How Data and Recommendation Move Into Policy: Shifting the Conversation—and the Outcomes—on Housing in our Region
For the past two decades, TBF's Greater Boston Housing Report Card has been tracking housing policy in Massachusetts and helping to translate data into action. As we prepare to publish the 2025 edition next week, we just witnessed how 2024's report has helped shift the conversation—and the outcomes—on housing in our region. By Keith Mahoney, Vice President of Public Affairs, the Boston Foundation
November 3, 2025
Last month, the City of Boston adopted a new ordinance prioritizing the use of municipal land for affordable housing. This policy directly aligns with a key recommendation from the Boston Foundation’s 2024 Greater Boston Housing Report Card, which urged cities and the state to activate publicly owned land to address the region’s housing shortage. We are pleased to see a new policy that so directly connects with our continued advocacy for bold systemic action on housing to expand housing supply and affordability across Greater Boston.
Next week we will publish the 2025 edition, and as it has for the past two decades, the Greater Boston Housing Report Card will track housing policy in Massachusetts and help to translate data into action. Each year, the Report Card lays out two major pieces. First, a “Core Metrics” section that tracks supply, prices, rent burdens, construction permits, demographic shifts, vacancy rates and more. For example the 2024 core metrics show that housing supply continues to lag, communities are aging and incomes are increasingly polarized—even as households shrink and demand remains strong.
Second, a “special topic” section—last year focusing on publicly-owned land as both an opportunity and an obstacle. In Greater Boston about one-quarter of land is publicly owned, and some 40 percent of that is vacant or not reserved for conservation. If just 5 percent of that land were developed at a modest density (15 units per acre) under the new MBTA Communities Act standard, we estimate some 85,000 new housing units could be built.
By creating more streamlined processes around city-owned land, the ordinance addresses one of the key obstacles the 2024 Report Card flagged: length and complexity of procurement, permitting and the local community process. When municipal land is available but tied up in bureaucratic or political gridlock, housing supply stalls. The ordinance signals that the City is ready to reduce those barriers—and our report provided data that supported this direction.
From MassLive - Boston Housing Crisis: New law prioritizes converting city property into affordable homes
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (C) surrounded by members of City Council and advocates signs a new city ordinance that prioritizes turning surplus city property into affordable housing. Wu signed the ordinance during a news conference at City Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. Photo: John L. Micek/MassLive.
Importantly, the Report Card doesn’t simply lay out the problem—it makes explicit recommendations: speed up permitting; repurpose publicly-owned land for housing; align state and municipal policy so that housing supply can catch up; anchor equity as a core goal. These recommendations are meant to inform policymakers, developers, advocates—and of course our civic leadership work at the Foundation.
The pathway from research to policy is neither automatic nor guaranteed—but in our region we’ve seen several important impacts.
- Framing the debate – The Report Card gives policymakers a credible, independent snapshot of where we stand. When a municipal or state leader raises housing affordability, they can point to our data and say: here is what the numbers show; here is what needs to change. For example, the 2024 Report Card’s focus on public land helped to elevate the idea that city- and state-owned real estate is not just a cost center but a strategic asset.
- Setting a policy agenda – Because the Report Card includes concrete recommendations, it gives decision-makers a menu of actions. Over recent years, we have seen this connect to policies such as the Housing Choice initiative, zoning reform, the MBTA Communities law, and now the conversation around publicly-owned land.
- Supporting advocacy and accountability – We don’t just publish the Report Card and walk away. At TBF we actively convene stakeholders (local leaders, state officials, housing practitioners), hold public events around the release, and follow up on progress.
- Spotlighting obstacles and catalyzing change – The special topic analysis in the 2024 Report Card didn’t shy away from the fact that public land could be developed—if procurement, permitting and political opposition are addressed. In fact, the report documents cases where municipalities purchased land to block housing, spending millions in public funds that might otherwise have gone into new housing. By naming those obstacles, the Report Card helps to shift the policy conversation from “we wish we had more land” to “we can and must use the land we already have—let’s clear the impediments.”
As we at TBF look forward, the question isn’t whether we need more housing in Greater Boston—our data make that abundantly clear—but whether we can marshal our public institutions, private partners and civic will to act. The Report Card will continue to be a tool in that effort: a shared fact-base, a platform for convening, and a lever for accountability.
The work ahead is substantial. But with the alignment of research, advocacy and policy—as exemplified by the collaboration between the Report Card and actions like the Boston ordinance—we’re better positioned than ever to make a difference for families, workers and communities across Greater Boston.
Part II: Public Land: Opportunity or Obstacle?
The special topic in the 2024 report examines a possible opportunity for siting new housing in Greater Boston – thousands of acres of publicly-owned land that is unused, vacant and not set aside for conservation. A research team from Boston University's Initiative on Cities examines the issue, and finds that while using public spaces could generate tens of thousands of new housing units, local processes and housing opponents can often use the system to block new housing development, sometimes spending millions in the process.