STATEMENT FROM MARY LUPIEN ON CITY’S MODULAR HOUSING RFP

"In my campaign to be our mayor I’ve been calling for modular homes because we need housing that’s fast, affordable, and built for the people who live here now. I am running to rapidly scale housing that’s actually affordable to us not just make headlines with pilot programs that don’t meet the moment.

This new RFP from the Evans administration announced is to check a box. It's not not a real plan. Nine units priced for people making 80–110% of Area Median Income, that's $66,000 to $91,000 a year, miss the mark entirely. For context, that’s almost double what I earn as a City Councilmember. I couldn’t even afford one of these homes.

We’re in a housing crisis. Families are being priced out, pushed out, or left out. This is not the time to dip our toe in new solutions. We need to go all in on investing in our people, not just hoping the market will solve what it helped create.

As mayor, I’ll take bold action to scale up truly affordable housing, prioritize residents who live here now, and use our resources to meet the real needs of our community and real estate interests or political donors."