As her opponent seeks to capitalize on her perceived housing vulnerabilities, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced that the city has invested $10 million in federal funds towards converting 347 market-rate units to affordable homes.
Wu said Monday that the city has dipped into its American Rescue Plan Act allocation for the acquisition of The Fairlawn Estates, a collection of 12 apartment buildings and a leasing office, in Mattapan.
That investment, supplemented by "nine times that amount in private sources" along with an "almost $1 million commitment" from the newly created Boston Acquisition Fund, will convert all 347 market-rate units to affordable homes for current and future tenants, Wu's office said.
"The City of Boston is so proud to play a role in restoring Fairlawn as an affordable home, because for decades these units were known that way: an affordable place to raise a family and take care of everything that your family needed," Wu said at a press conference at Fairlawn Estates.
The mayor said, however, that over the last few years, "the rent here was hiked up and up and up, and families were forced out of Fairlawn, out of Mattapan, and out of the city of Boston."
Wu said her administration's decision to combat those rent increases and restore affordability to the complex was due, in part, to the advocacy of Fairlawn residents, who "rather than back down," organized, challenged the rent hikes, pushed for basic upkeep, and lobbied their elected officials for change.
"Thanks to your leadership, your resilience, your strength that lives here, right here at Fairlawn, you won," Wu said.
Josh Kraft, son of the billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, former head of the family's philanthropic arm and Wu's mayoral opponent, disagreed with Wu's framing of her decision, claiming that it was reactionary to his bid for mayor.
"Josh has a plan to jumpstart the creation of new housing that average people can afford, and a rent control program that will provide real relief for renters and works for building owners," a Kraft campaign spokesperson said in a statement. "Just like her recent move on bike lanes, the mayor's announcement is a direct reaction to Josh's candidacy.
"Mayor Wu is now trying to cover up her exceptionally bad record on housing."
Kraft, through his campaign, also repeated his past criticism of the mayor, saying that Wu's "unfulfilled promises and impractical policies have caused rents to surge 20% and housing production to drop by 60%."
"Under Mayor Wu, Boston is at the very bottom of cities in the country in the production of new housing," his campaign said. "While other major cities around the country are building and housing costs are going down, new production in Boston has ground to a halt."
Wu responded to Kraft's criticism after the press conference, telling reporters that the investment in Fairlawn Estates is one of the largest acquisitions her administration has made under the city's Acquisition Opportunity Program.
She said her administration has preserved the affordability of 1,000 units under that program, which is described by her office as helping mission-driven developers buy and preserve existing affordable housing and ensure it remains affordable for current and future residents, "five years ahead of schedule."
"Now this is another 350 units; so we are just going to keep going," Wu said. "This is the most effective use of our resources -- to keep families in their homes, and it's working. It took a long time to get here but now that we've worked this out and understand how to do things like this, it's just going to get faster and we'll be able to do more as we go."
At Fairlawn, the city's investment through a partnership with the estate's new owner Related Affordable, an affiliate of Related Beal, will ensure that half of the 347 units will be reserved for households earning no more than 60% of the area median income.
The other half will be for households earning no more than 80% AMI. The agreement also limits rent increases to no more than 2% per year and includes "ongoing support for households with housing vouchers," Wu's office said.
Fairlawn residents and community organizers seized on their victory to preserve affordability at the complex as an opportunity to push for rent control throughout Boston and Massachusetts.
"The constant stress of facing huge rent increases and eviction weighed on us every day over the past six years, and it wasn't right -- but we want people to know that housing is a human right and we can win the homes we deserve," Betty Lewis of the Fairlawn Tenant Association said.
"This is a community victory won by neighbors working together, and it's not just for us. We hope it inspires organizing for housing stability all across Boston and across the state, because we all deserve good, stable homes."
Wu's rent control legislation was passed by the City Council but has stalled on Beacon Hill, and Kraft has pushed for a landlord-friendly optional rent stabilization program that he says wouldn't require approval from the Legislature.
Wu has bashed Kraft's proposal, which would incentivize property owners to keep rents low in exchange for a tax break, as "fake rent control" but spoke favorably of a similar "good landlord" option that was passed by the City Council last month.