Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 20 of 20
Full-Text Articles in Law
Increasing Housing Stability Through State-Funded Community Mediation Delivered By The Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (Hmp): Evaluation Report, Madhawa Palihapitiya, David Sulewski, Kaila O. Eisenkraft, Jarling Ho
Increasing Housing Stability Through State-Funded Community Mediation Delivered By The Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (Hmp): Evaluation Report, Madhawa Palihapitiya, David Sulewski, Kaila O. Eisenkraft, Jarling Ho
Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications
This report presents findings and recommendations from a formative evaluation of the Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (HMP) administered by the MA Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston in partnership with 12 Community Mediation Centers (CMCs). The program is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and overseen by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) as part of the Baker-Polito Administration’s Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI). The evaluation was conducted by MOPC’s research unit comprised of staff and graduate student researchers, and does not necessarily represent the views of DHCD. As a statutory state office, MOPC …
Gentrification As Anti-Local Economic Development: The Case Of Boston, Massachusetts, James Jennings
Gentrification As Anti-Local Economic Development: The Case Of Boston, Massachusetts, James Jennings
Trotter Review
Activists and political leaders across the city of Boston are concerned that gentrification in the form of rapidly rising rents in low-income and the poorest areas are contributing to displacement of families and children. Rising home sale prices and an increasing number of development projects are feeding into this concern. There is also a growing wariness about the impact that this scenario can have on small and neighborhood-based businesses and microenterprises whose markets are represented by the kinds of households facing potential displacement. This potential side-effect suggests that gentrification could actually emerge as anti-local economic development in Boston. It can …
From Disinvestment To Displacement: Gentrification And Jamaica Plain’S Hyde-Jackson Squares, Jen Douglas
From Disinvestment To Displacement: Gentrification And Jamaica Plain’S Hyde-Jackson Squares, Jen Douglas
Trotter Review
In this essay, I offer a place-based history of socioeconomic and demographic change in Hyde Square and nearby Jackson Square (henceforth “Hyde-Jackson Squares”). I document the area’s ongoing gentrification and describe the distribution of gentrification pressures. I situate this contemporary process against the socio-spatial patterns carved out by the area’s historical rise as an industrial suburb, its struggle amid decades of disinvestment, and the community efforts that ultimately stabilized the neighborhood. In these sequential transformations is the story of how Latinos and Blacks entered, departed, and have strived to remain in the neighborhood.
Community Land Trusts: A Powerful Vehicle For Development Without Displacement, May Louie
Community Land Trusts: A Powerful Vehicle For Development Without Displacement, May Louie
Trotter Review
In the Great Recession of 2007–2009, Boston’s communities of color were hit hard. A 2009 map of foreclosures looked like a map of the communities of color—Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan. The one island of stability was a section of Roxbury called the Dudley Triangle—home to the community land trust of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI).
Originally established to respond to the community’s vision of “development without displacement,” the land trust model was adopted to help residents gain control of land and to use that control to prevent families from being priced out as they organized to improve their neighborhood. …
“Separatist City”: The Mandela, Massachusetts (Roxbury) Movement And The Politics Of Incorporation, Self-Determination, And Community Control, 1986–1988, Zebulon V. Miletsky, Tomás González
“Separatist City”: The Mandela, Massachusetts (Roxbury) Movement And The Politics Of Incorporation, Self-Determination, And Community Control, 1986–1988, Zebulon V. Miletsky, Tomás González
Trotter Review
November 4, 2016, marks 30 years since the historic referendum in which close to 50,000 citizens of Boston living in or near the predominantly Black area of “Greater Roxbury” voted on whether the area should leave Boston and incorporate as a separate municipality to be named in honor of former South African president Nelson and Winnie Mandela, or remain a part of Boston. The new community, what planners called “Greater Roxbury,” would have included wards in much or all of the neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, Jamaica Plain, the Fenway, the South End, and what was then known as Columbia …
Shelter Poverty: Housing Affordability Among Asian Americans, Michael E. Stone
Shelter Poverty: Housing Affordability Among Asian Americans, Michael E. Stone
Michael E. Stone
Relatively little research has been conducted that focuses on the housing situation of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (hereafter generally referred to as Asian Americans), especially on the national level. From a review of about 30 articles and reports over the past decade that examine racial/ethnic housing situations nationally, only one specifically addressed housing problems of Asian Americans (Hansen, 1986) while two others included Asian Americans along with other populations of color. Of the remaining articles, most used the terms race, racial discrimination, or segregation in their titles, yet did not include Asian Americans in the studies. Of particular note, …
Shelter Poverty In Boston: Problem And Program, Michael E. Stone
Shelter Poverty In Boston: Problem And Program, Michael E. Stone
Michael E. Stone
This paper argues, first, that most housing problems—in Boston and throughout the nation—are ultimately the result of the squeeze between inadequate incomes, on the one hand, and the cost of profitably providing housing on the other. It is also argued that housing cost and incomes together are the most decisive determinants of the overall quality of life of families and communities. Third, it is contended that the long history of inadequate attempts to cope with the affordabiiity problem have not only failed to solve the problem, but have indeed contributed significantly to the broader and serious problems of the overall …
Rapid Re-Housing Of Families Experiencing Homelessness In Massachusetts: Maintaining Housing Stability, Tim H. Davis, Terry S. Lane
Rapid Re-Housing Of Families Experiencing Homelessness In Massachusetts: Maintaining Housing Stability, Tim H. Davis, Terry S. Lane
Center for Social Policy Publications
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“Recovery Act”) provided $1.5 billion for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP), a temporary program that addressed both homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing of families already experiencing homelessness. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) allocated $44.5 million, including $26.1 million to individual Massachusetts communities and $18.4 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Of its funds, the state allocated $8.3 million for rapid re-housing of families who were living in shelters or motels.
