Boston City Council members have proposed numerous ways to address the housing affordability crisis, which has been identified as a key issue for voters in the upcoming municipal election.

The average rent in Boston for a one-bedroom apartment is $3,452 a month, compared to the national average of $1,631 a month, according to Apartments.com The price of an average single-family home in Massachusetts increased 74% from 2016 to 2024, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

“The cost of housing is rising in our neighborhoods,” said City Councilor Sharon Durkan, who represents district 8, which includes Boston University. “It’s something that I hear from residents every day at my office hours, residents are being priced out.”

12% of Boston voters believe housing affordability is the most important issue facing the United States, according to Emerson College polling.

Durkan said the council has been taking “bold steps” to allow for the development of more housing. 

Some of the steps Durkan emphasized included amending the zoning code to make housing an allowed use in the Bullfinch Triangle, an area in Boston nestled between the West and North Ends, as well as the PLAN: Downtown initiative to bring more affordable housing to the Downtown area.

Durkan’s platform supports planning for “abundance” in Boston housing.

“[Abundance is] about saying yes to new people moving into the city,” Durkan said. “It’s about saying yes to new neighbors, and yes to making sure that our communities and the people that want to live there can stay there.” 

City Councilor Ed Flynn said the city needs to increase the supply of affordable housing units to help address the housing crisis.

“I’ve been a strong advocate for increasing affordable housing, veteran’s housing [and] family-size units to help working families remain in the city,” Flynn said.

Other initiatives to allow for more housing include At-Large City Councilor Henry Santana’s proposed expansion of triple decker housing. Current zoning laws limit many buildings to two and a half stories, preventing the construction of triple-deckers.

As another strategy to address the housing affordability crisis, Santana, along with City Councilors Benjamin Weber and Enrique Pepén, none of whom decided to comment, sponsored a resolution in support of a rent control measure on the 2026 ballot. The initiative, filed by Homes For All Massachusetts, would reverse the statewide ban on rent control passed in 1994.

Tamara Small, CEO of NAIOP Massachusetts, an association representing the interests of the real estate industry, said rent control measures would be detrimental to the development of more housing statewide.

“We are already getting calls from investors all over the world who have heard about this proposal, and they have said if rent control is adopted, then it’s really going to kill housing production in Massachusetts,” Small said. 

City Councilor Brian Worrell, in a city council meeting Oct. 29, proposed a plan to increase taxes on large and luxury apartment buildings and decrease tax bills for small landlords and average homeowners.

“Homeowners and small landlords are carrying a heavier load while larger apartment owners often pay less taxes per unit,” Worrell said in the hearing.

Durkan said she opposes Worrell’s proposal, calling it a “gut-punch at the wrong moment” for housing development.

“[The proposal] really places undue burden on dense areas,” Durkan said, “If we’re trying to encourage housing production and density in the city of Boston … it really doesn’t fit with the city’s goals at the moment.”

Small also disagreed with Worell’s proposal, and said expenses would get pushed on tenants and would “dramatically disincentivize any type of investment in Boston housing development.”

Hilary Pizer, director of Organizing and Policy at the Massachusetts Affordable Homeownership Alliance, wrote in support of Worrell’s policy in a statement to the Daily Free Press. 

“MAHA strongly supports this proposal that offers property tax relief to homeowners being squeezed by rising costs,” Pizer wrote. “When you own the home you live in, it’s your shelter, and eventually your nest egg. It should be taxed at the lower residential rate.”