“I am grateful to the Initiative on Cities Gentrification & Urban Displacement Lab for fostering and supporting new collaborations between researchers and city agencies. I am thrilled to work with the Office of Housing in their efforts to create more affordable housing and prevent displacement.”
— Shomon Shamsuddin
The Boston University Initiative on Cities Gentrification & Urban Displacement Lab (GUDL) is proud to announce the second recipient of our pilot partnership seed grant: a collaboration between the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Housing (MOH) and Shomon Shamsuddin, Associate Professor in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning (UEP) at Tufts University. The award furthers GUDL’s goal of fostering new, cross-sector collaborations to advance innovative anti-displacement policy and practice.
MOH and Shomon Shamsuddin will work together to conduct a quantitative analysis of the City’s Acquisition Opportunity Program (AOP), which supports and enables responsible, community-driven investors and developers — such as Community Development Corporations (CDCs) and Community Land Trusts (CLTs) — to acquire naturally occurring affordable rental housing, stabilizing existing tenancies and adding in perpetuity affordability restrictions. The partnership between MOH and Tufts UEP was formed through GUDL’s matchmaking efforts after finding mutual interest in evaluating the impact of housing affordability strategies in Boston. The study will compare participating AOP properties with adjacent non-participating properties to assess the program’s impacts on resident stability and well-being, using indicators such as evictions, 311 requests, 911 calls, crime reports, income changes, and building-level data.
Findings from this project will help the City evaluate and refine the AOP and to offer lessons to other city agencies and municipalities seeking to advance evidence-informed anti-displacement strategies.
Adam Goldstein, Associate Director of the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Housing, is enthusiastic that the collaboration will provide MOH with the insights to improve the AOP and other housing programs that Boston is working on: “It is a privilege to partner with skilled researchers like Professor Shamsuddin to deeply analyze the impact of the City’s premier anti-displacement tools. The Mayor’s Office of Housing is excited about this collaboration; the research generated by the Gentrification & Urban Displacement Lab will directly strengthen our work in supporting Boston residents struggling with housing instability and displacement.”