Where can Massachusetts build more housing? How about publicly owned land?

Ask people why we don’t build more housing in Greater Boston, and some will say there just isn’t enough land here anymore. As the region has grown, the developable land in Boston and its surrounding cities and suburbs has been snatched up and built out, which makes solving a housing crisis that demands building thousands of new homes a tricky prospect.

Public Land Could Generate 85K New Homes, Report Says

Public property dispositions are a missed opportunity to ramp up housing production in Massachusetts amid the downturn in multifamily construction, according to a new report. The Boston Foundation’s 2024 Greater Boston Housing Report Card estimates that 85,000 housing units could be created if just 5 percent of vacant public parcels were developed.

Louisville committee votes to move forward new tool to combat gentrification

The Louisville Metro Council passed an Anti-Displacement Ordinance in 2023 to combat gentrification, including a tool to assess whether a developer’s project could displace residents. While it has taken longer than expected to finalize the tool, the Planning and Zoning Committee put it to a vote Tuesday.

Anti-gentrification tool moves closer to final approval in Metro Louisville

A new “anti-displacement assessment tool” that could help Metro Council members gauge how large developments might harm nearby residents is moving closer to final approval. The Louisville Metro Council’s Planning and Zoning Commission gave the tool approval Tuesday, one year after the council approved the ordinance that created the tool. Since then, it has been in development by researchers at several universities and Metro government.

Despite reform efforts, inventory and price pressures continue to drag on housing market, 2024 Housing Report Card finds

Greater Boston’s well-publicized housing challenges continue, even as communities work to change zoning rules to comply with the state’s new MBTA Communities requirements, according to the 2024 Greater Boston Housing Report Card. The Report Card, released today at the Boston Foundation, notes that a lack of new construction, high interest rates, and changing demographics continue to slow sales and increase costs. However, the report sees promise in new policy initiatives. In a special section authored by a team from the Boston University Initiative on Cities, the report highlights the opportunity presented by freeing up publicly owned, vacant or underused land for affordable development – and the obstacles that are keeping it from happening.

Urban H: Housing, Heat and Health

In 2023, heat records were broken on all continents and the world saw the highest global temperatures in over 100,000 years. With buildings and roads retaining heat and creating urban heat islands, warmer cities have not only become increasingly uncomfortable but are also posing health risks such as heat exhaustion and respiratory disorders to their inhabitants. In the US, the 175 largest cities–which account for 65 percent of the total population–have seen a disproportionate number of heat-related deaths in the past 15 years.

Anti-Displacement Ordinance Introduced in Louisville by Tenant Advocates

Tenant leaders and advocates in Louisville, Kentucky, introduced the “Anti-Displacement Fair Housing Ordinance,” also known as the “Historically Black Neighborhoods Ordinance” (HBNO), in August 2023. The first of its kind to be introduced in a southern state, the ordinance aims to address the rampant displacement and gentrification affecting Black communities in low-income neighborhoods in the Louisville metropolitan area.

Temporary accommodation nation

Temporary accommodation is the sharp end of England’s housing crisis. Official data shows that there are now more than 117,000 households in this unenviable situation— an increase of 23 per cent in the past three years—including 151,000 children under the age of 16. Together, they could occupy every home in Cambridge.