Sacrificing quality of life in the name of “Affordable Housing”

Affordable Housing, just those two words seem to allow rules to be broken, due process to be discarded, neighborhoods to be steamrolled, and quality of life to be thrown to the gutter like a discarded piece of trash.

How can one neighborhood be so blatantly abused, yet no one listens to the cries of the neighbors? How can one neighborhoods history and future be destroyed all in the name of Affordable Housing.

I am very strongly for Affordable Housing, as long as it is equally disbursed throughout the city. Yet, that doesn’t seem to happen.

The Wellington-Harrington neighborhood is being abused. We have our share of affordable housing, and that’s fine. Yet, Just-A-Start feels the need to cram more people in our already dense area of the city. Normal density is 25 people per square acre, the Wellington-Harrington neighborhood is currently at 99 people per square acre. Crime in this area has risen 217% in the last year alone. Just-A-Start Corp. wants to put 16 more units in the Lithuanian Church on Windsor, and another 21 in the old Cambridge Antiques location on Cambridge Street. They bought these buildings with our taxpayer Yet they don’t listen to the pleas of the current neighbors. They don’t care that we already don’t have enough parking for those that currently live here. They don’t care that the crime is a direct result of higher density.

How do they get away with it? They say “Affordable Housing” and everyone bows to them because those two words seem to move mountains They keep buying in the same area, because they are driving down the value of the properties there by putting in more housing, making it affordable for them to buy more.

The truth is, it isn’t Affordable Housing that is killing our neighborhood, it is more housing period. Just-A-Start gets around that by using those two treasured words “Affordable Housing”.

Unfortunately, they have figured out how to “work” the system to get what they want. Sadly, we are losing our quality of life in our neighborhood, Just-A-Start is suffocating us, steamrolling over our neighborhood, and as one of their project managers said at the last meeting, we have to “get real”.

Watch out, your neighborhood is next. Areas like Shady Hill may win against the current private developer, but Just-A-Start could come next, and put in Affordable housing, and then it is all done.

Marion Figueiredo