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My name is Jean Nolan, and I live in Roslindale, MA. I believe that housing is a human right, and that everyone should have safe housing that they can afford. Having worked in public education for 24 years, I have witnessed first hand how challenging it is for families to find housing they can afford, and how disruptive it is to students to have to move due to lack of affordable housing. Currently almost 70% of the students in Boston Public Schools qualify for the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program. None of those families would be able to pay the Fair Market rent of a 1 bedroom in Boston. A family qualifying for reduced lunch would have to spend over 50% of their income, to cover the rent, while a family qualifying for free lunch would need to pay over 73% of their income on rent. Additionally these families do not qualify for the new affordable units which are being built, as they make too little, since most affordable units are priced for families making at least 60% AMI (and not 30 to 50% AMI which is what most families with children in Boston Public Schools make).
Additionally the median income of BIPOc renters is also too low to qualify for the affordable units under the current proposal. We must provide affordable units for families making 30% AMI, 40% AMI and 50% AMI.
As we know Boston is the city with one of the greatest racial wealth gaps. Much of that wealth gap can be traced to racist policies which excluded BIPOC communities from many Federal and state programs. Let's not continue that trend.
Thank you.