By Helen Matthews, Lisa Thompson, and Jen Douglass
Marc Kaplan’s proposed apartment development at 3326 Washington Street (the former site of JP Auto Glass at Washington and Glen Road) is raising serious concerns within the Jamaica Plain community. The new developer wants to ditch the hard-won requirements that the City approved. Following strong community organizing, the City required greater affordability at lower rents in developments that make large profit from major zoning changes around height and density. The project has now turned into a deeply troubling example of how gentrification and broken promises can fuel the displacement crisis in the Egleston Square area. The key issue here: affordability.
When the proposal was first introduced, it promised to provide real, on-site affordable housing. These were not just any affordable units, but units aimed at helping those most at risk of displacement – low-income residents, working-class families, and particularly people of color who have historically been priced out of neighborhoods like JP. The original agreement, approved by the BPDA and the City, called for 10 on-site affordable units (24.1% of the project) with rents set at 30% and 50% of the Area Median Income (AMI). This was supposed to help meet the growing need for housing in a community where many struggle to make ends meet. After the new developer bought the property, he filed an application affirming his commitment to the original plan.
However, the developer has now axed these promises, but the City has had no public comment period or public meetings. In the new scheme, only three affordable units remain on-site, down from the original 10. And even these remaining units are now priced at 70% AMI for households making $80,000-115,000. For a community and a city where the majority of BIPOC renters make $30,000-40,000 per year, the rents in the remaining “affordable” units are simply out of reach.
Not only are the number of affordable units drastically reduced, but all of the original units at 30% and 50% AMI have been replaced with “HUD fair market rent” units ($2,580/mo for a one bedroom), or simply bought out, with the money going to an unspecified off-site fund. Changing units to $2,580/mo is a disturbing new tactic in developers’ classic drive to eliminate truly affordable on-site housing. These units will now be accessible only if someone already has a voucher, but they were originally around $600-700/mo to be affordable for low-income residents unable to get vouchers (an already underfunded resource now being gutted by Trump). Now, the developer still claims “deeply affordable” housing while excluding these residents and profiting off of the very public resources meant to protect low-income residents. While developers should expand access to voucher holders, this should not replace core affordability requirements.
The reduction in the number of affordable units and the targeted elimination of the most deeply affordable units represents a complete failure to honor the initial promise of creating a development that meets the real, urgent needs of the community. Replacing affordable units by using public funds to subsidize market rents, and buying out affordable units, does nothing to address the deep housing crisis that many in JP face. In fact, it perpetuates a system that allows developers to profit from gentrification while the most vulnerable members of the community get pushed further and further out of the city.
The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council (JPNC) has long been a champion for affordable housing. Scores of JP residents spoke out at 2 recent JPNC meetings, urging the council to help protect the scarce affordable housing we need. The council took a strong, unwavering stand in support of real, on-site affordability, calling for continued community process rather than a rushed City vote, and penning a letter to the BPDA and the Mayor’s Office of Housing to defend the required affordability.
This is a matter of racial and economic justice, and of ensuring that people who have lived in this community for generations don’t get displaced by rising rents and luxury developments. We can’t let developers get away with offering us 7% on-site affordability at high rents, and smoke and mirrors using public funding and buyouts. The City and the developer must be held accountable for the promises they made – promises that were supposed to preserve diversity, create housing that matches what people actually need, and stop the forces of gentrification that are already pushing too many people out of JP. The fight for real affordability is about more than just housing – it’s about ensuring that Black and Brown working-class and immigrant families can stay in the neighborhood.
Now is the time for Mayor Wu, Chief Sheila Dillon, elected officials, and community members to speak up. We need to demand that the developer restore the promised 30% and 50% AMI units, and stop the practice of buying out affordability commitments that benefit only the rich. If we don’t, we risk losing the very heart of our community to the pressures of unchecked development and rising rents.
Stand with us, stand for real affordability. Let’s make sure the future of Jamaica Plain is a future that includes all of us.
Helen Matthews, Lisa Thompson, and Jen Douglass are Jamaica Plain residents