Low Income Households growing at Fastest Rate in Boston

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by timberline742

If I may. A rising tide does lift all boats, but the saying is used incorrectly. Tides lift boats from the bottom. The saying is really about infusing the economy at the lowest rungs (poor, working poor, etc) raises everyone. That does work.


What our economy does is try to raise the tide by pulling up from the Captain's chair, and since the Captain is getting higher and higher up, they're proclaiming the entire boat is being lifted.


The saying is accurate, the use of it... well, it is being purposely misused and has been since the trickle down/supply side economics fallacy has been hoisted upon us.

What does this have to do with the thread, or Boston for that matter???

[GeePee]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Boston is overall a good place to be poor and an okay place to be urban working class. Bad for lower middle class and middle class.

If youve got your priorities in order Boston is a good place to advance in a lot of ways-career wise, side hustle wise, education wise, investment wise, even crime wise (with our ultra lenient law enforcement and judicial practices). If you’re any type of ambitious and poor or urban working class Boston makes sense if you can get a deal or an in. And often poor immigrants have an in, and a community to help them out.

Now if you wanna be low income and able to just hang out and live low stress easily and I definitely... Boston probably isn’t the place. The reality-and it’s reflect in the demographics in this report - is that most poor and low income people are very ambitious.

This is maybe the most spot on assessment of the current state of Boston I've read so far. Bravo.

[Bridge781]

I think we all know that Boston or any major city is not a good place to be if you are middle class. Many middle class people don’t live in Boston though.

[queerfaith]

Originally Posted by Dm84

Gotta agree here. Boston basically panders to poor people in a way that's almost unfair. Every new building has a ton of units set aside for poor people at affordable rents while the rest of the units cost too much for regular people to afford. Then there's the extremely generous welfare benefits with income eligibility limits that are probably double what they are in most of the country.

If anything Boston is the worst city in the country to be middle class and the best to be poor or rich.

Low income people generally live in housing authority properties or section 8 subsidized housing and basically pay 1/3 of their income as rent. Affordable housing is for low-middle income households. These are usually defined as people who earn 80%-120% of the median income of the community. This would be entry level teachers, nurses, police, firefighters or perhaps administrative assistants.


New construction usually has a mix of affordable and market rate housing, sometimes some of the units are approved to be section 8 as well. This is called mixed income housing. It has been decided that continuing to build all new low income housing communities is detrimental to low income people. It creates a prejudice regarding that section of town, and the people living there. It creates another barrier for the people to free themselves from generationaly.

[RBThescot]

Originally Posted by queerfaith

Low income people generally live in housing authority properties or section 8 subsidized housing and basically pay 1/3 of their income as rent. Affordable housing is for low-middle income households. These are usually defined as people who earn 80%-120% of the median income of the community. This would be entry level teachers, nurses, police, firefighters or perhaps administrative assistants.


New construction usually has a mix of affordable and market rate housing, sometimes some of the units are approved to be section 8 as well. This is called mixed income housing. It has been decided that continuing to build all new low income housing communities is detrimental to low income people. It creates a prejudice regarding that section of town, and the people living there. It creates another barrier for the people to free themselves from generationaly.

Well said. There are also super cheap entry level housing opportunities, like HUD houses, with specific set asides for middle class police, firefighters​, teachers, that low income poor people wouldn't qualify for. In housing, entry level is very important.