Mixed Housing

A housing model that can help middle class
By Paul McMorrow 

The Boston Globe published this editorial about housing today, 7.29.14.  It seems, to me, to make good sense.  Find an old warehouse, factory, school or business located near public transportation and transform it into housing for middle income individuals and families.  And/or maybe a development for truly mixed income families meaning 33% low, 33% medium and 33% high income folks mixed together, as opposed to all high end housing with let's say 10% affordable thrown into the mix.  Could work in Waltham? 

"Trinity wants to raze Ashmont Tire, an automotive shop sitting across the street from the Ashmont Red Line station, and replace it with 81 housing units. This type of development — on the T, in a neighborhood outside of downtown, replacing a storefront that could go anywhere in Massachusetts with a building that works only when it’s near a rail line — doesn’t happen as often as it should. Still, the project isn’t unique. It follows the lead of the Carruth, a six-story housing project that Trinity built across Dorchester Avenue, also next to Ashmont Station.

The Carruth and the Ashmont Tire proposal are scaled similarly — five stories of housing over a ground floor of retail storefronts. They both mix subsidized affordable housing units with market-rate homes. They’re both selling the prospect of a quick commute downtown to new residents, and using those new residents to attract retailers who deepen the vitality of the surrounding neighborhood. They’re the types of buildings that should be surrounding T stations across Boston."
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“There’s a dearth of housing that’s not at either end of the income spectrum, and it’s a real problem,” Trinity’s Kenan Bigby says. “We hope this type of model can go a long way to filling the gap.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/07/29/housing-model-that-can-help-middle-class/70OUPx6P9eBVAW1tGKwRJI/story.html?p1=ArticleTab_Article_

Housing

Right now in Waltham there are two hotels where families that have no other place to live reside.  This practice was slated to end in June 2014 but it is still going strong.

“Specifically, families placed in Waltham stay at the Home Suites Inn on Totten Pond Road and Homestead Studio Suites on Fourth Avenue. In December 2011, Waltham Patch reported 94 families, including 73 children, were staying in the two hotels.”  

This is not good for either the local community or the families.  Trauma is re-introduced to these families by uprooting them and moving them to these hotels with minimal or no access to their social networks, to recreation areas, to basic resources.  The  Waltham schools are tasked with educating children housed in cramped insufficient quarters away from those they know and love.  While the program gives needy families shelter, it leaves them without places  to cook a meal or for their children to play, and burdens taxpayers with a hefty bill.  According to the Patch, the program which also places families in hotels in Framingham, Chelmsford, Burlington, Bedford, Danvers, Malden, Marlborough, Natick, Northborough, Tewksbury, Woburn and Framingham, costs state taxpayers $45 million annually.   http://waltham.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/state-to-end-homeless-shelter-program-placing-familie7c7b235438

In western Mass they have been emptying the hotels and finding homes for families, resulting in huge savings.  The families are able to live in apartments with a kitchen and bedrooms, they live in their own community and the cost to the state drops from approximately $36,000/year per family to $8400.  http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/housing_department_reduces_hom.html

For the chronically homeless, many communities, including Boston have implemented a program called ‘Housing First’ with the premise that before people can accept help, they need to have a place to call home.  This program is being used in several communities across the country with great results.  Once people are stabilized in a home the program has a wrap around program to help them with any co-occurring issues they may have be it substance abuse, mental health issues or any other issues that are interfering with their ability to be productive citizens.  http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/07/15/pine-street-inn-goes-from-emergency-shelter-provider-landlord/4qmo0p7L3HGxQFB3zyHkrN/story.html

A couple months ago while collecting signatures in Waltham I met a woman named Dorothy.  Dorothy and I have struck up a bit of a friendship as I frequently see her around the city.  Dorothy is a self described street person and she has a lot to say.  She is getting on in years and in getting to know her, she has not had an easy life.  Dorothy struggles with understanding why the Commonwealth cannot provide her with housing and I do too.  From talking with her I understand that 'something' happened in her last home that resulted in her being on the street.  That said, whether it was something she did or didn't do, 'we' have an obligation to take care of those that cannot adequately care for themselves.  How can we consign elderly and/or infirm people to the street?

There are alternatives available.  As a just and humane society, we need to continue to develop innovative programs that help individuals and families live in homes, with dignity. 

Alternative Education

What do we do with students that are not able to achieve academically?  What options do we provide for them in our public schools?  Kids that for any number of reasons just don’t cut it in math and science and social studies.  Kids that want to be successful, they want to be liked, they want to ‘do something’ with their lives but they just can’t do school work.  

We have a lot of these kids.  Whether it is because they never learned how to learn, they are in a family situation that does not promote learning or doesn’t allow for it for some other reason, kids that don’t have the cognitive ability and kids that for some emotional or behavioral reason can’t make it work in the classroom.  These are not by definition ‘bad kids’; they just can’t be successful in our mainstream schools.  Does that mean we should discard them?  Pretend they don’t exist?  Assume everyone can and should achieve academically so keep pounding away at them?  Thank our lucky stars they are ‘someone else’s kids’?

None of these sound like good options.  We need to respect these kids, whatever gifts and talents they have and find a way to help them be successful.

- One idea is to more closely align our schools with the Finish model.  In Finland the kids don’t start school until they are 7, there is heavily subsidized pre-school which emphasizes playing and social skills,  90 minutes of playtime a day are built into school, some classes are taught outside, teachers have more planning time, kids have no homework and little testing, teachers are culled from the top 10% of the population and they do not have to pay for graduate school.  And Finland consistently scores at the top of the chart in standardized tests across the globe.   http://www.takepart.com/photos/ten-surprising-facts-finlands-education-system-americans-should-not-ignore/finland-knows-whats-best  And school is free for everyone from the age of 3 through college and beyond.  There are almost no private schools, it is all public and all free.

- How about we put more emphasis on trade schools at an earlier age?  Kids that are not working out in the academic classroom may be more successful in the shops.  We have some opportunities for that now but they still require academics.  Not all kids can do that part.  Why not let them get a high school certificate in culinary arts or welding or a variety of shops that do not necessarily require classroom.  That is not to say the classes don’t require knowledge, but some kids will do well learning material that is specific to the shop of their interest.  Why can’t we let that be what is required of them.

- European apprenticeship model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apprenticeship  Many Eurpoean countries promote apprenticeships as an important step towards employment.  Some countries including Germany, Switzerland and China have dual education system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_education_system where the student attends vocational school while working in their vocation at a local business.  This is all strictly regulated to ensure high standards are met.

We need to find options to ensure all students have the opportunity to succeed, whether or not they can sit still in class and/or pass standardized tests.