Supportive housing strategy   | boston

This project involved exploring the potential for using hotels as a temporary solution to homelessness in the City of Boston, which had been exacerbated by the pandemic. 

The scope of the project involved preparing a comprehensive list of all hotel properties in Boston, based upon our knowledge of the local hotel market and three databases: Costar, ESRI Business Analyst, and the Boston Tax Assessor. Information from these sources was merged together and corrected for inaccuracies, name and address discrepancies, etc. to create a single database which can be sorted and filtered by various fields (eg. size, class, brand, condition, operation, construction status, etc). The data was also mapped using an interactive GIS tool to help decision makers locate and sort the various properties and see them in context.

A database of almost 140 separate properties with relevant data was shared with BPDA. This was accompanied by links to the interactive maps. These show the properties scaled by size and colored by various fields, depending on the layers shown. The maps also include additional layers which depict other relevant information which may be useful in making decisions about which properties are most appropriate (eg. neighborhood boundaries, zoning, levels of household incomes and home values, % homeownership vs. renter, transit accessibility, healthcare facilities, supportive shelter and social services, prevalence of crime, and degrees of political activism).

This information was then refined into something more targeted: a “short list” meant to reflect programmatic and financial criteria set by BPDA and the City. The properties on this short list are deemed to have the most potential and warrant further investigation. 

Size was the most relevant “first cut” criteria. Larger hotels, by room count and square footage, are likely to be more expensive and not meet budgetary considerations. Very small hotels are likely to be difficult and inefficient to operate for supportive housing programs. Further, there was concern about clustering too many residents in any single facility or location. We understood from discussions with relevant parties that an efficient and manageable supportive housing facility might be approximately 60 rooms+/- and 4,000 sf of supportive facilities. 

We then reviewed the selected properties for “acquisition potential”. We graded the hotels and then highlighted those we felt had “High Potential”, “Modest Potential”, “Minimal Potential”, and “No Potential”. That spreadsheet was used as the basis for a discussion with BPDA, City of Boston and Boston Medical Center staff. From that discussion, we agreed that less than 10 properties were the most desirable for the intended purpose, had possible acquisition potential, and were worth further consideration and investigation.

The interactive maps can be found at this link. 

Role: Brian Jennett performed the bulk of the work for this assignment while a Senior Consultant in Real Estate/Urban Planning at Stantec.