Inside the Dewitt Center at Madison Park Village, residents of Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood gather for a game of bingo. As the cages spin, workers pass around slices of pizza and sip on Del’s frozen lemonade brought in from a heat break event across the street. The players, mostly older women, watch as Northeastern University students and staff break a sweat to hand out cool-down resources. On this hot summer day, the distance between campus and community feels shorter.
Neighborhood elders say Roxbury looks very different these days, thanks in part to the university’s growing presence. But they say that is par for the course in Roxbury – a neighborhood of change. The center of African American life in the city has endured many challenges over the decades, from economic disparity to public safety issues to air pollution.
Now, there is another growing concern. Locals are being priced out amid the city’s severe housing crisis. It now costs $1 million on average to buy a single-family home, according to the Greater Boston Association of Realtors. The proportion of Black residents in Roxbury decreased from 51.3% to 41.5% between 2010 and 2020, according to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau. In Roxbury, where a large majority rent their homes, low-income families are particularly vulnerable to displacement. They are competing with people moving from the suburbs and with students in the neighborhood.
Why We Wrote This
Boston’s housing crisis has college students and neighborhood residents vying for space. As Northeastern University expands, these groups grapple with the question, What makes a good neighbor?
“Roxbury is losing its identity, and you can definitely notice the gentrification of the area. … What you used to look at as a family neighborhood is no longer there,” says Allen Knight, head librarian at the Shaw-Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library, who has worked in the neighborhood for nearly 15 years.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Across the street from Madison Park is Northeastern, another institution that has changed and grown in the neighborhood for more than 100 years. Students there also struggle with the housing market. With the proposal of its 2024-2034 Institutional Master Plan, the university aims to address some of its challenges, breaking ground on new housing structures such as the 23-story dormitory on Roxbury’s Columbus Avenue in the fall.
Despite having two ZIP codes, these communities share one neighborhood. In a city facing a deepening housing crisis, both Roxbury natives and Northeastern administrators and students are grappling with a key question: What makes a good neighbor?
Bridging the gap
For local organization Reclaim Roxbury, inclusion is key. The group wants its community members to have a say in developments in their neighborhood. As a member of Northeastern’s Institutional Master Plan task force, the organization discussed community benefits to be considered in the upcoming master plan. Reclaim Roxbury is urging Northeastern to house at least 75% of its students on campus, and to invest $5 million annually into a fund to support first-time homebuyers and residents facing displacement.
The university is dedicated to housing more students on campus, which reduces pressure on local housing availability, says John Tobin, vice president of city and community engagement at Northeastern. The dormitory on Columbus Avenue will create 1,220 new beds for Northeastern students.
“The ability to be able to come to a compromise is a pretty powerful thing,” says Mr. Tobin, in reference to the Roxbury community. “They built the place. They’re the ones who built our neighborhoods. They deserve our respect, and there should be something for them.”
Elkus Manfredi Architects
Star Igbinosa, the community engagement fellow at Reclaim Roxbury, also wants to see more Northeastern students actively engage with the community. Born and raised in Roxbury, Ms. Igbinosa was disappointed when she heard from a Northeastern friend that he was told to not walk in the area because it was unsafe. She cautions people not to stereotype minority neighborhoods “without even really taking the time to walk into these communities, to take the time to shop at a local business, or go to some local place or community event.”
Ms. Igbinosa encourages students to reflect on their presence in the community. “I think [it is about] understanding the history of the neighborhood but then also understanding racism, displacement, gentrification … and your role as a student,” she says. “It’s not to say that you should feel like ‘I am ruining the world by just existing in this space,’ but figure out what you can do in your capacity to bridge the gap between this local community and yourself.”
Through the university’s DREAM program, Northeastern student Francesca Borriello got to “step outside her Northeastern bubble.” The mentoring program pairs students with children living in affordable housing in Roxbury to be a positive influence and motivate the kids to explore college as a future option. Her mentee gave Ms. Borriello a new awareness of “what that’s like as a Boston resident near a huge university,” she says. “I think it makes me feel safer in Boston, like I know more people have my back.”
She has been connecting with the young woman since freshman year through weekly activities. Four years later, she is confident that she will stay in touch with the now-13-year-old for the rest of her life.
While Ms. Borriello says the DREAM program alone cannot solve the housing crisis or gentrification, she can make a small meaningful difference. “I feel like they know our faces,” she says. “Knowing your neighbor … that means you have a good neighbor, somebody that you trust, somebody that you would invite into your home, and they would invite you into their home.”
“A good team”
On Columbus Avenue, Northeastern is hoping to create an invitation. The ground floor of the dormitory will dedicate approximately 11,000 square feet to community space, as well as a 4,000-square-foot retail space with the potential of featuring local businesses. While some residents show excitement about the space, others worry they could stick out in a building predominantly for students. “That’s not for us,” says Shaw-Roxbury’s librarian, Mr. Knight. Senior Roxbury resident and Northeastern alum Lascene Nappier disagrees. She wants the campus to be accessible to all age groups. “As long as they include us in it, that makes for a good team.”
Courtesy of Madison Park DREAM
Inclusion, according to Reclaim Roxbury’s policies, should not begin with the finished building, but much earlier – at the development stage. One way community organizers are hoping developers can contribute to building wealth in the neighborhood is by hiring local businesses.
John B. Cruz III, CEO of Cruz Cos., feels there is a stronger commitment by Black real estate developers to look out for the community in diverse neighborhoods. “Because we are who we are. Naturally, suffering should and hopefully does bring out compassion,” Mr. Cruz says. The minority-owned construction firm has been developing affordable housing in the neighborhood for three generations, with roughly 65% of its workers being local to Boston.
Mr. Cruz has collaborated with universities in Boston a few times in the past, but says he always felt there was a lack of consistency. A group of about 25 minority businesses and nonprofits known as Columbia Plaza Associates, including Cruz Cos., sued Northeastern in Suffolk Superior Court over a parcel that included the land that the dormitory will be built on. The companies alleged that Northeastern failed to honor a 1999 agreement that CPA had with the city. A judge ruled that agreement was “null and void,” a judgment later upheld by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Northeastern supports the hiring of local people for its new developments, according to Mr. Tobin. On the school’s plan to rebuild Matthews Arena, the world’s oldest ice hockey arena, Northeastern wants to “make the opportunities on those construction jobs well known and well publicized and hopefully taken advantage of,” he says.
The university is discussing options to help fix the city’s housing problem beyond building dorms. Potential solutions include rent relief and energy savings, according to Mr. Tobin. Typically, students are required to live on campus for one to two years. As part of the dormitory project, Northeastern has pledged $1 million to the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development for housing stabilization and wealth-building initiatives in nearby neighborhoods.
Ms. Borriello, the Northeastern student, continues to hope for a closer relationship between her university and its surrounding community. In the end, “There is a school here, and there is the neighborhood here,” she says. “So we need to take care of both of those things.”
