Growth is the key to housing affordability

Sheila A. Dillon
Jul 20, 2017 · 4 min read

The City of Boston’s population is on track to reach 700,000 in a few years’ time, a number we have not seen since the 1950s. We should be proud of the fact that people are coming from all over the nation and the world to our city. It’s a sign of our success.

We also can’t ignore its impacts. Until recently, our housing stock has not kept pace with our population growth. As an escalating number of residents compete for a fixed number of homes, home prices and rents in more and more neighborhoods have risen beyond low-income and middle-class budgets. That housing crunch is one of the biggest challenges we face as a city.

We have two choices.

We can plan for responsible growth, adding new housing close to transportation options while protecting community character.

Or, we can try to freeze our city in time, allowing competition to drive rents and housing prices even higher, pushing out long-time residents, keeping away the workers our economy needs, and making us a more divided city.

For the Walsh Administration, the choice was, and is, clear.

In 2014, we created a new plan. “Housing a Changing City: Boston 2030” called for the creation of 53,000 new units of housing in order to accommodate growth. That’s more building than we are used to. But already, we are on pace to meet our goal and, more importantly, we are seeing the benefits.

Earlier this year, we welcomed news that rents are beginning to stabilize across the city. To date, more than 13,500 new units of housing have come on line, and our most recent data show that from 2015–2016, average rents declined by 4 percent in existing housing stock.

People who can afford to move into new, market-rate construction are doing so, leaving more neighborhood housing affordable to the middle class.

We’re doing more than growing. We’re capturing the returns of the current building boom for the benefit of the entire city.

Changes we made to the City’s Inclusionary Development Policy mean that developers must now create more affordable units in their buildings, or put more money into an affordable housing fund. This policy gets results: since 2014, private residential development has meant that 1,951 affordable housing units have been created across the City. Linkage funds from large-scale commercial development are also being used to create and preserve affordable housing.

The Cais are able to stay in their Chinatown neighborhood as they age in place at Hong Lok House, which was built using funds from private development.

Growth also creates revenue and jobs for our city. In Fiscal Year 2017, Boston saw a record amount of growth to our tax base from new development. This resulted in an additional $75 million in property tax revenue that we are investing in schools, parks, public safety, homelessness services, and more. In addition, the Boston Planning and Development Agency estimates that in 2016, nearly 20,000 jobs were created as a result of new projects that received approvals.

We know that ample, affordable housing is vital to maintaining our edge in a global economy. Employers need employees, but if workers can’t afford to live here, businesses won’t be able to grow here. We need housing that workers at all levels can afford, if we are to retain our competitive advantage.

In the 1960s, development brought our city growth, but too often it ran roughshod over neighborhoods. In 2017, urban planning has become smarter and more community-driven. Planners are working with communities and developers to create responsible growth near transit, while taking great care to preserve the character of Boston’s existing neighborhoods. Our new citywide plan, Imagine Boston 2030, was driven by the community, and codifies this approach with guidelines for growing a city that’s vibrant, accessible, and green.

People, young and old, want to be a part of our city. We welcome them and we need them. But a failure to grow our housing stock will stifle and ultimately undermine our success.

To remain accessible and competitive, we must make sure that anyone — whether a long-time resident or new arrival — who wants to make Boston better can afford to live here.

66 HUDSON STREET consists of 95 affordable rentals that are part of the One Greenway development, which has a total of 312 units. 64 of the units are rented to individuals earning at or below 60% of Area Median Income; 31 are rented to those earning at or below 30%. The remainder are market rate.

The combination of stable community and newcomer vitality has been the historic formula for our city’s success. We can keep it at the heart of our future by planning and growing today.

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Sheila A. Dillon

Written by

I’m the Chief of Housing for the City of Boston.

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