should attempt to evict you by serving on you a notice to quit and a summary process summons and complaint, you can file multiple counterclaims seeking possession of the unit as well as up to treble damages and attorneys fees.

You may wish to consult an attorney with experience in landlord/tenant law to assist you in pursuing your claims.