Allston Is All Labs — And That’s a Problem

It’s no secret that Allston’s housing costs are rising, and Harvard’s life sciences development in the neighborhood has only made matters worse.

Allston residents have used the ongoing institutional planning cycle to ask that the University donate land and money for affordable housing. But Harvard’s commitment to its neighbors must not stop there. Beyond investments in affordable housing, Harvard must move away from development for the sake of “innovation” and toward building housing for current residents and future affiliates alike.

In short, our University’s development in Allston needs a paradigm shift.
Currently, Harvard frames its development in the neighborhood in terms of global research contributions. The recent Institutional Master Plan says new development aims to “encourage the translation of new discoveries into solutions that benefit humankind,” and Harvard spokespeople have described the area as a budding innovation district.

In the rush for developers — including Harvard — to profit off the Boston biotech boom, neighborhoods like Allston have been treated like investment opportunities. Meanwhile, residents have only experienced growing precarity.

This month, Allston’s average monthly rent skyrocketed to a startling $3,037. To afford such rent comfortably, one estimate suggests that a household would have to make around $121,476 per year. As of 2023, Allston’s median household income was $75,317 — more than $45,000 short.

The culprit of these costs? In part, a region-wide housing shortage. From 2010 to 2020, the increase in households in Greater Boston outpaced the number of housing units built. As of 2019, the metro area was about 77,000 homes short of meeting regional demand. Since then, construction costs have only increased, and rents have continued to rise.

Homeowners haven’t been exempt, either. Appreciating but nonliquid home values have ballooned property taxes for longtime homeowners — last year alone saw a 10.4 percent increase across the City of Boston.

Harvard’s life sciences development will continue to exacerbate pressures on Allston’s housing market. As the employees of new companies attracted by Harvard’s development seek housing in the neighborhood, low-income households will be priced out.

As Allston’s largest landowner, Harvard must use Allston’s land not for “innovation,” but housing.

There is no better time than the present to begin making positive changes: The recent slowing of the commercial lab space market produced by an oversaturation of life sciences projects makes now the ideal time for a shift.

Market conditions have already forced some Harvard projects to hit pause on non-residential construction. In 2023, 176 Lincoln St. was approved for the development of an “innovation village,” including research labs, offices, and residential units. Since then, the project’s private developer, which leases the land from Harvard, has delayed the construction of non-residential spaces in favor of residential units.

Rather than continue Allston’s transformation from a residential neighborhood to a high-cost innovation district, Harvard must devote its abundance of underutilized land to residential construction. Beyond donating this land to the city, Harvard could itself oversee the construction of community or affiliate housing on these parcels.

Building more housing wouldn’t just benefit Allston residents — Harvard’s graduate students have long protested the low wages and high costs of living in Cambridge. The construction of affiliate housing, subsidized or unsubsidized, could help meet their demands while alleviating housing market pressures for residents.

Former University President Lawrence H. Summers’ original vision for Harvard’s development in Allston called for significant additions of both undergraduate and graduate housing. Now Harvard can bring that vision to fruition. With smaller developers discouraged by recent construction cost increases, the University’s deep pockets have uniquely positioned it to take charge.

Already, Harvard has constructed desperately needed units that will soon hit the market — 276 units for Harvard affiliates and over 340 apartment units.

Such additions to the local housing stock should be celebrated. That said, these units alone will not sufficiently address the neighborhood’s acute housing shortage or offset the increased demand that Harvard’s biotech development will attract.

Just this week, massive biotech company F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG announced it will be the Harvard Enterprise Research Center’s first tenant. The move will bring up to 500 new jobs — more than enough to fill Harvard’s new non-affiliate units.

Roche’s announcement is only the beginning. As Harvard wraps up its ongoing life sciences construction projects, housing market pressures will only increase, and the current housing crisis will worsen.

In its pursuit of scientific and technological progress, Harvard must not leave its neighbors behind. The University has a unique opportunity to chart a course to increase housing access in Allston. To miss it would be a disservice to both Allstonians and its future Harvard residents.

Kayla P.S. Springer ’26 is a Social Studies concentrator in Pforzheimer House.