The George Peabody Development District & Housing Trust
An Ambitious plan to help solve the housing crisis in Peabody.
PART 1:
How George Peabody Helped Solve a Housing Crisis
In the 1860’s, with the Civil War raging in America, a local boy, George Peabody, was one of the richest men in London. He grew up in New England poor but made connections, built up a business empire, and made a whole lot of money. Growing up poor, he understood that folks who became wealthy had a duty to provide aid to the less fortunate. And, during the 1800s, the misery of working folks in England and America had risen to new extremes.
One area of interest for George was housing. The working-class folks of London faced a serious housing shortage that makes the current housing crisis in Massachusetts seems like nothing. Workers were crammed into crowded slums with slumlords exacting high rents, giving families little stability. Disease and death were common.
John Leech, Punch Magazine, London, 1850
In an effort to improve things for the working class, George started a fund in London with the goal of creating economical, hygienic housing for working people. Several of his rich buddies chipped in additional funds and, in 1862, the Peabody Housing Trust was born. By 1864, the first Peabody Homes opened and in 2025—some 161 years later—this fund continues to provide quality housing for working folks. In Britian, this type of fund, whether created by philanthropists or by local communities continues to provide new quality housing to poor and working folks.
​
Simply put, George Peabody, a fantastically successful capitalist, understood that capitalism and free-market economics alone could not house the poor. If a society is going to alleviate poverty and suffering, you’re going to have to do something about it—the problem of poverty will never take magically care of itself.
PART 2:
The Housing Crisis in Massachusetts
Massachusetts is a victim of its own success. In Massachusetts, we have the highest standards of living in the nation. We have higher incomes. We are healthier. Our education system has better outcomes on average notwithstanding the real inequalities that exist. But, we also have old housing stock, vanishing open space for new construction, and environmental regulations that—correctly in my opinion—require careful impact assessments. All of this together has conspired to make housing prices and rents in Massachusetts, particularly the Boston area, oppressively high.
Since the year 2000, housing prices have climbed 73% while household income only grew 4%.[1] According Governor Healey, Massachusetts needs to build at least 222,000 housing units to help knock down housing prices and high rents. To jump start things, the state has allocated $2 billion of funding.[2]
In Peabody, the median property value jumped between 2022 and 2023 by 11.4% to $566,200—which is 86.6% higher than the national average, $303,400.[3] Furthermore, about 35% of our residents are renters. According to Zillow, the average rent in Massachusetts is $3,250 per month compared to a national average of $2,100.[4] These extreme housing costs put undue strain on working families and puts the goal of saving for homeownership beyond the means of many people.
The real estate market will not fix this problem.
Cities and towns need to plan for development and bring more housing units online if we are going to put a dent in this crisis and if we are going to ensure development that benefits local communities—not just developers and private equity firms.
[1] Sri Taylor, Massachusetts Needs 222,000 Housing Units by 2035 to Ease Crisis, Bloomberg (Feb. 6, 2025) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-06/massachusetts-needs-222-000-housing-units-by-2035-to-ease-crisis.
[2] A Home for Everyone: A Comprehensive Housing Plan for Massachusetts, 2025-2029 (Feb. 2025) available at https://www.mass.gov/doc/a-home-for-everyone/download
[3] https://datausa.io/profile/geo/peabody-ma/
[4] Zillow, Massachusetts Rental Market (updated June 18, 2025) https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/ma/ (last accessed June 20, 2025).
PART 3:
A George Peabody Development District and Housing Trust
Our campaign is calling for public hearings on the creation of housing trust, like the one George Peabody created in 1860.
A municipal trust is essentially a fund of money owned by the City. There are different ways to fund such a trust, including private investment, and those funds would be used to develop quality multifamily housing units and condos to be made available to working folks. This campaign has been exploring a development district model where city planners can identify individual parcels or areas that need redevelopment. This is what we have taken to calling the “George Peabody Development Districts.” The ability of the trust to purchase and redevelop properties will be limited to those properties within identified development districts. In this way, the Trust can purchase properties, make improvements, and replenish the fund by reselling or renting these units out.
Ultimately, public hearings are needed to determine the best path forward. If elected, Tristan will push for public hearings on municipal housing trusts and the feasibility of using development districts as a way to encourage development.
PART 4:
The Alternative
Broadly speaking, Peabody has two and only two options when it comes to responding to our housing crisis.
One response involves planning for development and deliberately increasing multifamily housing stock in a sustainable manner. This results in an expanded taxbase, redevelopment of existing stock, and the protection of local open spaces.
The other option: Peabody can pretend the problem doesn’t exist. If we take this path, sooner or later, all of our open spaces will be paved over to make room for single-family homes. Once we run out of space to build out, we will build up. This path still leads to an increase in multifamily housing, but it will be haphazard, inefficient, and driven by the economic interests of millionaires and billionaires—not the people of Peabody.
There is no alternative where Peabody stops multifamily housing from increasing.
This proposal represents the kind of creative solution that Tristan is known for. In a time of true crisis, our City needs intelligent, clear-headed leaders who can think for themselves. We need to break free from the failed policies of the past. We need to elect Tristan!
