6.8 Healthy Homes and Neighborhoods

Since the early 1990s, Boston’s neighborhoods have seen tremendous progress in livability and the range of services and opportunities offered.  Results include the economic revitalization of business districts, reduced crime rates, renovation of older housing stock, the development of new housing on lots once vacant, and dramatic reductions in childhood exposure to lead and other hazards.  Until now, the challenge has been maintaining economic diversity and opportunity for those who want to stay in neighborhoods or move into neighborhoods where prices have continued to climb.  An additional challenge in a time of economic uncertainty is determining how to sustain the progress made to date, at a time when youth violence and murders are on the increase, and a housing downturn and foreclosures threaten this new found stability.