This week’s newsletter is a special edition written by Board Member Katherine Haenschen
Like many of you in Brookline—where 84% of voters chose Vice President Harris on Tuesday—we are feeling shock, dismay, anger, and fear. We are scared for the people who will be in the malicious crosshairs of the next administration. We are angry at our fellow Americans who chose an incoherent autocrat who uses the federal government as a tool of punishment and personal enrichment.
Here at Brookline for Everyone, we are primarily a pro-housing organization, so this week we want to focus on how these two issues—housing and Tuesday’s results—intersect.
Amid all of our bad feelings right now, it is important to acknowledge that Americans across our country, our state, and our town are facing a housing crisis. Costs are too high, and availability is way too low. This not only affects how people feel about the economy, but also weakens suport for democracy, and shapes the Electoral College map itself.
For too many Americans—particularly younger generations—home ownership is completely out of reach and even maintaining a steady rental residence feels increasingly precarious. If Americans cannot feel secure in keeping a roof over their heads, we cannot expect them to care about pluralistic democracy. Autocrats feed on these kinds of economic hardships.
Providing more housing for our neighbors is not just the right thing to do morally, it is part of the only political path forward for our shared Brookline values of economic and social inclusion.
Here are some examples of how housing policies impact national election results:
- In Minnesota, an additional TWENTY SIX residents counted on the 2020 census prevented that state from losing a Congressional seat, thus maintaining one electoral college vote. Those residents live there because Minneapolis made it easier to build homes.
- California’s antipathy to building housing and resulting affordability crisis has already cost the state one congressional seat in the 2021 redistricting and could result in the loss of five more seats—and Electoral College votes—after 2030.
- New York and Illinois each also lost a Congressional seat in 2021, while Texas and Florida—states that build far more housing—saw their seats increase by 2 and 1, respectively, giving each more power to influence the presidential results.
Here in Massachusetts many of our municipalities have empowered the choke points that prevent the creation of more homes. As a result, housing costs have gone up, and people are fleeing our state—from the nurses, firefighters, and teachers we need to maintain our civil society to the young professionals we need to innovate and maintain our state’s economy and tax base.
We must create homes for people in Brookline, because it protects and promotes our values.
- If you value social justice and economic inclusion, then join us in creating more homes to protect Brookline’s diversity.
If you value LGBTQ rights, then join us in creating more homes to provide people a place to flee state governments that object to their humanity.
If you value your preferred Presidential candidate winning federal elections, then join us in creating more homes to stop Blue States from shedding Electoral College votes and give us an easier path to the Presidency in 2028 and beyond.
Some people will ask, “Why here? Does it have to be in Brookline?”
Our response is simple: Why NOT in Brookline?
Why should our privileged and safe community not step up to create homes for those who need them? This is a national, state-wide, and regional problem, and we in Brookline must do our part.
So what do we do?
We organize in Brookline to make our community a welcoming place where people can afford to live. We prevent our current neighbors from getting priced out, and we make room for new friends who need a safe place to live.
How do we get there?
- 1. We sign up to learn more about running for Town Meeting next May or serving on a town Board or Commission, where we turn our pro-housing values into policy. Sign up to learn more here.
2. We sign up to volunteer to engage Brookline voters in the pro-housing movement and explain the link between creating homes and protecting our values. Sign up to take action with us here.
We can all make a difference here in Brookline to push back against what’s coming, protect the people who already live here, and make room for people who need a welcoming, inclusive community to call home.
We invite you to join us in this worthwhile effort.