7 Investigates: Faith groups seek solutions to the housing crisis
...“We helped them to find apartments, we helped them to find jobs, things like that. One of the things that became really apparent was that finding housing was a really major, major problem,” Takasaki explained.
He said that the experience opened the church’s eyes to just how severe the housing crisis had become in the state.
It’s a problem that Harvard Street Presbyterian wants to help fix. For the past 40 years, the church has tried to build affordable housing on its five acres of land. ...
However, Takasaki said those plans never came to life due to various obstacles over the years. ...
One of the projects already underway is in East Cambridge.
“We’re excited to create housing here so that it’s not just the building sitting here dilapidated and not being used,” said Vitalia Shklovsky, a senior project manager with Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH).
POAH is a nonprofit that is working to transform buildings formerly used by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish.
For years, the church’s rectory, convent, and school sat mostly unused. POAH broke ground this summer on 46 affordable units.
“There is a desperate need for more housing across the Commonwealth and the Boston area,” Shklovsky said. “Even though there are just 46 units total, I think, it will make a big difference.”
The development is within an area that aims to make affordable housing easier to build and it still took around four years for the project to break ground. That’s why some affordable housing advocates are pushing to loosen the zoning restrictions in other areas of the state.
“The challenge of housing is so extreme that drastic measures need to be taken to really address that,” Takasaki said.