![]() While the city of Boston has taken measures to reduce its homeless population, the suburbs around Boston are where homelessness has been more rampant, especially in areas that have experienced high rates of foreclosures and evictions, such as Lowell and Lawrence, she says. Homelessness is on the rise, too, says Modestino. “It’s not just the very low-income or even the working class now it’s the middle class that’s being affected by how expensive it is to live here.” “With each successive cycle of housing boom and bust, we have been pricing out a greater share of our population,” she says. One consequence of all this, says Modestino, is that it has driven some people onto the streets while sending those with college degrees and financial means packing for less expensive pastures. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern UniversityĪs a result, says Modestino, the area has become one of the costliest places to buy a home-ranking fifth most expensive in the country-in addition to boasting one of the priciest rental markets, with median rents higher than New York City, and only slightly below San Francisco and Los Angeles. “We can all look and see where individual cities and towns are in terms of their production, their best practices, their degree of racial segregation, and we can make our own informed opinions about which cities and towns are producing their fair share and which ones are not,” says Alicia Sasser Modestino, an associate professor of public policy and urban affairs and economics at Northeastern. ![]() “We’ve had a lack of supply that’s been a chronic problem for decades, but when you combine that with a booming economy that’s drawing in more residents from other parts of the United States as well as abroad, then that just means that prices and rents skyrocket,” says Modestino, an associate professor of public policy and urban affairs and economics. There are not enough homes to go around for everyone homelessness is on the rise and modern zoning practices continue to perpetuate racial and economic segregation, according to a new study authored by Northeastern professor Alicia Sasser Modestino. The Greater Boston area isn’t faring any better. The country is facing a housing crisis: There’s a growing shortage of affordable units, and renters and homeowners in many places struggle to afford their monthly payments. The Greater Boston Housing Report Card graded cities and towns in Massachusetts on a number of factors, including how many units they’ve produced over the past five years, whether they are producing enough housing relative to their size, and the degree of diversity in their population.
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