Op-Ed: We Need A Stronger Foundation For Affordable Housing

To say Massachusetts is facing a housing crisis is an understatement. Our young people can’t afford to rent, our young families can’t afford to buy, and our aging population is getting priced out of the communities they love. Housing supply has not kept up with rapidly growing demand and the resulting crisis is eating up incomes for both renters and owners while furthering the wealth gaps in our communities.

It’s time for everyone involved in the housing industry and in our government to work together to solve this issue. If we want to seriously tackle our affordability crisis, we need:

• More housing. Almost 1 million baby boomers are retiring from 2015-2030 and 1.1 million people will be filling those jobs. We are already 43,000 units behind in production. Additionally, 210 cities and towns have not permitted multifamily housing of 5+ units for a decade or longer. We need to create stronger incentives to produce housing of any kind -- especially affordable units.
• More affordable housing. Only 28% of area sales are considered affordable for middle-income families. Municipalities should be encouraged to form affordable housing trusts and to adopt inclusionary zoning, which requires all developments to set aside affordable units within the building.
• More types of housing. We cannot lean on single family stock alone. We must allow for beautiful, thoughtful density throughout the state. We need to make it easier to build small -- not micro – well designed housing units, including accessory dwelling units (or “granny flats”) and units with pre-fab technology. If passed, the Great Neighborhoods bill includes allowing for smaller units that are better suited to seniors and younger folks, who are precisely the types of people we are struggling to house right now.
• Additional help for renters. Massachusetts has the fourth highest rental rates in the country. Most poor people are housed in the private housing market -- just like middle income buyers and renters -- NOT in public housing or utilizing “Section 8” vouchers. Therefore solutions that deal with the private rental market are needed most urgently. We also need solid data about the cost burden to make informed decisions. The state should create an eviction database to illuminate the scope of housing insecurity in Massachusetts. We should also offer tenants better access to attorneys in housing courts, which states like New York are already doing.
• Modernized zoning. Our cities and towns hold the keys to development projects and permitting, but they can be supported by the state in reforming their zoning code to make building easier. Multi-purpose buildings along main streets or public transportation corridors should be actively pursued, especially first floor commercial or retail space. These structures not only increase municipal tax revenue, but they also create a destination for residents. Developers should be engaged with their communities, and provide public benefits including streetscape improvements, shuttles to transit, and other things that will lessen the impacts on local roads and schools from new housing.
• Limits on super owners. Often, developers will only build market rate housing and suddenly municipalities are faced not only with a deficit of new affordable units, but with a glut of market-rate housing that may end up on the Airbnb market or owned by non-resident investors, driving up prices and increasing speculation, while adding to the overall housing stock that can be counted against a community’s affordable inventory. The State House should work with local governments to limit the ability of “super owners” to take housing off the market for use on Airbnb and to make sure that any new fees imposed by the Legislature go toward creation of affordable housing and anti-displacement strategies

Allowing and encouraging for flexible housing to be built, and for current homeowners to make extra income off their extra space at home -- either by listing on home share websites like Airbnb, or by adapting attics, garages, basements and in-law suites into accessory dwelling units -- can alleviate the pressures on our region’s housing market, by opening up new housing types to young families, students and seniors who are downsizing, and helping existing homeowners to age in place, in the communities they love. Critically, preventing displacement and increasing housing stability lays a foundation for the kinds of safe, multi-generational neighborhoods we all cherish.

Sadly, Washington is not leading on these issues right now, and has even taken steps to scale back federal fair housing rules -- which means progressive states like Massachusetts must step up to take a strong stance in favor of combatting housing discrimination by race, income and parental or marital status, and ensure we can create the kind of society we want for our children. We can change the course of our housing market, but we have to do it together. We need to be mindful of our neighbors, accommodating and flexible with more density, and ready to share the investment so all cities and towns get the progress they deserve.

References: Metropolitan Area Planning Council and Massachusetts Housing Partnership