Housing as History: New Directions for Boston’s Subsidized Housing: Learning from the Past

As neighborhoods across Boston face enormous development pressure, there is a risk that low-income residents will be forced out of the city. Social disruption due to gentrification, shifting government policies and programs, and the challenges of climate change make the future of affordable housing in Boston precarious. In the past, Boston modeled creative and successful solutions to dire housing problems, and there is hope that the city can continue to deploy innovative policies that will brighten the future for all city residents. Our final panel in this series will look at the future of affordable housing in Boston, taking stock of past lessons learned.

This conversation will include William McGonagle, former Administrator, Boston Housing Authority; Soni Gupta, Director of Neighborhoods and Housing, The Boston Foundation; Lawrence Vale, Ford Professor of Urban Design and Planning, MIT; Sandra Henriquez, Executive Director, Detroit Housing Commission; former administrator and CEO, Boston Housing Authority; and moderator David Luberoff, Deputy Director, Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

This program is part four of a four program series titled Housing as History. The series is a production of the Massachusetts Historical Society and is co-sponsored by Mass Humanities and the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.