This report explores the experiences of 486 of these families who received rapid re-housing assistance …
Legislative Hearing On Ma Foreclosure Mediation Program Bills: Written Testimony To The Joint Committee On The Judiciary, Susan Jeghelian, Madhawa Palihapitiya
Legislative Hearing On Ma Foreclosure Mediation Program Bills: Written Testimony To The Joint Committee On The Judiciary, Susan Jeghelian, Madhawa Palihapitiya
Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications
The inability of homeowners to communicate with holders of securitized mortgage obligations has been a significant barrier to completing affordable loan modifications that might prevent foreclosures or minimize losses and keep more homeowners in their homes. Increasingly, legislators and the courts are looking at mediation as a potential solution to the problem.
In a little over a year, from mid-2008 to mid-2009, more than 25 distinct foreclosure mediation programs were launched in fourteen different states. State legislatures, state supreme courts, and local courts played roles in creating these programs. Mediation is being favored over litigation due to concerns such as …
Shelter Poverty: Housing Affordability Among Asian Americans, Michael E. Stone
Shelter Poverty: Housing Affordability Among Asian Americans, Michael E. Stone
Institute for Asian American Studies Publications
Relatively little research has been conducted that focuses on the housing situation of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (hereafter generally referred to as Asian Americans), especially on the national level. From a review of about 30 articles and reports over the past decade that examine racial/ethnic housing situations nationally, only one specifically addressed housing problems of Asian Americans (Hansen, 1986) while two others included Asian Americans along with other populations of color. Of the remaining articles, most used the terms race, racial discrimination, or segregation in their titles, yet did not include Asian Americans in the studies. Of particular note, …
The Repeal Of Rent Control In Cambridge, Robert P. Moncreiff
The Repeal Of Rent Control In Cambridge, Robert P. Moncreiff
New England Journal of Public Policy
In the November 8, 1994, state election, Massachusetts voters approved a question placed on the ballot by initiative petition passing a law that effectively outlawed rent control throughout the commonwealth. This law had its most dramatic effect in Cambridge, where a stringent rent control system had been in effect since 1970. The success of the petition was realized primarily through the grassroots efforts of a coalition of small-property owners in Cambridge who felt aggrieved by the city's rent control system. The use of a statewide vote on an initiative petition to enact a law with predominantly local effect created for …
It's Hard Outside: Profiles Of Elderly Homelessness, Joseph Doolin
It's Hard Outside: Profiles Of Elderly Homelessness, Joseph Doolin
New England Journal of Public Policy
This article is a qualitative study of the lives of homeless elders in Boston. It examines the concerns uppermost in the minds of the homeless including the art of integrating their past lives into the values and milieu of their current homeless situation. Concern about the reinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in public shelters, domiciles once reserved for the older alcoholic, the pressures and stress of shelter life, victimization, the shrinking supply of SRO units, and the role of alcohol are also examined. Considered in detail are various coping strategies and supports utilized by older adults in their survival roofless. …
Housing Issues In Boston: Guidelines For Options And Strategies, Joseph S. Slavet
Housing Issues In Boston: Guidelines For Options And Strategies, Joseph S. Slavet
John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications
Most of the recent analyses of Boston's housing problem reveal a complex and contradictory mix of positive trends and negative factors, clouded by a growing percentage of poor and near-poor resident households in the City and declining commitments by the federal government to housing, particularly for subsidies of new housing production.
That Boston's housing problem, unlike that of many other large cities, is of manageable proportions, however, is attributable mainly to the following demographic trends and forecasts that are not likely to exacerbate the problem and that many even ease some of the most serious current and future pressures of …
Issues Facing Boston: 1984, Housing, Phillip L. Clay
Issues Facing Boston: 1984, Housing, Phillip L. Clay
John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications
The housing problem in Boston is one issue facing the new council which offers both opportunity and complexity. In a city where 70 percent of the households are tenants, where incomes are low and housing expensive, and where major demographic and economic changes are taking place, easy answers are not available. But housing, unlike other issues, is a matter over which the city has some leverage so that progress will be noted and appreciated by an increasingly attentive electorate.
