Join Abundant Housing MA on Wednesday, December 4th from 6:00 – 8:00 pm in the Commonwealth Salon room at the Central Library in Copley Square for a panel discussion with Austin City Councilors Chito Vela, Leslie Pool, and Zo Qadri and Cambridge City Councilor Burhan Azeem. The panel will be moderated by Boston City Councilors Enrique Pepen and Henry Santana.
The conversation will focus on recent efforts in Austin and Cambridge to tackle rising housing costs by making it easier to build more affordable housing options.
Complimentary food and refreshments will be available during the event.
Event Location: Commonwealth Salon, Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02116
Panelists
Cambridge City Councilor Burhan Azeem: Burhan Azeem is serving his second term on the Cambridge City Council as the youngest councilor in the City’s history. A graduate of MIT, Burhan’s primary focuses are on housing affordability, street safety, and universal pre-K. In his first term as councilor, Burhan expanded zoning for 100% affordable housing projects, successfully removed costly parking minimums that limited housing development, and played a key role in establishing universal pre-K for all Cambridge residents. Now serving as co-chair of the Housing Committee, Burhan is focused on expanding housing in Cambridge.
Austin City Councilor Jose “Chito” Vela: Councilor Vela represents District 4 on the Austin City Council. Born in Laredo, Texas, he moved to Austin to pursue a Bachelor’s in History at the University of Texas. Before serving on the City Council, his passion for defending Texas residents from forces that seek to marginalize them led him to work as an immigration and criminal defense lawyer at Walker Gates Vela. Councilor Vela also served as General Counsel to Texas State Rep. Solomon Ortiz, Jr. and on the City of Austin Planning Commission.
Austin Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool: Prior to becoming the elected representative for Austin City Council’s District 7, Mayor Pro Tem Pool served in the Travis County Constable’s Office, worked at the National Wildlife Federation, the Texas Department of Transportation, and served in the offices of Congressman Lloyd Doggett and the late U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. She is active locally, nationally, and internationally in transformational policy development on climate adaptation, transit, and housing to create compact, connected, and resilient communities.
Austin City Councilor Zohaib “Zo” Qadri: The first-born child of immigrants, Zo Qadri is the first South Asian American and Muslim elected to serve on the Austin City Council. He was elected to represent District 9 in 2022 and serves the residents of some of Austin’s oldest neighborhoods, including Travis Heights, Hyde Park, and Downtown. He is committed to tackling Austin’s housing crisis, fighting for an expanded and equitable transit system, and protecting and uplifting Austin’s most marginalized residents. He currently resides in Central Austin with his wife, Wafa, a physician assistant at Baylor Scott & White, and their cat, Daisy Mae.
Moderators
Boston City Councilor Enrique Pepen: Councilor Pepen represents District 5 on the City Council, which includes Hyde Park, Readville, and parts of Roslindale and Mattapan. He was elected to the City Council in 2023.
Boston City Councilor Henry Santana: Councilor Santana was first elected in 2023 and currently serves as an At-Large City Councilor.
Additional Information
Austin, Texas
Powered by the main campus of the University of Texas and rapid economic growth particularly in the tech sector, Austin has experienced the largest percentage growth in population of any major American city in the past ten years. The surge in population and rent prices have led Austin City leaders to enact a series of zoning reforms designed to make it easier to build housing. These include the University Neighborhood Overlay (UNO), which allows developers to build bigger buildings in the West Campus neighborhood in exchange for providing affordable housing and abiding by requirements to improve the public spaces around the buildings and the HOME Amendments. The Home Options for Mobility and Equity (HOME) code amendments are a series of updates that allow up to 3 homes on any single-family lot and homes on lots less than 5,750 square feet.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge has some of the highest housing costs in the nation. The median home sale price is over $2 million and the median asking rent for a two bedroom apartment is well over $3,000 per month. In 2020, the City Council passed an affordable housing overlay (AHO) district that allows the creation of new, permanently affordable housing that is denser than what might be allowed under base zoning, and creates a new review process through which new affordable housing can be approved more efficiently. This district was amended in 2023 to allow even larger buildings for affordable housing in higher-density zoning districts. The City is also considering a proposal to legalize multi-family housing up to six stories throughout the city.
Boston, Massachusetts
The housing shortage and affordability crisis facing residents in Boston is unfortunately well documented. Boston consistently ranks among the most expensive cities in the country – median asking rents for a two-bedroom apartment top $3,000 and the median home sale price is around 800k. The City is currently undergoing a series of zoning initiaitves to improve housing access and affordability including, enabling accessory dwelling units, upzoning major neighborhood centers, and updating the development review process.