affordable housing

A development project currently under review by the Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) would bring 23 units of affordable and market-rate housing to the Garrison Trotter area of Roxbury.

Vanessa Snow was a youth organizer for the Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF) when the Archdiocese of Massachusetts announced it was closing the Blessed Sacrament Church in 2005. Snow and other teens working at the Jamaica Plain youth-focused nonprofit knew what they wanted to happen there.

Hundreds of activists, organized under the banners of Homes for All Massachusetts and Right to the City Boston, gathered in front of the Massachusetts State House last Saturday to rally in support of legislative bills introduced in the state House and Senate last week that would lift the state’s decades-old ban on local rent control measures.

Mayor Michelle Wu announced plans to create a new planning department that would be separate from the Boston Planning and Development Agency, streamline the city’s development processes and use the bulk of the city’s share of federal recovery funds to accelerate the production of affordable housing as part of a set of ambitious goals outlined in her Jan. 25 State of the City address.

Calling housing affordability “our most pressing challenge in the city,” Mayor Michelle Wu announced a new set of proposed changes to two of the city’s main affordable housing policies.

A new report from The Boston Foundation, Metro Housing and other Boston nonprofits is arguing for increased funding and a “universal approach” to Massachusetts’ chief rental assistance voucher program.

Boston City councilors passed a resolution last week calling on the administration of Mayor Michelle Wu to increase the percentage of affordable housing required in new housing developments to 20% from the current 13% and to lower the building-size threshold at which the policy takes effect from nine units to five units.

There is a limited availability of housing in Boston. Roxbury is geographically a prime location. There is no reason for Roxbury homeowners who have survived during economically unrewarding times to be prevented from developing their real estate at prevailing rates without suffering lost values because of affordable housing restrictions.

City officials gathered at the site of a newly built affordable two-family home in Mattapan Friday to announce a $60 million investment of federal funds to help moderate- and low-income families buy homes in Boston as part of the Welcome Home Boston initiative.

DREAM Collaborative and New Atlantic Development have broken ground on a 74-unit housing complex in Nubian Square that will combine affordable and market-rate housing with artists’ studios, retail space and a new retail location for the Haley House’s cafe, which currently occupies the parcel at 2147 Washington St.

Within the city of Boston, competition for affordable housing units is fierce, with long waiting lists for the 20% of units in the city that are designated affordable for people with incomes ranging from $0 to 120% of the federally designated area median income, which is currently $98,150.

More than 50 tenants, supporters and elected officials gathered outside the Forbes building on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain Saturday morning, demanding that action be taken to secure affordable rents for nearly 150 elderly and disabled low-income residents.