housing Archives

SOMERVILLE YMCA CONTEMPLATES FUTURE IN NEW BUILDING

The search for a new facility is on (Somerville Wire) – The Somerville YMCA is in an early stage of the process of searching for a new home. Established in 1867, the building that currently houses the community center was built in 1904. Due to the age of the facility

SHIRA LAUCHAROEN February 22, 2022

A NEW AMERICAN PROJECT

In the nationwide bipartisan blitz to privatize public housing, Boston’s giving billions worth of benefits to some of America’s largest developers, financiers, and property management firms. Politicians are applauding, but for many residents caught in the transition, their housing future is unclear BY CHRIS FARAONE with research and reporting by

CHRIS FARAONE February 1, 2022

THE LACK OF ON-CAMPUS HOUSING CREATES TENSIONS AND INSTABILITY IN SOMERVILLE

“Shortages and insecurity in on-campus housing continue to push students to look for housing elsewhere—in surrounding communities.” Housing instability within Somerville continues to worsen as universities struggle to accommodate their rising student populations. Meanwhile, rental prices in surrounding communities increase. The growing divide between students and the community puts pressure

SADIE COLLINS AND KAITLIN DSOUZA January 12, 2022

BOSTON’S BOOMING LIFE SCIENCES INDUSTRY MOVES TO SOMERVILLE

Image by Boynton Yards “The more we can encourage developers to build commercial properties, ironically, I think the more affordable housing that’s likely to result in.” The largest life sciences cluster in the nation, Cambridge’s Kendall Square, is reaching a saturation point. The industry, on the other hand, has no

RIDDHIMA DAVE January 12, 2022

SPECIAL SEQUEL: DESACRALIZED

As another historic Black Boston institution is gentrified, a congregation displaced by condos reflects on this trend and what it means BY CLAIRE SADAR AND ALYSSA MALDONADO-ESTRADA [Read the first installment of this series] City churches were designed to be walkable and serve their immediate neighborhoods, but as historically working-class

CLAIRE SADAR AND ALYSSA MALDONADO-ESTRADA January 6, 2022

WINTER HILL STAR MARKET SITE DEVELOPMENT IN DISCUSSION

The potential project, still in an early stage of planning, has benefited from community feedback (Somerville Wire) – On Nov. 8, the Land Use Committee held a public hearing to discuss the possibility of having the Winter Hill Star Market site developed by Mark Development, LLC. While community members did

SHIRA LAUCHAROEN November 23, 2021

OPINION: ONE TOOL AGAINST DISPLACEMENT, RENT HIKES, SPECULATION

“TOPA would allow communities to slow displacement and gentrification by removing some homes from the for-profit, speculative, escalating market, and making them permanently affordable.” Speculators are driving up prices, blocking new home-buyers, and promoting destabilization of neighborhoods, displacement of long-time residents, and gentrification. Is this inevitable? Those issues were the

PAT JEHLEN November 2, 2021