BURP program is launched.

Officially the Boston Urban Rehabilitation Program, it is announced by U.S. Housing secretary Robert Weaver at a luncheon at Freedom House. The largest HUD program for foreclosed multi-family properties in the U.S., it seeks to rehabilitate some 2,000 [2,700-BGL] units of low-income rental housing in Roxbury, more than 1,100 the so-called the “Granite Properties,” formerly owned by Gem Realty. Weaver’s speech is interrupted by community activist Bryant Rollins, who criticizes the program’s relocation efforts and failure to include minority developers, contractors, or workers. The program is subsequently also be criticized for shoddy workmanship. A subsequent Granite Properties program is completed in 1989.