BOSTON

Some students and Roxbury residents alike have expressed concerns about the affordability, quality and potential community impact of Northeastern University’s proposed new dorm at 840 Columbus Ave. Opponents of the dorm have tried to make their voices heard by submitting public comments on the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) website and voicing their opinions in virtual public meetings with the agency. Still, opponents of the dorm say their comments often either go unheard or are completely disregarded.

In a Nov. 2 meeting with the BPDA, Roxbury resident Emilia Morgan expressed her skepticism about how the proposed dorm might solve issues that disproportionately face the Northeastern and Roxbury communities.

“It seems to me that this building really doesn’t begin to address any of the issues faced by the Boston community– let alone the Roxbury community– when it comes to affordable housing, which is one of the biggest issues especially during COVID,” she said in the meeting. 

Before she was able to finish her question, moderators interrupted her and moved on with the meeting. The object of her confusion went unclarified.

Nevertheless, her concerns align with those of others in the area. Morgan is a member of the Boston Socialist Alternative, the organization that has taken a primary role in the movement against the new dorm. The group has organized events like virtual public meetings with both Northeastern students and Roxbury community members, flyering sessions and is planning a rally on April 25.

Northeastern students have also raised objections to the new dorm. “We are angered by Northeastern’s decision to build this luxury dorm and, as Northeastern students especially, we have a responsibility to add our voices to the many people who are standing against this development,” said first-year biology and political science major Juliana Milidantri in a public meeting hosted by the Boston Socialist Alternative on April 11.

“This whole thing isn’t about just one luxury dorm,” said Northeastern graduate student Matthew Burchfield in the meeting. “Students and working people throughout this country, and especially in this city, are faced with the crisis of affordable housing.”

Over the past several decades, Boston renters have struggled to maintain access to housing that is both of high quality and sits comfortably within their budgets. With an oversaturated housing market, rent prices are only driven even further up. In 2018, nearly half of Boston renter households reported paying at least 30% of their household income on rent.

The issue is exacerbated by many Boston universities’ low capacity to house their students on campus. Northeastern University’s Boston campus is home to around 15,000 undergraduate students each year. Still, its current residential offerings only have the capacity to house just over 10,000 of these students, pushing thousands into the already-saturated Boston housing market.

Kathy Spiegelman, Northeastern University’s chief of campus planning and development introduced the plan for 840 Columbus Ave. as a step towards the university’s larger goal of correcting the shortage of student housing on campus. This goal was outlined in the university’s most recent Institutional Master Plan, published in 2013. 

Northeastern’s previous solution to its housing shortage was simply limiting the number of students allowed to live on campus. For example, students in its Foundation Year pathway, a university program designed to address access to higher education for low-income graduates of the Boston Public Schools, are not allowed access to university housing.

Upon learning of Northeastern’s plan to build the dorm at 840 Columbus Ave., Foundation Year student J.D. Moore said his first emotional response was defeat, as his access to housing is already limited. “My second reaction to the dorm being built was just like, ‘Wow, they’re putting all this money towards building luxury dorms but still neglect to offer housing to the students from Boston,’” he said.

Among the 83 other students in the Foundation Year pathway, a tight-knit group of 10 are actively working to change the policy excluding students in their program from university housing. The group has been in communication with Northeastern administrators like the head of admissions, Ebony Clinton-Brown, who agreed that students in the program should be granted access to university housing. 

Still, not much has come of their efforts. “Basically, we’ve been given radio silence,” said Moore. After the first meeting the group had with Northeastern admissions officers, the students did not hear anything from the university, despite their attempts to follow up with the officials.

Representatives for the Foundation Year pathway did not respond to multiple requests for comment by publication time.

Some students in the Foundation Year program do not feel as though they would be financially able to take out a lease in the new dorm at 840 Columbus Ave. once it is completed. With limited access to on-campus housing and a high financial hurdle to surmount with off-campus leases, the group feels a sense of urgency to better their position. According to Moore, however, the university does not seem like it is giving the issue the same level of importance. 

“After we didn’t hold back what we were feeling, they seemed like they were receptive to it,” said Moore. “They seemed like they wanted to do something about it, but had really been dragging their feet about it. Clearly, it’s not a priority.” 

In a public update to the university’s progress with 840 Columbus Ave., Spiegelman said rents are proposed to begin at $1,368 per month. The starting rate for residences at LightView, an apartment-style living complex that shares a developer with the proposed dorm, is priced similarly, at $1,374. 

Although this monthly rate lies on the pricier end of the spectrum of housing prices at Northeastern housing, BPDA officials cite LightView's popularity as a reason to expect a high amount of student leasing.

“LightView was fully leased nine months before its September opening, showing there is a high demand for on-campus living with innovative, state-of-the-art facilities,” read the project notification from American Campus Communities, the Columbus Ave. project’s developer.

Some students say this high demand for LightView housing is not indicative of a similar response from all members of the student body, but from those who already know they can afford it. LightView resident Vanel Joseph said the majority of students living in his building seem to fit into a specific tax bracket. “My roommates and I have this running joke where we point out every time we see Gucci or Louis Vuitton in the laundry room,” he said. “It’s often.”

Some students argue that the dorm’s price is just one part of the issue. “Even if this dorm were to be filled by exclusively wealthy students that can pay for it, that still doesn’t make it right, and it still doesn’t solve any of the issues that it causes in Roxbury,” said Milidantri. 

In an effort to ameliorate some of the damages that the housing crisis has caused for areas neighboring Northeastern’s campus, the university is planning on selling of the residential buildings it owns in the Fenway neighborhood back to the community. The university has not yet determined which of its buildings will be sold.

In a Jan. 28 virtual public meeting with the BPDA, several Roxbury residents expressed concerns that the high price of the proposed dorm will mean some students will instead move into non-Northeastern apartments, contributing to a rental squeeze.

Residential spaces in Fenway are among the cheapest housing options affiliated with Northeastern University. For the 2020-2021 school year, four of Northeastern’s seven residential buildings in Fenway were the least expensive housing options on campus.  The median price of the university’s on-campus residential buildings in Fenway is nearly $400 cheaper per semester than rent in LightView or the proposed one at 840 Columbus Ave. 

“It’s clear that no matter what we build as new housing, it will probably never be priced the same as older buildings that don’t have to be on the cost of the new construction or don’t have the same amenities,” Spiegelman said.