Latest news with #Roosa
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Boston unveils new path to first-time homeownership
This story was originally published on Smart Cities Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Smart Cities Dive newsletter. A Boston program is offering first-time homebuyers down payment assistance for co-purchasing arrangements in which multiple families purchase a two- or three-family home under a single mortgage. The Co-Purchasing Housing Pilot Program, which launched in March, offers as much as $50,000 in zero-percent interest-deferred loans to cover down payments or closing costs to eligible families of two earning roughly $176,000 in combined yearly income. The program allows families who have been priced out of Boston's expensive housing market to 'come together and combine the assistance and any other down payment resources that they saved to get into a multifamily property,' said Paige Roosa, director of Boston's Mayor's Housing Innovation Lab. The cost of buying a home in Boston is out of reach for many middle-income earners. According to Boston's Housing Innovation Lab, the price of a market-rate two-bedroom condo in the city in 2024 reached $790,000. Boston, like many cities and states throughout the U.S., has a first-time homebuyer assistance program to help make homeownership obtainable for middle-income earners. The city's new program provides up to $50,000 to households earning up to 100% of the area median income or up to $35,000 to households earning up to 135% of AMI, said Roosa. Households that earn a combined income of roughly $130,000 — about 100% of AMI — have a purchasing power of about $500,000, said Roosa. In 2024, only 12% of the homes in the Boston market sold for less than that amount, she said. To afford a home, some people have opted to go in on multifamily properties with other friends or family members, said Roosa. However, when two or three families are put on a single mortgage to buy a two- or three-decker home — a common type of housing in Boston — their combined income exceeds the income limit for the city's existing first-time homebuyer assistance program, Roosa said. That's an issue, given that a 2024 Boston Housing Innovation Lab survey found that 55% of people interested in co-purchasing a home said they did not have enough savings for the down payment and closing cost. But through the Co-Purchasing Housing Pilot Program, everyone on the mortgage is evaluated individually for eligibility, she said. Under the pilot program, each household included on the mortgage needs to be a primary resident of the home, said Roosa. Eligible households must also be considered a first-time homebuyer and have less than $100,000 in liquid assets (excluding government-sponsored retirement accounts). Like the city's normal first-time homebuyer assistance program, households earning up to 100% of AMI can receive up to $50,000, or up to $35,000 if they earn up to 135% of AMI. The program will not cover the entire down payment needed for two or three eligible households to buy a $1.2 million triple-decker home, but it will help, said Roosa. These types of co-purchasing arrangements can come with financial risks but also benefits such as sharing transportation and food costs and chore duties, she said. 'It ends up being a really cooperative and efficient and happier way of living,' she said. Recommended Reading Tariff concerns mean uncertainty for multifamily housing, industry economist says
Los Angeles Times
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
L.A.'s ‘Lunar Light' takes you to the moon — with VR, improv and escape room puzzles
I'm at peace with the idea that I won't be visiting space in my lifetime. The cost of space tourism is out of reach for me and the vast majority of Americans. Yet on a recent Saturday afternoon, thanks to a mix of virtual reality and old-fashioned theatrics, I am on the moon. Looking to my left, I see strange, abstractly blue lights emerging from the gray, rocky moon landscape. Ducking down, I can spot the stars and piece together various constellations. Ahead, I watch the vehicle I'm standing in — technically a shipping container — move through craters on a monorail. This is 'The Lunar Light: Discovery,' part VR experience, part mini-escape room, part science experiment and part one-act play. Currently running through mid-May in Santa Monica, 'Lunar Light' uses a small cast of actors to bring the dream of visiting the moon alive. The VR helps, of course, as our goggles hide any facets of the shipping container from view, but it's the performances that set the tone and sell the illusion. Throughout, we'll be tasked with minor actions — mining moon rocks in VR, for instance — and the actors will lead, guide and offer moon tidbits, all with a bit of improv-inspired campiness. 