As a long time of discriminatory policies and practices proceed to exacerbate America's inexpensive housing crisis, lower than three miles from the MIT campus stands a beacon of innovation and social empowerment.
“We are very proud to proceed MIT’s long-standing partnership with Camfield Estates,” says Catherine D’Ignazio, associate professor of urban studies and planning. “Camfield has long been an incubator for creative ideas geared toward strengthening their community.”
D'Ignazio co-leads a research team focused on housing as a part of MIT's Initiative to Combat Systemic Racism (ICSR), led by the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS). The group is studying the uneven impact of information, AI, and algorithmic systems on housing within the United States, in addition to ways wherein these same tools may very well be used to handle racial inequalities. The Camfield Tenant Association is a research partner that gives insight into the issue and relevant data, in addition to opportunities for MIT researchers to unravel real challenges and make a difference on the bottom.
The 102-unit housing development in Roxbury, Massachusetts, formerly referred to as Camfield Gardens, was a pioneering site within the Nineteen Nineties as a part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) program to revitalize dilapidated public housing throughout the country had goal. This also served as a catalyst for the collaboration with MIT that began within the early 2000s.
“The program gave Camfield the cash and energy to demolish and rebuild every little thing on the location. “They were also in a position to purchase the property from the town for $1 and take full ownership of the location,” explains Nolen Scruggs, a master’s student within the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) who has worked as a part of the town’s vertical housing team for the past few years ICSR collaborated with Camfield. “Back then, MIT graduates helped start a program to bridge the 'digital divide,' which later became the tech lab that also exists today, where residents can proceed to learn computer skills and things they may have to get ahead .”
Because of this early collaboration, Camfield Estates turned to MIT in 2022 to start a brand new chapter of student collaboration. Scruggs spent several months assembling a team of scholars from Harvard University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and MIT to work on a housing project to assist the Camfield Tenants Association prepare for its upcoming redevelopment needs.
“One of the things that has been really essential to the work of the ICSR housing division is the historical context,” says Peko Hosoi, a professor of mechanical engineering and arithmetic who co-leads the ICSR housing division with D'Ignazio. “We didn’t get to where we’re immediately with housing construction. A variety of things have happened within the U.S., like redlining, predatory lending, and various forms of infrastructure investments, that create essential connections.”
“Quantitative methods are a fantastic strategy to have a look at macro-level phenomena, but our team also recognizes and values qualitative and participatory methods to get a more informed picture of what community needs really are and what sorts of innovations can emerge from the communities themselves,” adds D'Ignazio. “This is where the partnership with Camfield Estates, which Nolen has led, is available in.”
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 on residents to debate their housing problems and learned in regards to the affordability issues that make it difficult for low- and middle-income families to seek out housing.
“That behind-the-scenes experience laid the muse for my involvement in Camfield,” says Scruggs, recalling his early days at Camfield, where he conducted participatory motion research and met with Camfield seniors to debate and capture their concerns.
Scruggs says the largest problem they were trying to unravel with Camfield was twofold: creating extra space for brand spanking new residents while also helping current residents reach their end goal of homeownership.
“This speaks to a number of the larger issues our group at ICSR is working on when it comes to housing affordability,” he says. “At Camfield, it's about where individuals with Section 8 vouchers can move, what limitations they’ve and what barriers they face – whether it's from big technology systems or individual landlord preferences.”
Scruggs adds: “The discrimination that these people face when trying to seek out a house, lock on it, seek advice from a bank, etc. – that will be very, very difficult and discouraging.” Scruggs says a try One strategy to combat this problem can be to rent a caseworker to assist people through the method — one in all many ideas that emerged from a collaboration between Camfield and the FHLBank Affordable Housing Development Competition.
As a part of the competition, the Scruggs team's goal was to assist Camfield tenants understand all of their options and potential trade-offs in order that they will ultimately make informed decisions about what they need to do with their space.
“Redevelopment programs often don’t be sure that people can return,” says Scruggs. “Concrete design proposals are being made to be sure that the structure of individuals’s lifestyles isn’t disrupted.”
Scruggs says preliminary recommendations discussed with tenant association president Paulette Ford include replacing the community center with a high-rise constructing that will increase the number of accessible units.
“I believe they're pondering very creatively about their options,” says Hosoi. “Paulette Ford and her mother before her at all times referred to Camfield as 'hands up', with the concept that people would come to Camfield to live until they may afford their very own home locally.”
Scruggs' other partnership with Camfield includes working with MIT student Amelie Nagle as a part of the Student Research Opportunities Program To develop programs that teach computer design and programming to the kids of the Camfield community – in the identical TechLab that dates back to the primary collaboration between MIT and Camfield.
“Nolen is actually committed to community knowledge production,” says D'Ignazio. “It's been a pleasure to work with him and see how he uses all of his skills in urban planning (GIS, mapping, urban design, photography, and more) to work in a respectful way while prioritizing community innovation.”
She added: “We hope the method produces some high-quality architectural and planning ideas and helps Camfield take the following step towards realizing its progressive vision.”
