City of Boston Releases Anti-Displacement Action Plan

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Friday, March 21, 2025 - Mayor Michelle Wu announced the release of A Place to Thrive, the City's first ever Anti-Displacement Action Plan, during her State of the City address Wednesday. A Place to Thrive lays out a two-year plan for City departments to help stabilize residents, small businesses, and cultural organizations that may face either direct or economic displacement, ensuring all Bostonians can thrive and flourish.

"To be a home for everyone, we must keep our residents, small businesses and cultural spaces rooted in our neighborhoods," said Mayor Michelle Wu. "Our city's growth must help stabilize communities and deepen roots. I'm grateful for every resident and community member whose feedback has informed this plan and whose love for Boston makes us who we are."

Boston residents have shared with the City that they are concerned about displacement and that the housing shortage and rising cost of living are exacerbating their concerns. In December, the Planning Advisory Council, an internal coordinating body composed of nine City cabinets that shape Boston's built environment, released two foundational reports on the City's anti-displacement work. The first was an in-depth analysis of concerns, priorities and feedback constituents have shared with the City related to displacement, spanning two years. The second report analyzed tools the City already uses to stabilize residents, small businesses, and cultural operators. The City provides a range of stabilizing resources across departments, but has never analyzed these tools, considered how they fit together, or shared a comprehensive set of resources with residents seeking help.

The Anti-Displacement Action Plan builds on these foundational reports, laying out a coordinated approach to strengthen Boston's existing anti-displacement tools and address specific gaps in response to community priorities. New or improved initiatives detailed in the plan include:
  • The Co-Purchasing Homebuyer Program, which will provide financial assistance and support to help multiple low and moderate income households pool their resources to purchase a two- or three-family home.
  • Proposed expansion of the City's Condominium Conversion Ordinance from buildings with four or more units to buildings with two or more units, so that the majority of tenants facing displacement due to conversions are given reasonable notice, freedom from disruption, relocation assistance, and the opportunity to purchase.
  • Expansion of the City's successful Office to Residential Conversion program to include student and employer-sponsored workforce housing.
  • A new Direct Displacement Disclosure through the Article 80 development review process, which would require developers to disclose any potential direct displacement of commercial, cultural, or residential tenants and work with them on a relocation plan if so.
  • New site finding assistance to attract businesses and help match them to vacant storefronts throughout the City, including in our neighborhood commercial districts.
  • Creation of a Commercial Acquisition Assistance Program to stabilize neighborhood commercial districts and support property ownership for small business owners with an expanded suite of financial tools.
  • Launch of the City's first comprehensive Civic and Cultural Infrastructure Planning Framework to develop a strategy for delivering more cultural space in Boston.

The City's anti-displacement efforts are organized around four main tenets: Protect, Preserve, Produce, and Prosper, comprising tools in each of those categories to advance residential, cultural, and commercial stability. The Plan focuses on: protecting renters and lower-income homeowners from displacement, as well as small businesses and cultural community anchors; preserving affordable housing and community spaces; producing more housing and commercial/cultural space; and ultimately creating an environment for Bostonians to build wealth and prosper through homeownership, workforce development, business-ownership, etc.

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As part of the Plan, the City has also released its first-ever interactive Residential Displacement Risk Map. The map measures current residential displacement pressures and community-level displacement risk across Boston. The Displacement Risk map provides a data-driven understanding of displacement risk, and will help to inform planning, policy, and outreach. It is meant to be used by the City, residents, community organizations, academics, housing advocates, and more.

"I'm excited to see the City of Boston and Mayor Wu leading the way with a comprehensive anti-displacement action plan," said Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. "At a time when rising housing costs are displacing current residents and preventing newcomers from choosing the Boston region to raise their families, we must create more housing and stabilize the existing housing market. This plan includes innovative tools to do both."

"The City is really elevating the importance of housing stability with the new Anti-Displacement Plan," said Karen Chen, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association. "We're pleased to see it includes new tools that tenants across the city have been asking for, including resident protections and tools to help Bostonians prosper here, as well as new ways to preserve and produce housing."

"Reclaim Roxbury has advocated for an anti-displacement action plan for 10 years and we're so excited to see the City sharing this goal," said Armani White, executive director of Reclaim Roxbury. "We look forward to working together to make sure the plan meets the community's vision and needs so that everyone in Boston can benefit from development without displacement."

"We are glad the City is taking on the important work of developing new strategies to increase housing stability for all Bostonians," said Josh Zakim, executive director of Housing Forward.  "Everyone knows we have a housing shortage in Boston that is leading to high housing costs and displacement. We're pleased the plan recognizes that production is part of preventing displacement, and look forward to working with leadership to increase the overall housing supply—that's the best long-term solution to our housing shortage and resulting risks of displacement."

"I look forward to the implementation of Boston's new anti-displacement action plan, especially the homeownership tools it includes. This is such a vital pathway to building wealth and well-being for Boston's BIPOC communities," said Tony Richards, chair of the Affordable Housing and Pathways to Homeownership Executive Committee for the Commission on Black Men & Boys. "The new Co-Purchasing Homebuyer Program and increased funding for market-rate homeownership development will support the major effort to close the racial wealth gap here in Boston."

"Housing and displacement remains one of the biggest challenges to justice and equity facing our city," said Noemi Mimi Ramos, executive director of the New England Community Project. "We appreciate that Mayor Wu and her Administration recognized this, and have drafted a plan to stabilize Boston residents, small businesses, and communities. We look forward to working with the City to finalize this important strategy, so renters, BIPOC, and low-income Bostonians can continue to call Boston home."

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"Boston's new Anti-Displacement Action Plan provides thoughtful recommendations to tackle Boston's housing crisis," said Micheal Kane, HUD Tenant Alliance. "Measures such as expanding condo conversion protections to 70% more units, developing model Eviction Prevention Plans tied to Right to Counsel legislation, and targeting Boston funds for development and preservation of mixed-income housing will build on Boston's proven leadership in affordable housing nationwide."

"I'm very happy that the City of Boston is implementing a plan that will keep people and small businesses from being displaced in this rising market," said Baron Langston, co-owner of the historic Vertullo Building in Hyde Park. "Some people just don't have the backup or resources to compete with buyers who have long pockets and connections to secure funding. I was so grateful when the City was able to step in and help my family purchase the building, saving five local small businesses and allowing us to keep rents affordable, ensuring that we will not have to leave the place we have grown to love and call home."

"As both community focused developers and longtime supporters of Boston's Main Streets program, we have seen the direct positive impacts that small and local businesses can have on a neighborhood," said Steve Samuels, chairman of Samuels & Associates. "We appreciate that the mayor's action plan takes this important segment into consideration and develops new tools and strategies to support business at a hyper local level."

The City is committed to making this an ongoing, collaborative effort where residents and small business owners have a direct role in shaping solutions. The release of this plan launches a 45-day comment period, now through May 3. Constituents can review the full plan at boston.gov/anti-displacement, and can share their feedback via an online comment form, by emailing antidisplacementplan@boston.gov, by attending a citywide presentation, and through workshops tailored to community needs.

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