Increasing Resident Voice in the Redevelopment Process: A Community Practice Partnership

Purpose: This session describes the processes and outcomes associated with a community practice partnership between the Boston Housing Authority Center for Community Engagement and Civil Rights, a resident task force at an older adult housing site and an advanced Macro seminar in applied community planning.

Context: Over the past 15 years in order to update its properties the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) has employed a mixed-finance redevelopment model. Although public private partnerships, allow housing authorities to revitalize properties, the transition from publically owned and managed to private can be a difficult for residents. Moreover, the addition of market rate units, which outnumber deeply affordable units, shifts neighborhood dynamics and can leave residents feeling socially and culturally displaced.  Resident leadership and engagement in the redevelopment process can help to ensure proposed plans reflect resident concerns. We partnered with the Amory Street Resident Task Force on a community planning process designed to prepare them for redevelopment negotiations. The proposed redevelopment plan for Amory Street involves the renovation of the existing 215 units as well as the addition of 324 workforce units and 185 market units. Amory Street is a minority-majority older adult and disabled housing site in the Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood. Jamaica Plain has experienced tremendous gentrification over the last decade.  

Methods: An advanced Macro seminar in applied community planning was held at Amory Street.  The seminar was divided into two key phases, theory and practice. During the first phase of the course students explored 1) inequities in Boston, 2) the relationship between living environment and wellbeing with a focus on housing and gentrification, and 3) participatory approaches to community planning. The second phase focused on partnership development.  Students engaged in a series of meetings with BHA and task force leaders to gauge concerns and priority areas. Students then worked with residents to design and implement a multilingual assessment and protocol, that involved door to door recruitment for interviews (n=50) and the dissemination of information regarding resident rights in the redevelopment process.

Results and Implications: Of the participants nearly half were over 70 years of age, and had lived in the building for more than 10 years. The gender split was fairly even with slightly more men than women. Just under 40% of participants were Spanish speaking, and only 8% of participants identified as white. The extent to which participants were aware of the plans for redevelopment varied.  Residents had a number of concerns related to social dynamics. Some feared the housing authority was trying replace them with white residents, others worried they would be treated badly by new wealthy residents.   Despite their concerns most residents were looking forward to the renovation and felt it was long overdue.  Applied seminars serve as an important teaching tool and strategy for community engagement capacity building.