What Happened?
Boston recently received a $1.35 million grant from the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Innovation Teams program to develop a Housing Innovation Lab. The project will focus on implementing new ways for Boston to develop and sustain additional housing.
Goal
The Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Innovation Teams program recently expanded its efforts by providing an additional $45 million to 12 cities across the country. Boston was selected to receive a $1.35 million grant over the next three years through the program to develop a Housing Innovation Lab. The lab will research strategies for creating 53,000 new housing units as outlined in the Boston 2030 housing plan.
Boston wants to harness local resources in the innovation sector to partner with the city in creating long-term housing solutions. The innovation teams will provide consult agency leaders on how to apply a data-driven process to tackling housing challenges. The process includes:
- Assessing weaknesses
- Generating responsive interventions
- Developing partnerships in the private sector
- Delivering measurable results
The innovation team will work with the city’s Office of New Urban Mechanics and the Department of Neighborhood Development to create a consortium of public and private experts in housing efficiency.
Boston 2030
The Boston 2030 strategy is an aggressive housing plan with a goal of providing residential options to more than 700,000 people throughout Boston by 2030. The project hopes to create enough housing to support growing demographics and neighborhoods to sustain economic gains. It is estimated that 53,000 additional housing units will need to be constructed:
- 44,000 units of housing for the workforce
- 5,000 units of housing for senior citizens
- 1,700 units of affordable housing for low-income households
- 4,000 units to stabilize rent and housing prices
These figures are based on a projected 20 percent jump in Boston households that will fuel $21 billion in new development and create 51,000 construction jobs. The innovation team will work with city agencies to develop cost-efficient and high-quality development strategies to ensure the needs of all demographics are met. Boston will work with state and federal agencies to acquiring grant support for the ongoing development project.
Bloomberg Philanthropies
The Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Innovation Teams program announced 12 U.S. cities and two non-U.S. cities will have access to $45 million in grants to improve the quality of life of residents and efficiency of government through innovative strategies. The cities selected have proposed plans to boost the capacity of the local government while enhancing community development through:
- Data analytics
- Open innovation
- Strong project and performance management
The mayors of the winning cities will use the money to launch innovation teams to formulate groundbreaking approaches to everyday urban challenges such as housing, safety and economic growth. The grants will support the innovation teams for up to three years to consult public agencies on how best to develop solutions, partner with the private sector and measure results.
In the first round of innovation grants through the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Government Innovation project several larger cities – such as Memphis, Chicago and Louisville - adopted innovation teams and reported measurable success in reducing redundancy, cutting costs and spurring sustainable economic growth.
Thinking Outside The Box
Gov1 has covered a wide variety of innovation strategies to meet sustainability goals with the latest technology.