The Brighton of Tomorrow: Building for Inclusion

THE BRIGHTON OF TOMORROW

BUILDING FOR INCLUSION

“Affordable housing brings stability, economic diversity, and improves the physical quality of the neighborhood.” ~ John Woods

Our mission at the Gardens in relation to our future residents is two-fold: 1) Affordable access and 2) Inclusion.

Affordable Access: How do we improve the lives of our existing 641 residents and ensure that they continue to have access to the growing opportunities in the Allston-Brighton area while living in quality affordable housing

Inclusion: How can we go above and beyond to extend more housing to a diverse range of households so that families are included— rather than excluded—from the benefits of vibrant development?

Through our community engagement process, we found the following four target demographics that align with our two-fold mission of affordable access and inclusion.

TARGET DEMOGRAPHICS Low-income Families: One of our most important populations that the Gardens will be serving is the existing community of extremely low- and low-income families that currently reside at our site. We have explicitly prioritized one-to-one replacement of units at their current levels of affordability to ensure that residents who currently reside at the site can continue to have access to the opportunities that the Gardens provide. We also include in these units a 10 percent set-aside for individuals and families transitioning from homelessness.

“My two boys are all grown up now and have tried going out into the world—but they came back to live with me because they can’t afford to live [in Boston] with the rents this high.” – A resident at the Gardens

Seniors Aging in Place: Similar to other statefunded public housing, the Gardens currently have a small but growing senior population who have lived in this community for decades. Often having successfully raised children and becoming one or two-person households, these residents look for a future Gardens where they can age in place with the community that they have known for most of their lives. Additionally, with the Gardens’ role as a transportation hub, senior residents can benefit from nearby resources and amenities that are readily accessible from the Gardens. Providing affordable units designed for smaller, childless households will be critical for our residents seeking to age in place.

Workforce Families: In our mission to expand access to opportunities for a diverse range of families, we seek to also attract workforce families for the new 80% AMI units that we plan to add with the expansion of the Gardens. As a transportation hub with bus and rail connections to key urban centers such as Boston Downtown and Cambridge, the Gardens can ensure that workforce families who may be otherwise priced out of the Brighton neighborhood can have affordable options for raising children while engaging in the vibrant economic growth of Allston and downtown Boston. Opportunity locations such as the Gardens’ neighborhood should be accessible to a diverse range of families from all backgrounds, and our future vision of the Gardens hopes to achieve that vision.

Market Rate Tenants: Aligning with broader state-level priorities, we acknowledge the importance of mixed-income housing, not only for the financial feasibility of our project, but also due to the recognition that even middleincome working households who seek to live in highly desirable metropolitan areas face housing burdens. By contributing to the wider market-rate housing supply, we believe that we can contribute positively to the growing demand for housing in the Allston-Brighton area and help alleviate supply-side constraints. As seen in our earlier demographic and market analysis, the area’s extremely low vacancy rates point to the real need for any increase in housing supply. Our mix of affordable, workforce, and market-rate units thus seeks to tackle Boston’s housing challenges from several different angles while maintaining a fiscally viable and economically strategic investment in public dollars.

KEY DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FROM COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT From our engagement with residents, government officials, and other community stakeholders, we have found four key priorities for our redesign of the Gardens: Modernized family units, family-oriented common spaces, green and open spaces, and density considerations.

NEW, MODERNIZED FAMILY UNITS As various residents and community development organizers have mentioned, the Gardens is composed of ten 70-yearold buildings that are badly in need of revitalization. One common complaint has been with the aging boiler system used to heat units on the property. While stakeholders have pointed to the boiler system’s inefficiencies as the main problem, others have noted how the aging system has contributed to the more rapid deterioration of tiling and other in-unit issues due to leakages. Additionally, various stakeholders have discussed their desires to modernize unit sizes to match contemporary standards.

FAMILY-ORIENTED COMMON SPACES As a site oriented towards family housing, the new design of the Gardens will have spaces for both children and teenagers. Residents mentioned the importance of the current teen center, which the redesigned Gardens plans to expand upon. The new community center not only will have a large common area for facilitating programming for teenagers but will also have smaller spaces for studying and group study session included. Additionally, several residents with younger children expressed a desire for a proper play area for the children on site, where older residents can easily supervise children while staying on the grounds of the Gardens. Lastly, stakeholders mentioned the preference for having familyoriented units being closer to the ground floor, such as two- and three-bedroom units

GREEN AND OPEN SPACES Community members at the Gardens also prioritized green spaces as an important aspect of our redesigned site. Since the current site of the Gardens currently has low amounts of green space coverage, we plan to meet residents’ desires for more trees and plants to be added for the beautification of the site. There is also strong interest in developing a community flower garden or other non-produce growing garden concepts.

Additionally, stakeholders were vocal about the importance of ensuring common open spaces on the redesigned site for holding communitywide outdoor events such as the annual Gardens’ Unity Day. Having expanded over the years to include the wider neighborhood, Unity Day has had over 200 attendees in the past. Our redesign of the Gardens prioritizes setting aside open spaces for the community to be able to continue hosting large-scaled community events such as Unity Day.

“We’re a diverse community, but we’ve become more insular [over the years]. I’d like people to engage more, to go outside their houses and stay in the courtyard. Somewhere where they can be out in groups while children are playing, and someone would just ask ‘Oh, can you watch so-and-so for me?’ I’d like a space for more of that shared life.” - Tenant Organization Member

DENSITY CONSIDERATIONS Due to the recent growth of high-rise, highdensity projects in the past several years near the Brighton neighborhood, stakeholders have described optimism in our project’s more modest design with relation to density. With a height under 70 feet and 5 stories tall, our redesign of the Gardens falls well within the current neighborhood’s comfort zone for development density. As one political stakeholder noted, “It’s really anything in the double-digits, higher than 10 stories, that gets the people in Allston-Brighton worried.” Additionally, others cited the easier community process with the recent 2Life Communities’ Brighton campus development as a strong indicator that Brighton neighbors are supportive of denser affordable housing in the area.