GBH, July 29, 2024, To Build Housing, Boston Gives Away Land Black And Brown Families Once Owned
City officials say they are providing subsidies to mostly small, local and minority-owned builders to build income-restricted housing on these vacant lots. The builders will be required to employ Boston residents for the construction and make the units fully electric and energy efficient, among other things.
But critics say not enough has been done to address what led the properties to be vacant: historic discrimination against Black and Latino residents by a racist real estate system.
The Rev. Kevin Peterson, who leads the grassroots “People’s Reparations Commission”
“The city should not be handing over land to developers, land which were lost to Black families during urban renewal or even after that.”
