Editor’s note: Wellesley Middle School Social Studies students as part of a Civics Action Projects has this week taken over The Swellesley Report‘s letters-to-the-editor page. The students are well-versed in their topics, have carefully researched all angles, and are ready to present their opinions to the community. Thank you to the WMS Social Studies teachers for organizing this community-based project.

To the editor:

The cost of living in Wellesley is 148.4% of the national average, while the average house expenses are 324% higher than the national average costs. This is making the reality of living in this town very difficult and out of reach for the majority of people looking to live here.

My goal is to bring more awareness to ADUs throughout the town of Wellesley. An ADU, otherwise known as an Additional Dwelling Unit, is a secondary housing unit on a single housing lot. The unit must contain at least 250 square feet of gross floor area, and no more than the lesser of 900 square feet. ADUs play the role of garages, pool houses, and even just mini living homes.

As of now, you might think that having an ADU on your property is pointless, and would only be costing you more money, along with an increased tax payment. This is not actually the case. In towns like Salem, where they have brought more awareness to ADUs, there is actually a financial advantage.  According to SalemMA.gov, on September 23, 2022, Governor Charlie Baker signed a bill into law that gives homeowners the option to deduct their ADU from tax payments. This means there would be no additional charge for having the ADU on owned property.

These dwellings are very affordable in comparison to your regular home costs. To create an ADU, less money is spent because the sizing of these units are much smaller than an average home.They can also benefit homeowners by providing extra income, and can offset increased cost of living. This could be crucial, as the average price to live in a home in Wellesley is just around $1.8 million dollars.

In order to have an ADU on your property, here are the important laws in order for this to work. You must live in the ADU/PDU (primary dwelling unit) for at least 184 days per year. The same owner must own the PDU and ADU, and there is no dividing the two.

My vision for the future is to eventually have the majority of homes in Wellesley build accessory dwelling units. If we can start to build these dwelling units through the town, just like Salem, Wellesley will be able to address the housing issue in our town. I urge you to consider building an ADU on your property to solve the housing problem for the future generations.

Willy Segal
Wellesley Middle School student

Editor’s note: Wellesley Middle School Social Studies students as part of a Civics Action Projects has this week taken over The Swellesley Report‘s letters-to-the-editor page. The students are well-versed in their topics, have carefully researched all angles, and are ready to present their opinions to the community. Thank you to the WMS Social Studies teachers for organizing this community-based project.

To the editor:

Kids need info about safer transport; be the ones to tell them!

One challenge students face is not having rides to and from places. Oftentimes, parents can not take their kids to and from places, causing them to walk. Some distances are too far and the weather is too varied for walking every day. Walking home has always been promoted as a solution, but the challenge is deeper than that. Having more public services that students are aware of will allow this problem to be fixed.

Our research shows that students are open to having different modes of travel. In the survey that we sent out, 66.7% of respondents stated that they felt safe with public transportation. This is important because the service wasn’t a comfortable one to use, students wouldn’t look into taking it. Also, 57% of respondents stated that they would like more bus stops in Wellesley.

As we looked at all this data we came to a solution—using Catch Connect. Catch Connect is a service run by the MetroWest Regional Transit Authority (MWRTA) that is already in place and takes anyone from door-to-door within Wellesley for the low price of $2. While Catch Connect isn’t really a bus, it still serves the same purpose without the extra walking! Students who already use Catch Connect said that this was a useful tool. It can be accessed through an app, almost like Uber or Lyft.

This service runs from 6:45am to 6:45pm in the Wellesley area. There are rules and regulations that students need to follow for it to be an easy and safe ride. Visit https://www.mwrta.com/catch  for more information.

We hope that reading this will help people learn and understand the great potential of Catch Connect. While it is running now, it may not continue to operate if there is no support behind it. This solves many problems for students, and it could help more if it is expanded. Spreading the word will allow students as well as adults to know a possible solution to their transportation challenges.

Alyssa Toussaint
Wellesley Middle School student

Editor’s note: Wellesley Middle School Social Studies students as part of a Civics Action Projects has this week taken over The Swellesley Report‘s letters-to-the-editor page. The students are well-versed in their topics, have carefully researched all angles, and are ready to present their opinions to the community. Thank you to the WMS Social Studies teachers for organizing this community-based project.

