Across the country, market demand for homes in walkable, downtown neighborhoods is driving up housing costs. How can communities capitalize on this demand and create great neighborhoods that are attainable and equitable for people of all income levels?
LOCUS’ new Attainable Housing and Social Equity Initiative (AHSEI) Pilot Program is a private sector, place-based approach designed to address this challenge, in partnership with the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis at the George Washington University (GWU) and funded by the Barr Foundation. As part of the Pilot Program, LOCUS will be selecting a number of U.S. cities to participate in strategies aimed at ensuring accessibility and social equity in great walkable urban places. The first of these cities is Somerville, MA, where our work kicked off at a public meeting in July.
Somerville is a mixed-income city that is benefiting from its proximity to Cambridge and its growing hi-tech industry. The community’s hope to encourage new growth while maintaining its mixed-income character offers a particularly relevant context to study accessibility and social equity trends. As we detailed in our March 2015 report The WalkUP Wake-Up Call: Boston, the Boston metro region is poised to lead the nation in the creation of new walkable urban places. One of these places is Union Square, where high demand for great walkable urban places and recent influx of private investment has motivated communities like Somerville to look for ways to harness the economic potential of walkable urban places while achieving and managing a level of accessibility and affordability for residents and businesses.
In Somerville, LOCUS and GWU will work closely with local community groups, businesses, and stakeholders in Union Square, including the Union Square Community Advisory Committee, to determine development needs and social equity outcomes to serve as the basis for a place-based strategy and implementation plan for Union Square. LOCUS and GWU will also model projections of economic value, public revenues, and real estate valuations for different development scenarios, building of the research conducted as part of The WalkUP Wake-Up Call: Boston report. LOCUS will then guide follow-up sessions on implementation of the strategic plan.