In recent years, the city has not faced the challenge of greater local discretion in housing policy (made available by the …
Boston's Housing In 1984: Issues And Opportunities, Rolf Goetze
Boston's Housing In 1984: Issues And Opportunities, Rolf Goetze
John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications
Sharp cutbacks in federal aid for housing and community development now challenge Boston to become more resourceful in its housing strategies. In the neighborhoods where new solutions are needed, much has already been happening that can be adapted and expanded. Fortunately, the City's resurgence can also help achieve more results with less public resources, but a fresh approach involving community interests is essential. At the same time, local laws, procedures and programs devised to address past problems must also be critically re-evaluated to determine their appropriateness to the new realities.
Confidence in Boston's future is being uplifted, and many neighborhoods …
Shelter Poverty In Boston: Problem And Program, Michael E. Stone
Shelter Poverty In Boston: Problem And Program, Michael E. Stone
John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications
This paper argues, first, that most housing problems—in Boston and throughout the nation—are ultimately the result of the squeeze between inadequate incomes, on the one hand, and the cost of profitably providing housing on the other. It is also argued that housing cost and incomes together are the most decisive determinants of the overall quality of life of families and communities. Third, it is contended that the long history of inadequate attempts to cope with the affordabiiity problem have not only failed to solve the problem, but have indeed contributed significantly to the broader and serious problems of the overall …
Housing Issues In Boston: Guidelines For New Policy And Program Perspectives, Joseph S. Slavet, Boston Urban Observatory, University Of Massachusetts Boston
Housing Issues In Boston: Guidelines For New Policy And Program Perspectives, Joseph S. Slavet, Boston Urban Observatory, University Of Massachusetts Boston
Boston Urban Observatory Publications
Urban stagnation and turbulence, the roller-coaster trends In the national and local economy and the vicissitudes of national, state and local public policies have left their mark on Boston's residential neighborhoods and housing markets.
Boston's response to the new opportunities of public policy during the sixties and seventies was to take full advantage of urban renewal, assis ted-housing production and housing rehabilitation. Large-scale activities reshaped the occupancy patterns and market strengths of residential neighborhoods. By mid-1975, however, except for continuing growth in the City's subsidized housing stock, Boston's housing future looked bleak. There was pervasive evidence of a growing housing …
Evaluation Of City Of Boston Fair Housing Programs: The Final Report, Boston Urban Observatory, University Of Massachusetts Boston
Evaluation Of City Of Boston Fair Housing Programs: The Final Report, Boston Urban Observatory, University Of Massachusetts Boston
Boston Urban Observatory Publications
The City of Boston's 3-year Pair Housing Plan (1981-83) identifies the following six goals for achieving greater freedom of choice in housing for its minority residents: 1) To improve the delivery of services relative to the enhancement of freedom of choice to all minorities in Boston as they relate to fair housing; 2) To increase enforcement of fair housing laws; 3) To increase public safety and security to assure equal access throughout the City of Boston; 4) To Increase the participation of all minorities and low-and moderate-income people in all City of Boston housing programs; 5) To increase low-cost housing …
Substandard Housing And The Cost Of Providing Housing-Related Services, David Podoff, Daniel A. Primont, Louis Esposito, Boston Urban Observatory, University Of Massachusetts Boston
Substandard Housing And The Cost Of Providing Housing-Related Services, David Podoff, Daniel A. Primont, Louis Esposito, Boston Urban Observatory, University Of Massachusetts Boston
Boston Urban Observatory Publications
Designed as a comparative undertaking by the National League of Cities (NLC) , this study is officially entitled "National Research Agenda Project No. 5: Substandard Housing and the Cost of Providing Housing-Related Services." A similar study was carried out by the urban observatories in Denver and Nashville. According to the study scope of services, the NLC was interested in the cost of "a wide variety of local government activities ... required to support and service urban housing," and how these costs "are affected by housing quality, housing location, age and type of structures. ..." It was also suggested that attention …
The Impact Of Housing Inspectional Services On Housing Maintenance In The City Of Boston: A Preliminary Evaluation, Boston Urban Observatory, University Of Massachusetts Boston
The Impact Of Housing Inspectional Services On Housing Maintenance In The City Of Boston: A Preliminary Evaluation, Boston Urban Observatory, University Of Massachusetts Boston
Boston Urban Observatory Publications
This study is a preliminary evaluation of the relative impacts of various City policies and programs related to the enforcement of housing codes and to the maintenance and upgrading of the existing supply of housing. It analyzes code enforcement functions at both the level of central administration and field procedures. City departments covered by the study include Housing Inspection (HID), Building, and the environmental unit of Health and Hospitals. Also reviewed are newer approaches to housing code enforcement, including civil remedies and federally-assisted concentrated code enforcement projects.