20th Century in the United States

A Redeveloped Penninsula: The 1980s Onward

The Case for Public Housing?

By the early 1970s, the national media supported a discourse marking public housing as a phenomena of the past. Joanne Ross, a Black school teacher and housing consultant, was featured by a Boston Globe article in 1969 as wanting to remain at Columbia Point, despite earning $18,000 per year, which was more than double than the maximum income of $7,800 that made one eligible for public housing in Boston. ¹ Mrs. Ross believed in a reform for public housing that would more closely reflect the needs of those desiring public housing - citing that salary did not reflect the holistic reality of many tenants. ²

For white workers, public housing was often everything it was intended to be - a stepping stone toward homeownership. ³ For Black Bostonians, the issue goes past just ownership, but additionally of building generational wealth. Those who did venture into homeownership, like Buck Speller, a former tenant of the housing project, faced different landscapes than white buyers. Although the housing project served him well, the six-bedroom apartment for his nine-person family was not sustainable for much longer. ⁴ The hassles that Mr. Speller, faced with Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group (BBURG) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), made homeownership a burden that ended in foreclosure, as it did for thousands of other Black Bostonians. Later, BBURG would be revealed as predatory and exploitative of Black first-time homeowners.

The necessity of public housing stretches farther than income. Earning over the poverty line does not immediately negate the need for public housing - public housing provides a stable, safe, and financially savvy way for low-income people to live, and thankfully, raises generations which can rise to economic levels above them. But a mere salary is not an indication of economic class - especially at a time where many residents were specifically excluded from a large portion of the New Deal programs, including the GI Bill home and education loans, Social Security, and all white public housing projects. The increasing rent prices and the declining number of affordable housing units at Harbor Point likely created the racial demographic.

 

Harbor Point on the Bay: Mixed Income Housing

The Columbia Point Housing project, after being demolished in 1986, was subsequently replaced by Harbor Point on the Bay Housing Development, which aimed to be a mixed-income community and promised housing for the remaining Columbia Point residents. While offering a necessary solution for displaced residents, it was largely a bandaid over a larger issue. Columbia Point was only the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of a growing demand for housing for low-income families. By the 1980s and 1990s, Boston’s non-white population grew exponentially, with many Latino, Asian, and African immigrants calling Boston their new home.

 

 

Columbia Point’s occupancy had significantly declined by the time that the idea for Harbor Point was developed. However, a move away from public housing to mixed-income housing only further exacerbated the housing shortage brought on by the surge of migration into Boston. In 1980, the population was 80.86% Black. In 2020, that number is just 15.7%.⁵ In 2022, a 1-bedroom, 640 sq. foot apartment starts at $2,400/month. Since 1986, there has been a 12% reduction in the number of units reserved for affordable housing.⁶ Originally, there had been 500 units reserved for affordable housing. Today, only 350 units are still dedicated for affordable housing, and the waiting list is closed.⁷

 

UMass-Boston in 2022

Today, UMass-Boston remains largely a commuter school, but never grasped the original vision of Ed Logue and the BRA as a campus of the 21st century by the ocean. The ability of its own campus allowed for the increased enrollment that it desired. As of present, the school enrolls 16,000 students total between undergraduate and graduate students. However, that number is not far from the 15,000 students that the school planned to enroll by 1980.⁸ That is the equivalent to adding only 23 students per year since 1980.

Given the stark decline of the Columbia Point Housing Project immediately after the plans to move UMass-Boston’s campus to the area, the relationship between higher education and public housing is more often than not, incompatible. What is understood of Columbia Point, to newer Bostonians like myself, is a bit like the destination Ed Logue had imagined - a destination of learning and advancement for the City of Boston, by the sea.

 

The Peninsula Today

In 1975, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library announced that it too would move to Columbia Point, after Jackie O’s discontent with Cambridge residents - an intentional snub to JFK’s own alma mater. Soon after, the fate of the Columbia Point Housing project was sealed. UMB’s campus and the JFK Presidential Library was marking a new era for Columbia Point. In 1985, the Massachusetts State Archives moved into Columbia Point and rounded out a new era for tourism, knowledge, and appeal to the general public. The only remnants of the former housing project seems to be on the MBTA sign for the “JFK/UMass” stop, as well as in the memory of its former tenants.

 

Today, the peninsula, especially along the water in the harbor, is quiet and has a remarkable view of the city of Boston. With the parks, landscaping, and idyllic coastal location, it is hard to believe that less than 50 years ago, once stood towering public housing complexes and constant racial violence between the close South Boston shore. I recommend everyone visit Columbia Point if possible - it is truly a beautiful, almost sleepy place to unwind. But while there, take some time to reflect on how urban renewal has impacted this neighborhood, and our own neighborhoods, in Boston.