Public Land for Public Good

We believe community members should have control and say over public land. Public land should be used for public good, especially land that was made “public” by taking our away ownership of housing of residents who historically lived there as we saw happen in Roxbury with the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The way that we practice this belief is by showing up, and building our community of educated and energized participants to lead discussions. 

We are Roxbury’s watch dogs!

Plan Nubian Square: We have watched “Plan:Nubian Sq” unfold since its inception in 2015 as Plan: Dudley Square under the Walsh administration. See our history section and our blog for more background on Plan:Nubian square and how we advocated to win strong community standards in 2018 for equitable development of public land , like a requirement for housing to be 66% affordable, local hiring for construction, as well as diversity requirements for development teams. We are proud of the community informed standards for development we helped create and have been focused on ensuring that developers follow their commitments and provide a public good on public land as they build out their projects. Our community created standards for development have been used as the building blocks for other public land development in Roxbury and neighborhoods across the city.

Boston Water and Sewer Public Lots have been targeted through a citywide land audit Mayor Wu’s administration commissioned in response to calls from housing advocates for the citywide review. The public land audit identified sites that can be used for public good, like affordable housing. Over the Spring/Summer of 2023 we helped create strong community-created requirements in the RFP , similar to those in the Plan:Nubian Sq , like a requirement for 66% of housing proposed be affordable. The RFP’s were released in the Summer of 2023 with a short deadline to ensure developers take advantage of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan funding for affordable housing, which doesn’t last forever. Our Executive Director served on the Project Review Committee which ultimately recommended Harrison Lenox LLC as the designated project. We are excited to see more affordable housing created in our community due to our advocacy.

Want to learn more and get involved?

• Learn more about BWSC lots on the BPDA website

• Join us at RSMPOC meetings the first Monday of the Month, every month, where our neighborhood representatives on the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan Committee and the BPDA share updates about public land development in Nubian Square land

• Join our newsletter to hear about upcoming Reclaim Roxbury hosted meetings and workshops! https://www.reclaimroxbury.org/subscribe

DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT DISPLACEMENT

We support strategies that allow for development of housing, without displacement. Here are a few campaigns and efforts we are apart of to ensure development without displacement.

Increasing the Inclusionary Development Policy (IDP): We are apart of the coalition for a truly affordable Boston to increase the amount of truly affordable housing created through the inclusionary development policy. In 2024 we helped win updated to the policy increasing it from 13% to 20% among many other changes. We will continue to monitor our wins.

• Learn more: https://www.affordableboston.org/

Rent control: We see rent control as a way for development to continue, without residents being at risk of displacement from massive rent hikes. We are apart of a coalition “Homes for All Mass” advocating to lift the ban on rent control statewide. Our bill is in the state house. Make sure your state rep/senator supports our rent control bills in the State house!

• Read more about the Homes for All Coalition

AFFH: We support efforts to affirmatively further fair housing in Boston, building on the work of the civil rights movement and the Obama administration. Read more about our work for AFFH on the blog post below.

• Read more on our blog

CRSC: We are apart of a coalition advocating for the funding of city rental subsidies, led by the Mass Association of Hud Tenants. City funded vouchers allow renters to live in Roxbury and around the city at an affordable rate. The 2023 IDP policy update requires developers to have 3% of units for rental subsidy holders, positioning our work to help create more available units. We are pushing for full funding in the FY 25 City Budget. Read more: https://www.saveourhomesnow.org/city_rent_subsidy_coaliton_seeks_increase

VOTER REGISTRATION & Community engagement

A major part of our work is making sure residents in Roxbury get out to vote, because we know our vote is how elected officials measure how much they should be listening to our demands! We also knock on doors to learn about what issues are important to Roxbury residents. Join us!

• 2021: We helped passed Question 1 for a Better Budget in Summer 2021, creating Boston’s first citywide participatory budgeting process, and giving our city councilors more power to advocate in the budget !

• 2022: We knocked over 7000 doors, spoke to 700 people and won Question 1 for a Fair Share and Question 4 for safer roads in Summer 2022!

• 2023: In summer 2023 we spoke with over 500 residents surveying them on what issues are most important to help guide our work, leading us to taking on rent stabilization.

• 2024: In summer 2024, we spoke with 786 Roxbury residents about their thoughts on rent control, statewide ballot questions, and their hopes for our community.

Want to join our outreach efforts? Become a member or join us for a day or two to volunteer!