Northampton, alongside many cities in the United States, is facing a housing crisis. While stakeholders agree that the college should address the crisis at hand, there are active discussions and debate about Smith’s role in the community and how to design solutions that benefit Smith College, the city of Northampton and all of its residents alike.
Massachusetts, where the cost of living is especially high, saw a 74% increase in family homelessness in 2024. Almost 18,000 residents in the Commonwealth are now living on the street. Housing costs are rising rapidly while wages remain stagnant, and there are simply too few housing units to meet demand across the country.
Particularly in small cities like Northampton, which saw an influx of new residents as people began remote work and left Boston during the pandemic, the housing crisis has been exacerbated by population growth as well as socioeconomic shifts.
“There needs to be some more substantial investment in affordable housing,” said Denys Candy, Director of the Smith College Jandon Center for Community Engagement. “Then we begin to look at land. What land is available? Who owns that land, and how can subsidized housing be developed?”
David DeSwert, Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration at Smith, says that he and his team are “fully committed” and “actively engaged in finding some solutions” to the Northampton housing crisis.
When asked if any undeveloped land owned by Smith could be used to address the housing crisis downtown, DeSwert said that Smith’s land around Fort Hill is a potential opportunity for the development of new affordable housing units.
“We have to think about it in terms of the impact on Smith,” said DeSwert, emphasizing that low housing supply and high costs are creating “barriers to attract and retain employees.”
Housing costs are impacting current Smith professors, Candy says. “We have junior faculty coming to Smith who can’t afford to live in Northampton.”
DeSwert added, “We have a portfolio of about 100 rental units that we rent out to faculty and staff. Before the pandemic, our vacancy rates were really high. Then the pandemic came, and they’re almost fully occupied and there’s waitlists to get into them.”
DeSwert also said that Smith values its “symbiotic relationship” with Northampton. “We need to think about the idea that our wellbeing and Northampton’s wellbeing are deeply intertwined. Our successes are Northampton’s successes and vice versa.”
However, student groups and community organizations focused on homelessness and housing say that Smith College has historically worsened the Northampton housing crisis through its land ownership and expansion. These stakeholders are concerned that new land development could benefit Smith while excluding the broader Northampton community.
Currently on display in Neilson Library, an exhibit titled “How Smith Ate Green Street” (completed by Alexa Schnur ‘25 for her Archives Concentration Capstone) illuminates Smith’s decision to demolish affordable housing on Green Street to expand its campus in the early 2000’s. It also highlights the Northampton community’s negative reaction to this development and how it undermined Smith’s ongoing relationship with the town.
“Smith has been a landlord, and not a well-liked one,” said Schnur. “Smith has so much control and power, and when they want to use it, they just can.”
“I think they should build more affordable housing,” Schnur continued. However, she added that she “doubts that Smith will follow through.”
DeSwert stated, “Smith is committed that if we take any housing units offline, we help to support the development of replacement housing units downtown.” The college provided funds for nonprofits to build new affordable housing after the Green Street development, but it’s not clear that the homes on Green Street were fully replaced.
“I don’t think there was a like-for-like replacement” for the Green Street homes, said Alexis Breiteneicher, Executive Director of Valley Community Development (VCD). The organization, which builds affordable housing, was one recipient of Smith funds after the Green Street project.
Breiteneicher added that Smith “seems isolated from the community” and could be doing more to partner with community organizations.
“I do feel like there’s potential, given the brain trust that’s at Smith and its proximity to Northampton. There’s potential to have a greater impact on addressing housing and the housing crisis.”
She says that her organization has the capacity to build new housing in Northampton if Smith College provides land suitable for development.
As discussions on housing continue, the Smith Mutual Aid Collective (SMAC) is working alongside unhoused people in Northampton to provide material assistance immediately and directly. SMAC partners with community-based organizations, especially Touch the Sky, to provide food and crowdfunded financial support to unhoused Northampton residents.
“We don’t see our work as charity,” said one SMAC member in a group interview. “Charity is very transactional and one-sided. We’re trying to provide long-lasting relationships with the people we work with.”
SMAC is very concerned about “aesthetic policing” in Northampton and the criminalization of homelessness, which they say is especially prevalent near Smith campus. SMAC says it has seen a rising number of encampment sweeps and arrests of homeless individuals over the past few months.
Members of SMAC are also conscious of Smith’s history as a land developer and landlord. “I think the only way you rectify that is by relinquishing power over the land you have,” a SMAC member added. “Give that land up. Give it to the city government, give it to somebody.”
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