Getting to Yes on Housing in Greater Boston and Framingham

Held on Tuesday, April 13, 2021.

Watch a recording or read a recap below.

Recap by Claudia Chiappa

On Tuesday, April 13, the Boston University Initiative on Cities (IOC) and Abundant Housing MA hosted a discussion about the politics of housing and the challenges behind reforms. Mayor Yvonne Spicer of the City of Framingham joined Associate Professor Katherine Einstein of Boston University in a conversation moderated by Whitney Demetrius, Director of Fair Housing Engagement at the Citizens Housing And Planning Association (CHAPA).

Housing construction is fundamental to build an equitable society and crucial to a city’s development. Mayor Spicer noted how new housing is the key to Framingham’s financial recovery economic growth post-pandemic. However, both Spicer and Einstein explained there are several challenges that make housing reforms hard to support and implement.

“It’s a public health crisis not to have a home,” noted Spicer.

During the pandemic, several residents lost their jobs and their homes, and Spicer said showing the city’s support was a priority for her. The mayor signed an Eviction Moratorium in February 2019 to help communities struggling with financial insecurity and was “deliberate and unapologetic” about her actions.

Setting the stage: Where are We Today?

Several of Einstein’s research projects focus on the challenges of housing politics. A 2019 study she conducted in collaboration with BU Faculty Maxwell Palmer and David Glick examined participation in Massachusetts Planning and Zoning board meetings, breaking down the characteristics of the participants. They found that the majority of the participants were white, over 75, and homeowners. In addition, they were overwhelmingly opposed to new housing.

As meetings shifted online last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Einstein wondered if this lack of representation would change. Despite the accessibility of Zoom meetings, she noted that the data indicated that virtual meetings were still biased in favor of white, older homeowners who oppose new housing. Housing meetings therefore continue to fail to represent cities’ population accurately and to amplify voices of those opposing construction of new housing.

A project born out of MetroBridge’s collaboration with the City of Framingham examined racial equity in the city, in particular focusing on the 2020 Framingham Apartment Moratorium Petition, which called for a 9-month ban on multi-family housing construction. The project found that supporters of the ban were mostly white, older homeowners with above average property value. This bias has the potential to contribute to racial inequity in the city, as the groups most likely to be affected by an apartment moratorium are underrepresented in the decision-making process.

“I find this to be a really troubling and informative illustration of the way that these participatory disparities can have a profound impact on the housing supply in communities that may need to increase their housing,” noted Einstein.

A third study Einstein discussed focused on the public mistrust towards developers. This preconception, Einstein noted, can make it harder to have housing reforms both at the local and state level. Along with the lack of representation in housing politics, this creates real challenges for mayors looking to implement equitable housing reforms.

“A lot of the policies we are seeing getting promulgated in many communities really favor the interest of homeowners,” said Einstein.

How to Address Inequities

As Einstein’s research showed, public engagement often fails to accurately represent communities. Continuous and consistent work is fundamental when looking to address inequities. Framingham Mayor Spicer explained how she has worked to address the inequities still present in Framingham, both by encouraging conversations between communities and by celebrating diversity.

“There is housing inequity, but often times—food insecurity, health inequities, all of these are tied together,” explained Spicer. “I have been tackling them all together.”

Mayor Spicer stressed the importance of bringing information directly to the interested community. This means ensuring that translation services are available and strategically thinking about meetings location and time to accommodate residents. In addition, Spicer said it is important to communicate directly with local leaders, such as pastors and community organizers. By going out of her way to physically travel to underrepresented communities, Spicer shows residents that she is committed to equitable politics.

Other solutions, Einstein suggested, might be developing strategies to appeal to residents who do not want to participate in meetings and thinking more carefully about which issues even warrant a meeting in the first place.

“It’s really important to make it so that people are interested in politics and feel like their voices matter in the proceedings,” noted Einstein. “When people don’t have a sense of advocacy, they don’t participate, they don’t trust the proceedings.”

While Einstein’s study on virtual meetings found that bridging accessibility gaps was not enough to encourage diversity in participants, she believes that deliberate outreach could potentially solve this issue, at least partially. In addition, virtual meetings raise the issue of internet access, said Spicer. She believes leaders should be more intentional when reaching out to communities and target the specific needs of its residents.