In recent years, it seems that the cost of homes has been soaring upwards at an alarming rate. A house with a price tag under seven figures now seems a rarity. Home prices are skyrocketing, homeownership is becoming obsolete, and most regular citizens are struggling in this new hostile housing market. Who is to blame for this? Corporations and real-estate investors. They scrounge through our housing market, snatching up houses and leaving citizens homeless and helpless.

So how was this problem initially conceived? Well, by 2007, the Great Recession left over six million foreclosure homes up for grabs, which left a golden opportunity for investors. By taking homes off the market, demand grows, and so do the prices. Investors can then rent them out or sell them back for a much higher price. With all these available homes, corporations started to buy even more properties.

In 2012, more than one billion dollars was raised by corporations to buy homes with. By 2018, corporations, such as Invitation Homes (owned by Blackstone Group)  had bought one in every ten suburban homes in the United States. By 2020, there were nearly 1.6 million foreclosed homes in the US, allowing for companies to buy them, then rent them or sell them for a profit after renovation. In 2021, businesses made up over 9% of all home sales in Massachusetts, double the rate of purchases a decade ago. Companies spent 5.6 billion dollars in 2022 buying homes across Massachusetts. By the third quarter of that year, homes made up 75% of all real-estate investor purposes.

Corporations can take advantage of easily accessible auctions to buy homes for less than an average home is worth, while still outbidding every other homebuyer. Many buyers also can use an LLC company name because of its easy setup, various tax benefits, and protection from personal liability. This is detrimental to housing advocates and government officials looking for accountability from landlords.

Companies now own more than 9% of single family homes across Massachusetts. In towns such as Springfield, Massachusetts, prices for housing have more than doubled due to frequent company buying. Corporations also identify clearly who their homes are meant for, and who will buy them. Companies like Progress Residential, which owned around 20,000 homes, had a clear definition for their customers. They state their houses give “an aspirational living experience to tenants who were typically about 38 years old and married, with a child or two, annual income of about $88,000, less-than-stellar FICO credit scores around 665, and a hobbling $45,000 of debt.”

It’s concerning that companies do this because they actually attract those customers, who are unaware of  the power the company will then have over them. In conclusion, this incessant corporate house buying needs to stop, and we as citizens should do something to help. We must do whatever it takes to fix this problem that plagues today’s society. People should stand up, and together, find a solution to end the problem of companies buying up homes for their own personal gain.

Cole Delgado
Wyatt Jaffe
Wellesley Middle School students

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Editor’s note: Wellesley Middle School Social Studies students as part of a Civics Action Projects has this week taken over The Swellesley Report‘s letters-to-the-editor page. The students are well-versed in their topics, have carefully researched all angles, and are ready to present their opinions to the community. Thank you to the WMS Social Studies teachers for organizing this community-based project.

We want to turn advisory into an unstructured period where students have the option to go outside, or stay inside and do work, depending on what they feel like.

Rates of stress and anxiety in middle schoolers has risen alarmingly in the past eight years, as well as depression, suicide, self harm, and other negative mental health issues. Therefore we think it’s vital to ensure that the current state of kids feeling constantly overwhelmed is decreased, and that kids feel safe and happy in the environment that they are learning in.

Currently, in the generation of young kids, there is a mental health epidemic. Many more kids are dealing with anxiety and stress than that of past generations.

Based the 2021 MetroWest survey, middle school students who report high levels of stress are:

• 1.7x more likely to get fewer than 8 hours of sleep on the average school night
• 4.6x more likely to report depressive symptoms
• 2.5x more likely to ever drink alcohol

Based on the MetroWest survey of all Wellesley Middle Schools done in 2021:

• More students have attempted suicide and engaged in self harm than 2018.
• The percentage of middle schoolers that have seriously considered suicide has risen 3% since 2018.
• The percentage of middle schoolers that have attempted suicide has risen by 1% since 2018.
• Depressive symptoms have risen by 6% in middle schoolers.

Mandatory recess isn’t a foreign idea, either. Before the No Child left Behind act was passed in 2002, it was common for recess to be mandatory nationwide. Currently, only eight states require it. All 42 other states have no regulation on the amount of time kids spend outside everyday, and this is very problematic.

Adults should put students’ mental health above things such as schoolwork, homework, and quizzes. There isn’t much of a point of school if no one can learn because so many are miserable. Pushing kids to their limit and not caring as an adult is cruel. Everyone was a kid once, and everyone can remember how hard it was. Teachers and other adults in and outside of school need to start paying more attention to the type of environment students are learning in.

