Curtain Call: A Bold Plan for Boston's Housing Future

Image Credit: Boston Housing Authority 

Boston's long-time Mayor Thomas M. Menino, though preparing to step down after more than two decades at the helm of the city later this fall, recently released his office's ambitious strategy to increase the number of affordable housing units in the city by 2020. The plan, entitled Housing Boston 2020, is the result of a collaboration among developers, offices within the Menino administration, various non-profits housing advocates, and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, seeks to update zoning; change the permitting requirements for units size; work with unions to reduce costs of affordable housing development; formulate affordable development pipelines; and expand housing options for low and middle-income Bostonians. By the end of 2013, the plan aims to establish a Middle Income Housing Initiative and Boston Buyers' Advantage Program to help buyers of modest means remain competitive in the city's expensive real estate market.

The overall plan calls for more than 5,000 of the planned new housing to be affordable units with deed restrictions and also provides for a new system of cataloguing city-owned vacant land for the possibility of more affordable development. The venture's advisory committee has also called for the generation of local resources to offset federal cuts to affordable housing.

The issue of affordable housing- and affordable city living generally- has been a constant theme in this year's Boston mayoral election. Just yesterday, City Councilor and candidate Mike Ross (D8) spoke about the need for a "smart" and comprehensive affordable housing policy in a radio interview. Amidst the rhetoric of the final weeks of the campaign, Mayor Menino's final act may set the backdrop for the housing policies of the next mayor of a city that many love to call home and many more cannot afford.