Growing up in Roxbury, Andrea’s life was filled with instability. When Andrea was eight months old, she lost her mother to a car accident while going to visit her father in prison. She and her brothers bounced around – living with relatives and sometimes in foster care – until her father got out of prison when she was eight years old, and she met him for the first time.
Andrea and her family relied on public housing and food assistance while her grandmother struggled with alcoholism. Her two brothers sadly cycled in and out of the prison system. She lost her twin brother Andre, when he passed away while in the custody of the Department of Corrections as a pre-trial detainee.
Housing affordability and homeownership are critical building blocks that allow families to thrive and workers to pursue opportunity, but for too many this is out of reach. Families have no choice but to live in uninhabitable, unsanitary apartments causing residents to suffer illnesses and fear for their children’s safety. Andrea grew up in public housing and has long championed affordable housing and community development.
As a Boston City Councilor, her first act was to sponsor, fight for, and ultimately approve the Community Preservation Act, which has helped generate over $20 million annually for affordable housing, historic preservation, and open space in Boston. Andrea will continue these efforts as your Attorney General and fight to ensure everyone has access to safe, healthy and affordable housing in a community that they choose.