ADU Trailblazer Initiative

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The ADU Trailblazer Initiative is a partnership between the Harvard Laboratory for Values in the Built Environment (ViBE Lab), the Mayor’s Housing Innovation Lab, and the Boston Home Center. The program seeks to understand local and regional capacity for the construction of affordable and low-energy ADUs in Boston alongside existing barriers to ADU construction, including cost, policy, and regional construction ecosystem limitations. The program will partner with three households in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood to study and compare the process of building three ADUs in Mattapan over 24 months, beginning in early 2025, to understand the challenges and opportunities in the delivery of affordable and low-energy ADUs.

This initiative is framed around the following questions:

  1. What are the remaining barriers and opportunities to financing an ADU in Boston, and are current programs and products adequately serving the population of homeowners?
  2. What construction types and methods will make the process of constructing an affordable and energy efficient ADU simplest and shortest for homeowners?
  3. What are the challenges and opportunities within the permitting and approval process that can be improved through future changes to policies and programs?

We are grateful to the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities, and LISC Massachusetts for their support of this initiative.

More information for potential homeowner participants:

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Principal Investigator

  • Elizabeth Christoforetti

Program Contact Information