We conducted a survey asking students at WMS if they think recess would be beneficial, and 72.9% of all students stated that they find recess beneficial and would enjoy having it everyday.

Recess benefits students in the way that it doesn’t just improve mental health, but performance in school as well. According to the American University School of Education:

• Studies have found that after participating in recess, kids are more focused and are on task in the classroom.
• Recess increases blood flow to the brain, which also improves neural connectivity as well as growth of learning cells.
• This leads to greater attention and memory span.
• Kids who have an unstructured recess-like period also have shown an increase in problem solving and creativity.

Recess improves a lot of skills vital for kids leading a productive and fulfilling life:

[Read more…]

Editor’s note: Wellesley Middle School Social Studies students as part of a Civics Action Projects has this week taken over The Swellesley Report‘s letters-to-the-editor page. The students are well-versed in their topics, have carefully researched all angles, and are ready to present their opinions to the community. Thank you to the WMS Social Studies teachers for organizing this community-based project.

To the editor:

I’m an eighth grade student at Wellesley Middle School. My group and I have been working on a project about providing subsidized housing for the citizens of Massachusetts. Subsidized housing is when individuals qualify for assistance from the government with paying their rent or mortgage for their home.

Our project is targeting people who are struggling financially. There are many benefits of living in Massachusetts such as the diversity of people, well paying jobs, and especially a great education. Many people aspire to live here for endless reasons, however not everyone can afford the houses provided in the state. Massachusetts’ extremely high cost of living can be overwhelming to any social class of society. There is also a high demand for state-aided housing, which is being ignored. An article apnews.com by Todd Wallack and Christine Willmsen states that “More than 41,000 people are on a waitlist for subsidized apartments.” Additionally the article also says, “184,000 people (including thousands who are homeless) are at risk of losing their homes or living in unsafe conditions.”

This is why we need to bring attention to how and where people can live and provide help to people in need.  Creating available housing can create an environment in which everyone can live comfortably. This will also create more diversity among communities, with different social classes, ethnicities, and backgrounds all living together. This is a great way to help people or families who may need financial assistance. Specifically, my group and I are working towards bringing awareness toward a bill currently seeking approval in the legislative branch called “The Affordable Homes Act.” This bill advocates for an increase of subsidized housing in Massachusetts. By bringing attention to affordable housing, we can be one step closer to accomplishing our goal.

Isabella Chute
Wellesley Middle School student

Editor’s note: Wellesley Middle School Social Studies students as part of a Civics Action Projects has this week taken over The Swellesley Report‘s letters-to-the-editor page. The students are well-versed in their topics, have carefully researched all angles, and are ready to present their opinions to the community. Thank you to the WMS Social Studies teachers for organizing this community-based project.

To the editor:

Currently not many people know about cheap and accessible transportation like Catch Connect, which is part of the MetroWest Regional Transit Authority (MWRTA) company. The MWRTA is a transportation service that’s not only in Wellesley, but also provides service to other towns like Framingham and Natick. Catch Connect takes you anywhere in Wellesley. There are many stops outside of Wellesley including Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Woodland and Waban MBTA Stations, Natick Community Center, Volante Farms in Needham, and Trader Joe’s in Needham.

Catch Connect works like Uber and Lyft except it is inexpensive and just as accessible. All vehicles that are part of the Catch Connect are ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant. Catch Connect runs 6:45am-6:45pm, Monday-Friday, in Wellesley. In Wellesley it currently doesn’t run on Saturdays or Sundays. The average wait time is anywhere from 10-30 min. Catch Connect does observe major holidays like New Year’s Day, Patriots Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas day. There is a fixed price: adults pay $1.50, students (under 18) pay $1, and seniors pay $0.75. Children under the age of 6 ride for free, and veterans also ride for free. Riders are limited to four shopping bags, or they can bring three bags of luggage which can’t be over 40 lbs. each.

To order a ride you have to have the MWRTA Catch App. On the app you can see the estimated pick up time and see where your driver is on the map. You can also call to book a ride. After logging into their Catch App, you can see the “fares” tab, which is where you can connect your credit or debit card to your account and add money. If you need help, call (508) 283-5083. For more information about the Catch Connect email info@mwrta.com or call (508) 283-5083.

Annabel Chen and Suri Razzaghi
Wellesley Middle School students