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Boston Mayor Tom Menino

We need new low-income housing incentives.

By John Salustri | Updated on June 21, 2002

In May, members of the US Congress of Mayors flew delegates into Washington, DC for a National Housing Forum. The Forum was called by Boston’s firebrand mayor, Thomas Menino. Menino had taken over the job of president of the Congress only two weeks prior, and delegates hailed him for putting the Forum together on such a short leash. And it was clearly no junket. The two-day meeting called for the mayors to meet in sessions broken out into the four key areas of housing concern–homeownership, rentals, public housing and preservation of low-income housing–after which they were mandated to develop prime issues. These issues were written late into the night and presented on the second day of the meeting to Congress. In the midst of this breakneck schedule, Menino talked with GlobeSt.com about the importance of the work accomplished at the Forum.

GlobeSt.com: In terms of growing the inventory of affordable housing, what can the local–or even the state or federal–government do that local developers and investors haven’t been able to accomplish?

Menino: Local government has some tools available to us. We have vacant land and buildings, and we can establish our own housing funds, either through property dispositions or special revenue streams such as linkage dollars. We have done both in Boston, providing more than $30 million in housing funds from surplus property dispositions and millions more in linkage dollars.

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