Affordability and Housing
Affording to Live
Boston has one of the highest costs of living and one of the most expensive housing markets in America, and families are hit the hardest. So many of us in Boston are living paycheck to paycheck, left deciding whether to pay a utility bill or buy enough food to feed our families. We need to address these costs at the local level by legalizing rent control, lowering residential taxes, holding utility companies accountable, creating real pathways to homeownership, encouraging development, and increasing tenant protections.
My priorities include:
Support Boston's Home Rule Petition to temporarily shift the property tax classification formula so residential properties are less impacted by the decrease in commercial property values as commercial real estate adjusts to the post-COVID work schedule.
Limit bulk purchasing of housing and prioritize homes for people, not profit. We need to take on corporate landlords, private equity, and speculative investors who are driving up costs.
Strengthen tenant protections, including rent stabilization, to prevent displacement and keep families in their communities.
Building Our Future
People deserve to be able to stay in the neighborhood that raised them. We must prioritize preventing displacement for the many who are looking to lay down their roots in the district they call home.
My priorities include:
Eliminate cost burdens and make it easier to build. The triple deckers in Dorchester and the brownstones in the South End, both built a century ago, allowed for the growth that families still rely on in the district today. In most of these same places, you can't build that type of housing anymore. We need to rethink our outdated zoning codes and refocus on allowing for families to grow and thrive in the district that raised them.
Create real pathways to homeownership for working-class families by expanding first-time homebuyer programs and increasing down payment assistance, especially for communities historically excluded from the housing market.
Realize the full potential of the historic funding invested in the Affordable Homes Act of 2024 by focusing on new construction and expanding public housing.
The High Cost of Getting Around
We have all read the headlines that the Southeast Expressway (I-93) is ranked 3rd, 5th, or somewhere else in the top 10 for most congested corridors in the United States. Whether we know the statistics or not, we experience the reality of Boston being ranked among the most congested cities globally. Many of us have faced long headways on the Red Line or had dangerous close calls while cycling on our main streets.
Our state has shown it can build world-class transportation infrastructure, and I will advocate for the 1st Suffolk to be considered fairly for generational investment to improve the core infrastructure that we all use to get around. No one should have to fear for their safety getting to work. While the MBTA has begun to make great strides in reliability, there is a mountain of work left to do to make our public transit befitting the world-class city we call home.