"The markets we serve aren't benefiting from this boom. At the top shelf or highest income group, yes, but certainly not at the level of working people," he says. "For people of low or moderate or even middle-class income, the housing crunch is pushing people farther and farther out."
Gottsche says Just A Start regularly gets 100 to 200 applicants for every unit of affordable housing they are able to advertise.
He says the housing created in the current boom lies far beyond the price range of the people that the organization tries to help.
"There are buildings going up all over the place--[houses with] three-car garages, eight to 10 rooms, four bathrooms and conversions to condominiums," he says. "The blue-collar population just gets priced out."
Woods says the proliferation of luxury housing, often converted from existing low or moderately priced housing, has led to the gentrification of the Cambridge community, where lower-income people can no longer afford to live in the city.
"One of the things that's made
Cambridge a great community is its economic diversity, and people in between are getting squeezed out," he says.
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