Unauthorized Boston Housing Authority letter ridicules schools, crime in city

By Sophie Lyu and Zoe Allen

A recent letter from the Boston Housing Authority urged residents of Boston to move out of the city for a better life. The unauthorized letter was sent out as part of an announcement for BHA’s Expanding Choice in Housing Opportunities (ECHO), a program that provides affordable housing to low-income and working families.

The letter has since been removed, but according to The Boston Herald, the letter seemed to suggest residents should escape Boston’s public school system and crime rates by relocating to raise their families.

“You may be eligible for ECHO if you: would like to move to a community in Greater Boston with good schools and low crime,” the letter said, according to the Herald.

The Boston Housing Authority is currently reviewing the incident and deciding how to respond, BHA Chief of Staff Lydia Agro wrote in an email.

“The Boston Housing Authority is undertaking a complete and thorough review of the recent release of the letter regarding the ECHO program,” Argo wrote. “This will include a review of whether or not personnel action and/or discipline is warranted.”

Additionally, the BHA will be reviewing its communication policies to prevent future events of unauthorized communication, Argo explained.

According to a statement from the BHA, the program is voluntary and aims to provide fair housing opportunities to families who choose to live outside of Boston.

“Under the Fair Housing Act our voucher-holders should be able to live in any part of Massachusetts they choose and the mission of the ECHO program is to provide them with all the information and technical assistance they will need to make their own decisions,” the statement read.

The BHA wrote in the statement that this program was created to respond to evidence that voucher-holding families who try to lease homes outside of Boston often run into difficulty due to discrimination, cost and lack of access to information about available housing units.

“The BHA is also taking steps to insure that our voucher-holders receive Fair Housing training, so they will know their rights and protections under the Fair Housing Act,” the statement read, “and what steps to take if they encounter any discriminatory behavior.”

Kenmore resident Dallas Jeter, 26, said he believes crime is handled somewhat well in Boston but thinks there is only so much officers can do.

“I work in Roxbury, and that area’s pretty rough,” Jeter said. “I don’t think there’s much they can do about it, because the area’s pretty bad in general.”

Shea Cronin, professor of criminal justice at Boston University, said schools in Boston are typically safer than the neighborhoods around them.

He explained that, in some lower income neighborhoods of the city, kids can be exposed to or become involved in crime when they are not in school.

“Most of the violence that kids experience in a city like Boston would take place outside of the school,” Cronin said. “The school itself is actually a relatively safe place, even in neighborhoods that have pretty high rates of violence. The school is a safer place relative to the trip to school or the trip home from school or hanging out in the neighborhood after school.”

Having gone through the public school system himself, Sean Walsh, 19, of Brighton, said while he does not think the schools are good, he also does not think crime is playing a factor in education.

“I don’t feel like there really is an abundance of crime. Obviously there is crime, but I don’t feel like it’s mishandled,” he said. “I’ve never gone to school distracted by a crime or anything like that.”

Contrarily, Benjamin Baker, 27, said in his experience working with police departments, he sees the city’s crime rate affect the education of Boston youth.

“I work with not Boston Police Department but some area police departments with my job, and they’re pretty responsive with most [crimes],” the Brighton resident said. “I mean, crimes happen, kids are witness to it. At my job, I see it every day.”

Kenmore Properties real estate agent and resident of the Kenmore area Grant Klein said he is a product of the Boston Public Schools and has full faith in the system.

“[My school] was phenomenal,” Klein said. “I believe it was one of the top public schools in the nation. It produced me.”

The Boston Public Schools declined to comment.

Conor Kelley and Sydney Brown contributed to the reporting of this story.