MASSACHUSETTS HAS a residential segregation problem. The issue is particularly pronounced in Greater Boston, where communities of color are tightly packed into environmentally hazardous areas and the racial home ownership gap continues to widen. Entrenched segregation cannot be fixed overnight, but the Commonwealth recently enacted a Housing Choice law that aims to begin the process. To have any chance at success, the law must be implemented […]
Housing
Posted inHousing
Mass. housing market cooling off, leveling out
REMEMBER THE DAYS of crazy bidding wars and waived inspections, with homebuyers desperate to close a sale? It’s looking like those days are over, with a rapidly cooling Massachusetts housing market. But does that mean it’s easy to buy a home now? Absolutely not, experts say. October numbers released this week by real estate data […]
Posted inHousing
Suburbs stymie new housing growth
A new report by the Boston Foundation confirmed what Boston area residents already know: There’s not enough housing in Greater Boston, and the housing is too expensive. Luc Schuster, executive director of Boston Indicators, the Boston Foundation’s research center, said a big part of the problem is there are higher income suburbs, often built near […]
Posted inHousing, State House News Service
Wu appeals to state for help at Mass and Cass
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ABOUT HALF of the people camped in a stretch of Boston known as “Mass. and Cass” most recently resided in another city or town, underlining the regional nature of the addiction and homelessness crises straining the area, Mayor Michelle Wu said Monday. While her administration continues to grapple with how to […]
Posted inEnvironment
Clean water should be a fundamental human right
MASSACHUSETTS HAS SOME of the most stringent regulations regarding the safety of tap water in the country. However, according to environmental officials, Massachusetts has an estimated 220,000 lead pipe service lines running into houses and buildings. (Service lines connect homes or buildings to water mains.) A Water Research Foundation report found that where present, lead service […]
Posted inOpinion
Planning by pieces isn’t working in Charlestown
IN THE FIELD of urban planning, a master plan is a document and policy guide designed to help communities create a vision of what they want to look like in the future. A master plan should be comprehensive and include existing development, planning initiatives, social and economic considerations regarding all facets of land use. In […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Housing
A new home for recently incarcerated transgender people
THE APARTMENT LOOKS like so many other Cambridge dwellings, occupying one floor of a slightly worn two-family house. It has two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, living room, and small yard. But the furnishings give some inkling of the space’s unique purpose, as the first home in New England for formerly incarcerated transgender people who […]
Posted inHousing
Report: Massachusetts needs another 108,000 homes
MASSACHUSETTS NEEDS another 108,000 housing units to meet the demand, according to a new national study, which ranks Massachusetts 11th among states in its housing underproduction. Up for Growth, a Washington, DC-based housing nonprofit whose members include housing developers and economic development organizations, released a report Thursday that examines housing underproduction nationwide. The problem is […]
Posted inTransportation
Harvard’s Allston campus takes big step forward
THE ENORMOUS POTENTIAL of Harvard University’s land-holdings in Allston began to take shape on Tuesday as the city and the school unveiled an agreement detailing plans for the initial 9.4 acres of what’s being called an enterprise research campus. The plan calls for 900,000 square feet of new development, with 49 percent of the space […]
Posted inOpinion
Critical state housing voucher program should be codified
RENTS IN MASSACHUSETTS have reached astronomical heights. Communities in Greater Boston are seeing increases as high as 30 percent over last year. According to The State of the Nation’s Housing 2022 report, nearly one of every four renters is paying more than half of their income to rent. People with the lowest incomes are being […]