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 […]
Housing
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 […]
Posted inOpinion
It’s time to build stable, supportive housing in Massachusetts
COVID-19 HAS LAID bare the inadequacy of a safety net system here in Massachusetts, from workforce shortages to the lack of a viable public health response for adults, youth, and families experiencing homelessness on a day-to-day basis. The pandemic has pushed our statewide response system to the limit — further straining the state’s critical services […]
Posted inOpinion
Don’t pit housing crisis against climate crisis
TODAY IN MASSACHUSETTS, both the Baker administration and the Legislature – and some individual communities, too – are working on proposed “net zero” policies to address the climate crisis. Dramatic building code changes are intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. However, they would undeniably also impose increased costs on new residential construction, and […]
Posted inOpinion
Is Harvard replicating the Seaport in Allston?
SLEEK EXPENSIVE apartment houses with river views. Laboratory and office buildings in symmetrical rows. A hotel, a conference center, a central plaza. Upscale retail at ground level. Trees, planters, native plants. An enclave of privilege. Such is Harvard’s vision so far for its new Enterprise Research Campus in Allston. Alternatively, consider this: a dense aggregation […]