“100 Million” is 2nd digital ad to highlight the need for more housing and Josh’s plan to address the crisis

BOSTON, MA – Democratic mayoral candidate Josh Kraft released a new digital ad this week highlighting Mayor Wu’s failed record on housing in Boston and misplaced priorities in pushing to spend more than $100M in taxpayer resources to renovate White Stadium.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2_Joogq0to

“By every measure, Mayor Wu has failed to solve Boston’s housing crisis. Over the last three and a half years, construction of new housing has ground to a halt, the median price of a new home is nearly $900K, and rent is among the highest in the country. The mayor promised robust housing production and rent control, and she’s delivered nothing. We must do better,” said Josh.

At the same time, Mayor Wu has committed to spending “whatever it costs” to rebuild White Stadium – a facility which will primarily benefit wealthy private investors instead of  BPS student athletes. It is widely believed that the cost to the city will exceed $100M, after more than doubling from initial estimates.

Background on Mayor Wu’s Failures on Housing & Josh’s Plan

Mayor Wu has made it impossible for new housing projects to be financed and built by mandating unrealistic affordability requirements on new housing. And the numbers don’t lie — she set a goal of 13,000 new units of housing in her first term, and after 3+ years she has created roughly 7,700 units according to the number of permits issued by ISD.

The city currently has over 26,000 units that are permitted but can’t be financed. 

Click here for more on Josh’s Housing Plan, which focused on three priorities:

1) Get shovels in the ground on 26,000 permitted projects that are sitting idle in Boston due to regulations and red tape imposed by the current administration. Josh’s plan will jump start those projects by offering one-time incentives and regulatory relief to get these projects moving right away.

2) Establish a rent control program that incentivizes building owners to cap rent increases at affordable levels. In exchange for capping increases in rents over a 10-year period, the city will provide a cut in real estate taxes to building owners. This program would be targeted at properties that serve middle- and lower-income residents and would exclude luxury rentals. It is designed so it will not require approval by the legislature.

3) Take the tax revenue generated by jump-starting the 26,000+ permitted units sitting unbuilt and create an affordable housing fund to help regular people buy their first home. 

About Josh 

Josh Kraft has spent his 35 year career working in disadvantaged communities in and around Boston. He was most recently President of the New England Patriots Foundation, and for three decades he worked with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, including 12 years as its President and CEO.

Josh’s commitment to service began with his first job out of college as an outreach coordinator at a South Boston nonprofit. There he was responsible for making sure at-risk youth attended school in the morning, regularly visiting their families at home. It was in this role that Josh saw firsthand truancy, addiction and domestic violence, but also what is possible for communities when like minded individuals engage in a common goal.

In 1993, he founded the Boys & Girls Club in Chelsea at a time when the city and its schools were in state receivership. Located in the basement of a public housing development, Josh went door-to-door raising money from local businesses to rehabilitate the facility and organize and fund a summer basketball league coached and refereed by local police officers he had personally recruited. Josh would serve as executive director of the Chelsea Boys & Girls Club for the next 15 years, building and managing an extremely loyal staff and deeply engaged local Board, leading major local fundraising campaigns and piloting innovative programming to create a safe haven for thousands of young people in one of Massachusetts’ most underserved communities.

Unanimously selected to serve as the Boys & Girls Club of Boston’s President and CEO in 2008, Josh fostered a community of more than 200 program partners throughout Boston and Chelsea, doubling the club’s budget to $26 million and leading a five-year campaign which raised nearly $132 million. During his tenure, Josh doubled the organization’s membership, deepened its impact and expanded its reach to Boston’s Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, and Mattapan neighborhoods.

For more on Josh and the campaign, visit www.joshforboston.com.

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