While decades of discriminatory policies and practices continue to fuel the affordable housing crisis in the United States, less than three miles from the MIT campus exists a beacon of innovation and community empowerment.
“We are very proud to continue MIT’s long-standing partnership with Camfield Estates,” says Catherine D’Ignazio, associate professor of urban sciences and planning. “Camfield has long been an incubator for creative ideas focused on improving its community.”
D'Ignazio co-leads a research team focused on housing as part of the MIT Initiative to Combat Systemic Racism (ICSR) led by the Institute for Data, Systems and Society (IDSS). The group investigates the unequal impacts of data, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic systems on housing in the United States, as well as ways these same tools could be used to address racial disparities. The Camfield Tenant Association is a research partner, providing issue insights and relevant data, as well as opportunities for MIT researchers to solve real challenges and make local impact.
Formerly known as “Camfield Gardens,” the 102-unit housing development in Roxbury, Massachusetts, was one of the pioneer sites in the 1990s to participate in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program. ) aimed at revitalizing public housing in poor condition throughout the country. This also served as a catalyst for his collaboration with MIT, which began in the early 2000s.
“The program gave Camfield the money and energy to tear down everything on the site and rebuild it again, as well as allowing them to purchase the property from the city for $1 and take full ownership of the site,” explains Nolen Scruggs. master's student in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) who has worked with Camfield for the past few years as part of ICSR's housing vertical team. “At that time, MIT graduate students helped start a program to bridge the 'digital divide' that later evolved into the technology lab that still exists today, and continues to allow residents to learn computer skills and things. that they might need to help. “
Thanks to that initial collaboration, Camfield Estates approached MIT in 2022 to begin a new chapter of collaboration with students. Scruggs spent a few months assembling a team of students from Harvard University, the Wentworth Institute of technology and MIT to work on a housing design project aimed at helping the Camfield Tenants Association prepare for its impending redevelopment needs. .
“One of the things that has been really important to the work of the ICSR housing vertical is the historical context,” says Peko Hosoi, a professor of mechanical engineering and mathematics who co-directs the ICSR housing vertical with D'Ignazio. “We didn’t get to where we are now with housing in an instant. “A lot has happened in the United States, such as redlining, predatory lending, and different ways of investing in infrastructure that add important context.”
“Quantitative methods are a great way to look at macro-scale phenomena, but our team recognizes and values qualitative and participatory methods as well, to get a more informed picture of what the community's needs really are and what types of innovations may emerge. of the communities themselves. ”adds D'Ignazio. “This is where the partnership with Camfield Estates, which Nolen has been leading, comes into play.”
Find creative solutions
Before coming to MIT, Scruggs, a proud New Yorker, worked on housing issues while interning for his local congressman, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. He called residents to discuss their housing concerns and learn about affordability issues that were making it difficult for low- and middle-income families to find places to live.
“Having this behind-the-scenes experience set the stage for my involvement in Camfield,” says Scruggs, recalling her early days in Camfield conducting participatory action research and meeting Camfield seniors to discuss and capture their concerns.
Scruggs says the biggest problem they've been trying to address with Camfield is twofold: creating more space for new residents while also helping current residents achieve their ultimate goal of homeownership.
“This speaks to some of the bigger issues our group at ICSR is working on in terms of housing affordability,” he says. “With Camfield it's about looking at where people with Section 8 vouchers can move, what limits they have and what barriers they face, whether through large technology systems or individual preferences coming from homeowners.”
Scruggs adds, “The discrimination that these people face when trying to find a house, close on it, talk to a bank, etc., can be very, very difficult and discouraging.” Scruggs says one attempt to combat this problem would be to hire a caseworker to help people through the process, one of many ideas that came out of a Camfield collaboration with the FHLBank Affordable Housing Development Competition.
As part of the competition, the Scruggs team's goal was to help Camfield tenants understand all of their options and their potential trade-offs, so they can ultimately make informed decisions about what they want to do with their space.
“Very often redevelopment plans do not guarantee that people will be able to return.” says Scruggs. “Specific design proposals are being made to ensure the fabric of people's lifestyles is not disrupted.”
Scruggs says tentative recommendations discussed with tenant association President Paulette Ford include replacing the community center with a high-rise development that would increase the number of available units.
“I think they're thinking very creatively about their options,” Hosoi says. “Paulette Ford, and her mother before her, have always referred to Camfield as a 'hand up', with the idea that people come to Camfield to live until they can afford a home of their own locally.”
Scruggs' other partnership with Camfield involves working with MIT undergraduate Amelie Nagle as part of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program create programming that teaches computer design and coding to children in the Camfield community, in the same TechLab that dates back to MIT and Camfield's first collaboration.
“Nolen has a real commitment to community-led knowledge production,” says D'Ignazio. “It has been a pleasure to work with him and watch him use all his urban planning skills (GIS, mapping, urban design, photography and more) to work in a respectful way that puts community innovation at the forefront.”
He adds: “We are hopeful that the process will generate some high-quality architectural and planning ideas and help Camfield take the next step towards realizing its innovative vision.”