Mayor Walsh's Plan To Create More Than 50,000 Housing Units

For many in Boston, housing is a huge challenge. From price to availability, finding a place where you want to live — and that you can afford — is tough. That there are simply too many people who want to live here and not enough places to meet that demand.

It's a problem that will only get worse as the city's population continues to grow — and as the economic divide continues to widen, many families are being pushed out of their neighborhoods.

Last week, Mayor Marty Walsh released a plan to create 53,000 new housing units by the year 2030. They'd be spread throughout the city at a variety of income levels, and the cost of the project would be $20 billion. As a way to free middle-class housing stock, it would shift thousands of students now living off-campus into dorms.

Is it enough? And is it affordable?

Sheila Dillon, Boston's chief of housing and director of neighborhood development.

Barry Bluestone, professor of public policy and urban affairs at Northeastern University and director of the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy. He tweets @BarryBluestone.

The Boston Globe: Boston Offers A Plan To Help Colleges Add Dorms