Gentrification_in_Boston (1).mp4
Farah Elmary - www.linkedin.com/in/farah-elmary-1a2v
Rozana Athira - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rozana-rahim-367795277/
Almogira Abu Elgasim - www.linkedin.com/in/al-mogira-abu-elgasim-323b31360
Gentrification goes against SDG 11 by way of displacing poor and minority communities, increasing housing costs, and property taxes. Gentrification, as traditionally associated with urbanization processes, actually increases inequality, discourages social inclusion, and limits the availability of affordable housing.
Rapidly changing gentrification has been affecting neighborhoods in Boston: Roxbury, Dorchester, and East Boston. The long-term residents, mostly of working-class status and people of color, are displaced by gentrification. Roxbury has luxury development with private developers as the major stakeholders who have obtained planning approvals from the City.
Community groups, businesses, and activists are all striving to preserve affordability along with cultural character. With city growth, there must be some sort of collaboration among policymakers, developers, and communities to provide a check against displacement.
Social stability zones (SSZs) form a targeted policy strategy intended to prevent displacement in Boston's most vulnerable neighborhoods. Modeled after international examples in Berlin and Seoul, SSZs would mark high-risk neighborhoods-credit to Roxbury, East Boston, and Dorchester-being places where development will be subjected to tight community governance. These would include prohibitions on luxury condo conversions, rent stabilization provisions, and a right of-first-refusal whereby nonprofits or the city can buy properties before private investors. A new Community Acquisition Fund, funded by developer fees and city monies, would be set up to finance affordable housing and lay the foundation for legacy businesses. Repair grants would be available for homeowners whose homes need work, and renters would gain from rent roll caps and antic-eviction law enforcement. Each SSZ would operate under the control of a resident board with real authority. While Boston has inclusionary zoning and subsidized housing, SSZs build a more robust, full spectrum framework toward ensuring that neighborhood growth is in service to existing residents.
Although the Social Stability Zones (SSZs) is inspired by well practiced international models, the success of it in Boston will depend on several uncertain factors. Such as the city’s willingness to pass down new zone regulation, the availability of sustainable funding sources and the ability of non profit organizations to manage land and housing. To tackle these issues we propose to have early partnerships with community land trusts such as DSNI to start with small scaling it in smaller areas such as Roxbury to measure its success, provide feedback and make adjustments.While the model holds promise, its long-term success depends on iterative design and genuine multi-stakeholder collaboration.