Brookline Makes Changes To Affordable Housing Lottery

Press release from the Brookline Housing Advisory Board:

August 18 2020

Brookline’s Housing Advisory Board (HAB) and the Town’s Planning Board
have voted to reduce the Town’s “Local Preference” standard for its new
affordable housing lotteries from 70 percent to 25 percent.

While agreeing that a more limited Local Preference is worth retaining, HAB
members saw in adopting this reduction a practical and compelling
opportunity to encourage more racial diversity in Brookline.

Under Local Preference, affordable housing units built under local
“Inclusionary Zoning” requirements or under Massachusetts Chapter 40B
Comprehensive Permitting , most Massachusetts communities reserve a
large percentage for those residents who already live, work, or have children
who attend public school in the municipality.

Most municipalities, including Brookline, have set their housing lotteries’
Local Preference at 70 percent, which is the maximum allowed by the
State’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).

The main impetus for the HAB’s vote to reduce Brookline’s Local Preference
from 70 percent to 25 percent is to expand affordable housing opportunities
in Brookline for a more racially diverse population who live outside the Town.
HAB members discerned that—even while including its METCO families--
Brookline’s 70 percent Local Preference policy is at odds with the goal of
increasing the Town’s racial diversity, especially for African-Americans.

The HAB decision came after reviewing data from past Town lotteries and
Local Preference policies in other Greater Boston communities. This
research confirmed that the Town’s current 70 percent Local Preference
policy has reduced the probability of otherwise-qualified Black and Hispanic
applicants being awarded an affordable housing unit in Brookline.

In addition to Chapter 40B and inclusionary zoning projects, this decision will
also diversify the applicant pools for local projects developed by non-profit
affordable housing sponsors who seek funding from the Town’s HABadministered Affordable Housing Trust.

This press release was produced by the Brookline Housing Advisory Board. The views expressed here are the author’s own.