AN AFFORDABLE HOUSING PANEL DISCUSSION: WHAT ARE COMMUNITY AND TENANT RIGHTS?
Location: Harvard Graduate School of Design Gund Hall, Room 517
Panelists:
Jan Devereux, Vice Mayor of Cambridge
Leslie Reid, Director of Real Estate, Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation
Sai Balakrishnan, Professor of Urban Planning, Harvard Graduate School of Design (Moderator)
Cambridge and the Greater Boston area, similar to other regions across the United States are facing critical affordability pressures with increasing housing costs and stagnant wages leaving more than half of tenants cost burdened. City governments have responded with a host of policies including inclusionary zoning and linkage fees to develop more affordable units. Moreover, in 2017, the Boston City Council approved the Jim Brooks Community Stabilization Act to protect existing tenants from eviction. While advocates laud the act as a much needed protection against working-class tenants being priced out of the city opponents cite the risks of deterring new development and returning to rent control. Through discussion with resident and political leaders this panel will consider the protection of tenant and community rights in Cambridge and the Greater Boston area.
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Gund Hall, Room 517
April 4, 2018
6:30 - 8:00 pm
Hosted by the Harvard Urban Planning Organization (HUPO)