'Lunar Light' is set in the year 2055, when humanity has established a small community on the moon. A mysterious blue-hued mineral has landed on Earth's natural satellite, and it's causing strange reactions — people's emotions are comically off-centered, and power and lighting seem unpredictable. Even a tiny robot — DG-33, sort of cutesy spin on a trash compactor — has developed some quirks, namely a sassy Southern accent. And yet 'Lunar Light' has an underlying mission. The project, which mixes in actual science, is spearheaded by Danielle Roosa, an actor-writer turned space advocate. Roosa's interest in the cosmos is in her blood, as she is the granddaughter of late Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa. And one of her early gigs was interning at NASA's Washington, D.C., offices, where she worked in the news and multimedia room. 'I realized a lot of my [college] classmates had no idea what NASA was even doing,' says Roosa, 32. 'One person said, 'I thought NASA was out of business.' The seed was really planted there.' Or awakened, rather. 'There's always this conversation, 'Why space exploration?'' Roosa says. 'I think that understanding our place in the solar system helps us protect our home better. It helps us understand what could happen, maybe different ways of living life, going out there and finding different habits. All of those are for a better Earth. Even when my grandfather went to the moon, people were like, 'Why are we doing this?' I wasn't there, but people also say that was the last time America was truly united. 'Yes, we have to do this. We're going to land on the moon.' I do think that space unites people.' 'Lunar Light' is the first major project from Roosa's firm Back to Space. She has grand ambitions — opening a large-scale immersive facility to house 'Lunar Light' and other programs, and taking the experience on the road to various museums. She honed her business acumen after a chance meeting on an airplane with Jim Keyes, a former 7-Eleven and Blockbuster executive, who became a mentor and investor. The Santa Monica installation is 'Lunar Light's' second pop-up, having had a run in Dallas in 2024. She considers it a proof of concept, the first step in her ultimate goal of building a '10,000-square-foot experience that's like the Disneyland of space exploration.' Investors were interested but encouraged her to, at least at first, downsize her vision. 'OK, fine,' Roosa says, recalling those conversations. 'So we built it out of shipping containers.' The Santa Monica experience, a little longer than an hour, is only in VR for a fraction of that period. After a short jaunt on the moon and a small gamelike activity in which we mine for virtual minerals, we find ourselves in a lab where we'll play with various crystals. There's a Tesla coil, and we will test out various electrical energy reactions. The mood, however, isn't that of a classroom, as the actor manning the lab plays the scene for laughs — all that electrical energy is wreaking havoc on her mind. Roosa, whose father was a military pilot, moved often throughout her childhood, and she says she escaped via improv shows like 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' That informed 'Lunar Light's' lighthearted vibe, and after experiencing various actor-driven immersive theater shows, such as one inspired by Netflix series 'Bridgerton,' she knew she didn't want her space exploration experience to rely solely on technology. 'I think human-to-human contact is the only thing that's going to save us in the world,' Roosa says. 'Obviously I like VR, but I think the human connection is what makes the experience.' 'Lunar Light' attempts to use VR to facilitate connection. While in the headsets, we can see our fellow participants. At times, we're asked to high-five them. 'Let's say there's three different groups,' Roosa says, describing how strangers might be brought together for the experience. 'They're all timid. 'I don't know you.' You put the VR headset on, and all of a sudden they're high-fiving each other and jumping up and down. It's almost like an equalizer. By the end of it, they feel like one big group.' Ultimately, 'Lunar Light' builds to a mini escape room puzzle. But don't expect anything too difficult. Those lightly familiar with escape room challenges should be able to complete it without too much of a fuss. Roosa didn't want participants to get stuck, as her ultimate goal is creating excitement around space by demystifying it. Roosa says that many space experiences are 'very serious.' She then briefly adopts an exaggerated, deeply male voice. 'It is, 'We are men of science.' And I've always noticed, there is room for some fun. There is room for some comedy. I want people to feel a part of the space conversation.'
