If you worked hard, bought a home, speak English, and live in a quiet neighborhood — congratulations. You’re officially not a priority in Mayor Michelle Wu’s Boston.
That’s the takeaway from the Wu administration’s new 69 page “Anti-Displacement Action Plan,” which introduces a scoring system to decide who gets housing help and where the city should focus its efforts. Spoiler: it’s not on you.
Buried in the plan is a city-developed “Displacement Risk Map,” which flags neighborhoods by race, language, income, education level, and homeownership rates. Areas that are, in the city’s own words, “more white, more English-speaking” and filled with homeowners are marked “low risk” — and thus less deserving of city support.
Low-risk block groups are mainly concentrated in Charlestown, Downtown, North End, Seaport, West End, and West Roxbury. They tend to be whiter, and have higher proportions of college-educated, homeowning, and native English speaking residents.
— City of Boston Anti-Displacement Action Plan, 2025
In other words, if your neighborhood is too stable, speaks the wrong language, or just has too many people who finished college — don’t expect much from City Hall.
Hellbound and Down 