Josh Kraft officially entered the Boston mayor’s race this week, and housing is a key initiative of his campaign.

Kraft, the son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, said housing is a top priority, calling it the No. 1 challenge facing Boston residents at his campaign announcement Monday. 

“In fact, among similar-sized cities across the nation, we fall to the very bottom when it comes to new housing production,” Kraft said. “As a result, rents are at an all-time high and so is the median price of a home, which is almost $900,000. Sure, I know it’s a complex problem. But at its core, you can’t solve a housing crisis if you are building less of them.” 

The former CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston from 2008 to 2020, where he started working in 1990, also made housing a key topic in his first campaign ad released this week, saying he cares that middle-class families are being squeezed by the cost of housing.

“My number one priority is to lower the cost of housing by building more housing,” Kraft said. “Boston ranks near the bottom of all cities in America when it comes to housing stock. We have to do better.”