Boston Can’t Fix the Housing Crisis Alone

Boston Can’t Fix the Housing Crisis Alone—the Commonwealth Must Enforce its MBTA Zoning Law

Lawyers for Civil Rights Applauds Mayor Wu’s Housing Efforts, But More is Needed Across the Commonwealth to Combat the Affordable Housing Crisis

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu delivered her second state of the city address. In it, Mayor Wu touted her administration’s housing achievements, including federal funding for 3,000 public housing units to be built over the next decade. These efforts are commendable, but nowhere near sufficient on their own to make a real dent in Boston’s stratospheric housing prices. To protect low-income communities of color, the City must redouble its affordable housing efforts in the coming years.  

Lawyers for Civil Rights wants to make clear that Boston can’t bear this responsibility alone. As a 2023 Boston Indicators report forcefully demonstrates, exclusionary zoning in the Boston suburbs—which was designed to keep those communities predominantly white—is a driving factor in the Commonwealth’s affordable housing crisis. This widespread exclusionary zoning is precisely why the Commonwealth passed its landmark MBTA Zoning Law, requiring 177 municipalities to allow for more multi-family housing development.  

Although the Commonwealth has issued legal guidance stating that compliance with the MBTA Zoning Law is required, the Attorney General must enforce the law more aggressively against towns that have either refused to comply or showed signs of backtracking. To truly address the affordable housing crisis that has spread across Massachusetts, the Commonwealth must do everything in its power to achieve full compliance with the Law.