Boston council weighs ordinance giving housing agency first look at surplus property

BOSTON — August 15, 2025 — Boston City Council committee weighs ordinance to direct surplus city property to affordable housing first. The Committee on Government Operations held a public hearing Friday on Docket 1276, sponsored by Council President Ruthzee Louijeune alongside Councilors Enrique J. Pepén and Brian Worrell, which would require the Mayor's Office of Housing to issue a feasibility determination within 90 days of a property entering the surplusing process. Administration officials, including MOH Chief of Staff Dan Lesser and Planning Department Real Estate Director Rebecca Tomasovic, said the city's 2022 land audit identified 9.5 million square feet of underused city-owned property and that eight large opportunity sites are already yielding more than 1,500 housing units in the pipeline. Developer Charlie Adams of Penrose, which built the Pride LGBTQ senior housing complex in Hyde Park — 74 income-restricted units that opened in 2024 — warned that "time kills all deals" after the Rogers school sat vacant for seven years before construction began. Gretchen Van Ness of LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc. testified that people on the Pride's waiting list died during the years-long gap from the school's 2015 closure to residents moving in.