Affordability and Housing

Affording to Live

Boston has one of the most expensive costs of living and housing markets in America and families are hit the hardest. This means so many are living paycheck to paycheck or have to decide whether they pay their utility bill or buy enough food to feed their families. We need to take a hard look at what is driving these costs and address them at the local level. Affordability touches every corner of public policy and it requires a holistic approach to make meaningful change. You will find a focus on affordability throughout all of my priorities that I will bring to the State House.

Part of making our communities more affordable is reducing costs for residents, not large corporate office buildings. That's why I 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. 

Building Our Future

Residents deserve to be able to stay in the neighborhood that raised them and we must provide reasonable options for the many who are looking to the 1st District–and Massachusetts as a whole–to lay down their roots. The Affordable Homes Act of 2024 has made strides in providing investments for new construction and expanded public housing and I look to make sure that the 1st Suffolk can realize the full potential of this historic funding. 

I want to underscore that our communities have to grow and prices need to be in reach for our residents. Everything from the Dorchester Triple Decker to the tenement and brownstone housing stock in the South End was about growth a century ago. In most of those same places, you cannot build those types of buildings today and that is an issue. I will work at the state level to eliminate cost burdens and make it easier to build.

The High Cost of Getting Around

A hidden cost that needs more attention in our district is the cost of getting around our neighborhoods. Whether you are making it to work in the morning, picking up your kid, or joining your neighbors for an event, we spend time, money, and our communities’ social capital everyday on travel. 

We have all read the headlines that the Southwest Expressway (I-93) is 3rd, 5th or some other top-10 rank for most congested corridors in the United States, and ranked among the most congested cities globally. Many of us have faced long headways on the Red Line or dangerous close calls biking 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 already made great strides in reliability, investing in efficiency to save just five minutes a day with improved headways could save you nearly two full days a year.