BUYAH takes message to the streets

To raise awareness and funds to help combat Boston’s affordable housing crisis, members of the Boston University Youth Alliance for Housing, city councilors and community leaders will participate in a four-mile benefit march through Boston tomorrow.

“As students, we are new residents of the community and can be utilized for positive things like this,” said Mona Lipson, a BUYAH member and College of Communication freshman. “We want to help the innocent people who are being forced out of their homes due to increasing rent prices and don’t have the means to make their voices heard.”

The walk will start at noon on Boston Common and continue to the State House, Chinatown, Copley Plaza, the Southwest Corridor, Mission Hill and the Fenway. Along the way, walkers will stop to hear speeches from community leaders, culminating in a rally with City Councilor Chuck Turner (South End, Roxbury) and tenant organizers in Kenmore Square to oppose BU’s plans to build a luxury hotel there.

“Through this walk, we can learn what possible solutions community organizers and city councilors are offering the city while generating money to help Boston,” Lipson said.

Much of the proceeds from pledges will go to Boston Mobilization, a grassroots community organization that educates and organizes students and residents to seek long-term solutions to the housing crisis. The remainder will go to the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, which is working to ensure that universities in the Boston area are doing their part to combat the problem.

“Boston schools enroll over 135,000 students, but house less than 30,000. The majority of the rest move off campus into Allston and Brighton. This drives up rent for both students and local residents and eliminates a lot of the city’s affordable housing stock,” explained 1999 BU graduate Roni Krouzman, organizing director of Boston Mobilization.

This event is just one battle in BUYAH’s ongoing fight for affordable housing in Boston. Since its founding in January, BUYAH members have been drawing attention to the problem in many ways, including a recent protest at a Fenway Task Force meeting. Through this walk, they hope to compel residents citywide to take action.

“Since 1991, rents in Boston’s neighborhoods have nearly doubled, forcing homelessness up and families out,” said walk organizer and College of Arts and Sciences student Katy Ziegenfuss. “This will be a great opportunity to show that students, community leaders and some Boston city councilors take this problem seriously and are organizing to make a difference.”