Tufts to host conference on affordable housing today

The Four Planning Schools (4P) and Massachusetts American Planning Association (MassAPA) Annual Conferencewill take place today at 4:30 p.m. in Cabot ASEAN Auditorium. This year's conference, titled “Securing Affordable Housing in Hot Market Areas,” will feature the research of Rachel Bratt, former professor of urban and environmental policy and planning (UEP), who retired this August after joining Tufts in 1976.

The conference has been hosted on an alternating basis by the 4P schools -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, Tufts and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) -- for the last six years. This year's conference was delegated to Tufts.

Bratt explained that the subject of this year's conference is very relevant in today's housing market, especially in the Boston and the Medford/Somerville areas.

"I don’t think the students in the area have to be given very much background about what it means to live in an area where rents are so high, and all of that contributes to what we call a hot housing market: high rents, low inventory, really high prices, whether it’s for a single room, a studio, a shared apartment, whatever ... it is an expensive market, and it’s a market that is pricing a lot of people out of being able to live here," she said.

Bratt, who has focused her research on U.S. housing policy, said that she and UEP Associate Professor Justin Hollander, who helped organize the event, decided to focus on the subject of affordable housing for the conference this year. Hollander explained that the conference will help recognize Bratt's contributions to the field, and he underscored how important the issue of affordable housing is today, noting the possible effects of the potential Green Line expansion.

"One of the things that we are looking at is how are we as a campus going to think about the impact that the Green Line’s going to have on the ability for students to afford to live anywhere near campus," he said.

Bratt added that the issue of finding affordable housing pertains to both Tufts community members and local families.

"This is a huge problem, not just for the local community, students, but for families who are really trying to maintain themselves and who are finding it more and more impossible to sustain housing at the cost," she explained.

The annual conference has become an institutionalized event for the 4P schools to which the programs' students and faculty can look forward to. By holding the conference, the 4P schools are able to take advantage of the fact that Massachusetts is one of the few states that has four accredited planning programs, according to Bratt.

"We really highly value the fact that we have four planning programs, and they’re all excellent, high-quality programs, and we are delighted to have a chance to interact with each other in this formal way and then informally with the reception," she said. "These kinds of contacts and networking always provide great opportunities for students and faculty and professionals in the community to learn what everybody’s doing and to hear news from respective campuses."

Hollander said he hopes the discussion in this year's conference will serve as a resource on campus.

"Hopefully the insights that are gleaned from this discussion will be able to be applied to the planning that we do right here on campus," he said.

Margaret Wiryaman, a research assistant at UEP who helped organize the event with Hollander, explained that she began discussing the planning for the event over the summer.

"We reached out to the planning schools ... so we were able to get a lot of people to register through those schools and their networks, as well as MassAPA ... and so we were reaching out to them also," she said.

Wiryaman noted that 177 people have currently registered for the conference.

The annual conference was first held when Tufts became accredited as a planning program by the APA, according to Bratt.

"We then became the third accredited planning program in the Boston area, joining Harvard and MIT," she said. "I was chair of UEP at that time, and the chairs of the Harvard planning program and the MIT program and I got together and said, 'Well, gee, it’s really time for us to begin to launch an annual symposium on some topic of interest in planning that would bring all of the students and faculty together in the Boston area.'"

She added that as the school with the newest program, Tufts was selected to host the first symposium. UMass Amherst later joined the schools with its own accredited planning program.

Hollander underscored Bratt's role in developing the conference.

"One of the things that she did that was really important was she reached out to the other planning schools in Massachusetts ... She reached out to others that did planning and she brought them together, and it is what has since become an annual event," he said.

The event will feature an introduction by speakers from the 4P schools as well as a representative from MassAPA. Bratt will then deliver the keynote address, which will be followed by a panel and a question and answer session open to the audience. A reception will be held afterwards.