I heard a snippet of last night’s debate between Boston’s Mayor Menino and challenger Maura Hennigan on ‘BUR this morning. I was struck by Menino’s touting of the city’s growth in "affordable housing" — 16,000 units worth since 1999, one-third of which are "affordable"*. "That’s a pretty good number", says the Mayor.
I don’t live in Boston, and I’m not taking a stand in the mayoral race. But I do know that housing that is truly affordable to folks of median-income and below — never mind the state’s official definition of "affordable" — is scarce. The city and metro area ought to have decent housing for lawyers, cops, teachers, gas station attendants …. everyone. No one can blame Menino for the real estate bubble that’s caused the problem, but geez, he should at least acknowledge the problem. And Hennigan’s rebuttal — regarding the paltry $50,000 per unit that developers can pay in lieu of creating affordable housing on-site — seems on-target to me.
In any event, we need more than state mandates for "Affordable HousingTM" — we need to create market incentives to create housing for ordinary people.
You can download the whole debate on .mp3 here. The exchange mentioned above takes place on the third segment, between 7 to 10 minutes in.
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*[From the Citizen’s Housing and Planning Association‘s page on Chapter 40B housing, the state’s official guideline for "affordable" — I’m not sure what percentage of income this guideline expects one to pay for rent/mortgage:]
Income Eligibility for Affordable Units in Boston Metropolitan Statistical Area
Income Guidelines for the affordable units at 80% of median income:
1 PERSON: $46,300
2 PERSON: $52,950
3 PERSON: $59,550
4 PERSON: $66,150
Obviously, in a one hour debate, one can only get so many points across. The Mayor was talking about Boston’s record as a city in terms of producing housing that families can afford. That number stands up well when compared to other communities in the state and other cities nationally. The fact is that the Menino Administration has spent well over $30 million in city dollars on housing initiatives, increased linkage fees and instituted inclusionary zoning. All of this at a time when federal help in non-existent and the state now spends less than half what they did in 1978 for housing aid. Menino has also been honored by the National Low Income Housing Coalition for his work in Boston and nationally.Having said all this, Boston still has a higher percentage of subsidized housing than almost any community in the state and continues to build more affordable housing per capita than any other community. So if Menino is “out to lunch”, the rest of the state is on “indefinite leave”.HLNote: thw writer served in the Menino Administration for ten years, which he is proud of, and is now in the dreaded private sector.
Hi Howard — thanks for posting. Perhaps my glib title was unfair. In spite of all that you mention, it seems unlikely that the math adds up in development: do the 1/3 of the units that are “affordable” correspond to the fraction of the population that’s of 80% of median income and below? In other words, does only 1/3 of the city’s population make 80% or lower of median income? If not, then it would seem we’re still squeezing those people.As far as the rest of the state is concerned, I think you’re probably right, in spite of the affordable housing trust fund, etc. I’m waiting on a report from the Pioneer Institute about zoning and the “drawbridge” effect.
Go Mr. Mayor! Another vote for Menino right here
Thanks for your reply. Remmeber that the Mayor is talking about total units “permitted”, many of which are private developments with no city subsidies. Where the city does assist developers, in most cases non-profit developers like the CDCs, the percentage of affordability is much higher.HL