Councilor and mayoral candidate Andrea Campbell joined supporters in Dorchester to share her plans to address Boston’s housing affordability crisis with creative strategies to build new affordable and workforce housing, including activating City-owned vacant lots for workforce housing and mixed-use development.
“Housing affordability is the single biggest issue Bostonians are worried about. The inequities in access to quality, affordable housing in Boston are deepening, in part because the growth in our City over many years has not been shared equally across all of our neighborhoods,†said Campbell. “Providing the leadership, vision and management necessary to transform housing in Boston must be our next mayor’s top priority. We need to make it easier to build housing that is truly affordable for Bostonians and better utilize City assets that sit vacant in our communities. As mayor, I will get creative, cut red tape and streamline development processes to accelerate the creation of affordable housing. And in my first 100 days, I will activate 100 vacant City lots for housing that will be affordable for those who live here, provide ownership opportunities, and create local jobs.â€
Campbell held her press conference beside a City-owned vacant lot at the corner of Blue Hill Ave and Floyd Street that is currently undergoing an RFP for mixed-use residential and retail development as part of Campbell’s work to activate vacant lots for housing and other community use.
There are thousands of vacant lots in Boston – including hundreds that are owned by the City of Boston and concentrated in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury. As a City Councilor, Campbell started a vacant lots initiative, working with the City’s Department of Neighborhood Development, local universities and students, and community members to develop plans for new housing, retail, and community green space on vacant lots in Dorchester and Mattapan. As a result of this work, the City started a planning process for vacant lots as part of the Blue Hill Ave Action Plan and is currently accepting RFPs for 30 City-owned lots on the Blue Hill Ave corridor. Campbell plans to expand this initiative as mayor and has pledged to activate 100 vacant City lots in her first 100 days.
Campbell is the only candidate in this race offering specific and actionable strategies to create more affordable housing, and activating our vacant lots is just one example. Her housing plan calls for:
•Streamlining permitting and licensing so that it’s faster, easier, more predictable, and cheaper;
•Removing affordable housing and small developments from the BPDA review process (Article 80) so that more affordable housing is available sooner for the community;
•Increasing staff capacity of Inspectional Services and the Department of Neighborhood Development to support this work;
•Update the City’s zoning code to enable more transit-oriented development, allow for accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and eliminate parking minimums for deeply affordable housing projects.