Housing

Although building more housing at any price point does help reduce prices, our priority needs to be investment in affordable and low-income housing. Waiting for new market-rate and luxury units to “filter” savings to low- and middle-income people is just the latest repackaging of the deeply flawed and inequitable theory of trickle-down economics, and it is far less efficient than investing in construction of affordable and low-income housing that is directly economically accessible. I will fight to prioritize such investments over the subsidies for luxury developers, such as the abnormally long 30-year Superman Building tax-stabilization agreement, for which Rep. Ajello has voted.

I’m lucky to have a reasonable landlord. He’s responsive to my messages, he always gives plenty of notice before he stops by, and, although my rent is higher than it should be, it’s not egregious by College Hill standards. Many renters aren’t as fortunate. I believe that we need to guarantee tenants the right to counsel in eviction proceedings to ensure that everyone facing the life-altering crisis of eviction is fairly represented.

I also believe that, if the City Council passes a rent stabilization ordinance to help our neighbors afford to remain in our communities, it would be inappropriate and undemocratic for the General Assembly to preempt or override it.

We should establish a limited state catastrophe reinsurance backstop to stabilize homeowners’ insurance premiums, with strong guardrails to ensure savings flow directly to homeowners—not insurance company profits—and strict safeguards against incentivizing unsafe new construction in high climate-vulnerability areas. States like Florida have used this tool to successfully mitigate premium costs for homeowners in the face of the climate crisis.

The eligibility criteria for the Livable Homes Modification Grant Program should be expanded to account for the fact that many of our elderly neighbors, even those who do not meet the criteria for “significant disabilities,” face mobility challenges that make aging in place difficult and struggle to afford expensive home renovations on limited senior incomes.

We must also expand access to subsidies for knob-and-tube wiring replacements. Many homeowners in our district face the difficult choice of continuing to live with an outdated, unsafe electrical wiring system and incurring significantly higher homeowner’s insurance premiums as a result, undergoing the process of rewiring their homes (which is often unduly expensive even for families outside the eligibility range for the current subsidy), or moving out of our neighborhood to avoid the issue.

I owe my love for historic architecture to my parents. My mother is an historian, and my father served on the Newport Historic District Commission for many years. We’re fortunate to have centuries of architectural history on the East Side, as well as the legacy of preservationists like Antoinette Downing who fought to save it from the wrecking ball. I believe the choice between historic preservation and affordable housing is a false dichotomy: we can use tools such as enhanced historic rehabilitation tax credits, which incentivize restoring historic buildings to increase our housing supply, to do both.