Gentrification across Boston has created a significant shortage of affordable housing, in particular rentals that are too often beyond the reach of so many – especially young people of color.
As Boston implements its year-old fair housing zoning, Mayor Michelle Wu is creating a committee to measure its effectiveness in limiting displacement by development and gentrification.
Several dozen activists rallied outside the MBTA’s Lechmere Station, calling for state and local officials to act quickly to prioritize development of affordable housing and erect guardrails around investment in the area.
Boston’s first-in-the-nation fair housing zoning law is already influencing key elements of the city’s largest proposed development, Dorchester Bay City, as Accordia Partners spells out how its affordable housing strategy will exceed what’s typically expected in new projects.
Boston city councilors unanimously approved the nation’s first-ever zoning amendment that asks regulators to consider issues such as displacement, gentrification and discrimination when reviewing new development.
Sprawling waterfront development parcels and a transit-friendly downtown have proven to be powerful lures for projects in Lynn, attracting institutional investors and interest from national developers.
Among the new questions that developers are likely to face while seeking approvals: Would locally-owned businesses be displaced? And how will you market the development to encourage a diverse tenancy?
Income and home price gains were concentrated in a handful of neighborhoods in booming U.S. cities including Boston during a portion of the past decade, according to a study of wealth concentration and gentrification patterns.
With this zoning amendment, Boston will be the first city to use the power of zoning to create economically and racially diverse communities.
Boston should add new enforcement clout to its fair housing policies as vulnerable populations contend with higher-than-ever roadblocks to keeping roofs over their heads, concludes a report culminating a three-year study of local conditions.
A 45-unit luxury apartment project planned for the heart of Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood has acquired construction financing.
From Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards’ perspective, the worst outcome for the redevelopment of the 161-acre Suffolk Downs property would be a finished product that resembles the Seaport District.
As the state’s housing crunch rages on, opinion at Tuesday’s hearing on key zoning reform legislation is still split over whether the bill goes far enough to help those most affected by the situation.
As frightening as the prospect of a rent control proposal on Beacon Hill may be to some the issue is a red herring that threatens to distract everyone from efforts to get Gov. Charlie Baker’s Act to Promote Housing Choice passed as soon as possible.
A plan intended to let one of Boston’s last affordable neighborhoods along the southern end of Washington Street and the Orange Line grow without displacing current residents instead created an incentive structure where developers can’t build the volume of affordable units needed to keep rents in check.
Two years after the Boston Planning and Development Agency approved the JP/Rox Plan guidelines, the program has neither sparked a massive building boom nor drastic changes in how private and nonprofit developers are designing and financing projects.
The cities, towns and neighborhoods that together make up greater Boston have changed significantly in the last few decades. But those changes have not been uniform across the region.
Building more multifamily housing in Boston is the cornerstone of Mayor Marty Walsh’s strategy to bring apartment rents and condominium prices under control, and developers have been doing their part with more than 13,000 units completed since 2014.
As lawmakers decide how to regulate the growing short-term rental marketplace, affordable housing advocates lamented a loss of units for traditional tenants and asked officials to develop a system that gives local officials oversight of their communities’ housing stock.
