Kaushiki Banerjee moved to Newton from India in 2022. Within months, two of her closest friends had to leave the city because their families couldn't keep up with rising rents. She was in middle school at the time — old enough to feel the loss, and apparently determined enough to do something about it.

Two years later, the Newton North High School rising senior has campaigned at community events across Newton's village centers and submitted a formal policy proposal to the city's Department of Housing.

"As a city, we are failing to accommodate those people who essentially play a big role in keeping the city running," Banerjee wrote in a guest essay published in the Newton Beacon.

Why this issue has real teeth in Newton.

The city has just 2,075 affordable homes — 6.2% of its total housing stock — while average rent for a two-bedroom apartment runs $3,500 a month and the average home sale price sits around $1.7 million. Home values have climbed roughly 7% a year over the past decade, even as the city remains overwhelmingly zoned for single-family housing. Ward 5 Councilor-at-Large Brittany Hume Charm summed up the bind: "There aren't a lot of new homes that are coming on the market, and the ones that are are quite expensive."

She started by measuring the skepticism head-on.

Banerjee's first move was an informal survey of high school classmates, church elders, neighbors and local business owners. The early results weren't encouraging: 85% of respondents said they believed affordable housing would bring congestion, traffic and a worse quality of life. Rather than treat that as a dead end, she spent the next month having one-on-one conversations with the same people — and when she re-surveyed the group, most had shifted toward supporting affordable housing.

That shift is what pushed her campaign public.

Encouraged by the turnaround, Banerjee set up at roughly 20 community events over two-plus years, including Newtonville Village Day, Nonantum Village Day, Newton Highlands Village Day, India Day at Hyde Park, the Boston Marathon, and La Fiesta Italiana at Pellegrini Park — meeting residents where they already were, rather than waiting for them to come to her.

A proposal with real policy substance.

Banerjee's report to the Department of Housing laid out four concrete recommendations: an AI-assisted portal where families could search and apply for affordable housing in one place, a publicity push to spread awareness of existing programs, exploring manufactured housing as a cheaper construction alternative, and adjusting income eligibility limits to reflect Newton's unusually high average income so more residents actually qualify for help. The city's Department of Housing hasn't independently confirmed reviewing the proposal yet.

Planting the idea early.

Banerjee has also brought her message to elementary school students, simplifying the issue down to housing availability rather than the financial complexities — hoping today's kids become tomorrow's advocates for the same cause she's championing now.

Where Newton's housing pipeline stands.

• The Armory (Newtonville): 43 deed-restricted affordable units under construction, priced for households at 30-60% of Area Median Income
• Village Center Overlay District: More than 65 affordable homes in the pipeline under 2023 zoning, with two active Newtonville sites