I live in Boston and I have noticed that there has been a lot of construction lately, with lots of nice, tall apartment buildings going up everywhere, like the Seaport area, the downtown area and near North Station. Whenever I go by these buildings, I see signs that say “Luxury Housing,” “Luxury Condos” or “Luxury Living” and I wonder about the people with not enough money to buy or rent these places. I never see a sign that says “Affordable Housing” or “Low Income Apartments.” Why is nobody building homes for people with not a lot of money?
I believe that Dr. King would care about this problem if he were living in Boston today. I think that he would see the lack of affordable housing as an issue of economic justice. As he said in his quote, Dr. King would see these new luxury towers as privileged “islands of prosperity,” and he would wonder where people with little money will be able “to live in dignity and human decency.” I believe that Dr. King would do all he can to try to fix this problem.
Dr. King would say that it would be economic justice if you could live where you wanted to live and not have to spend all of your money on rent or buying a house, because you also needed to spend money for food, water and clothes. He would also say that affordable housing should be near stores and the T so that people with not much money could live without a car because cars are expensive. Dr. King would also say that it is fair if people could live in Boston near good schools, so their kids can get a good education even if they don’t have a lot of money.
So, what would Dr. King do to get more affordable housing in Boston? He would fight to have more places built for low income people to live. He would hold meetings and bring all types of people together to talk about what kind of housing they need and where it should go. He would give speeches whenever and wherever he could to get people involved in getting new housing for everybody in Boston. He would make a plan and work with developers and politicians like the Mayor to build more affordable housing for people that don’t have enough money to live in luxury housing.
If Martin Luther King were alive today and living in Boston, I believe he would be fighting for more affordable housing because he would think that it is economic justice to help people without a lot of money to find livable shelter where they can raise their families “in dignity and human decency.” And I would join Dr. King in his quest for equality and justice in housing.