Citing rising housing costs as a threat to Massachusetts’ economy, Gov. Charlie Baker said his five-year capital budget proposal includes $1.1 billion for affordable and middle-class housing.

Addressing an Urban Land Institute housing conference in Boston, Baker said 3,300 deeply affordable housing units in high-cost markets such as Boston are threatened by mortgage restrictions that expire by 2020. The proposed 18 percent increase in housing funding over five years also seeks to encourage more workforce housing for middle-class households.

The budget plan comes in addition to a new $100 million MassHousing fund announced by Baker last week that would generate up to 1,000 moderately priced units for middle-class families earning between 61 and 120 percent of the area median income. The program includes subsidies of up to $100,000 per unit.

A report released Monday by ULI gauged the burden of housing costs on low- and middle-income families in Eastern Massachusetts. More than a third of middle-income households pay more than 30 percent of their income in housing related costs, while 42 percent of lower-income households are similarly cost-burdened.

Boston Mayor Martin Walsh has set a goal of generating 53,000 new housing units by 2030, but the ULI report estimates the overall region needs 200,000 new housing units to accommodate an additional 500,000 households.

The report’s recommendations include:

  • Increasing middle-class housing in wealthy suburbs.
  • Making the commonwealth’s Gateway Cities more appealing to middle-class households.
  • Increasing housing production for all income levels, particularly in the high-cost cities such as Boston that have been losing middle-class households the fastest.

Since 1990, the number of middle-income households in Eastern Massachusetts has declined from 333,000 to 325,000, while low-income working households grew by 40 percent to 89,000, the report said.

Low-density zoning, permitting hurdles and local opposition have slowed housing production in Greater Boston, but the report says opportunities remain to build workforce housing using increasingly successful strategies such as transit-oriented development. Partners in the study included JLL, MassHousing and Trinity Financial. Metropolitan Area Planning Council provided research assistance.

Baker’s housing plan includes the following elements:

  • $50 million to preserve privately-owned affordable housing units with expiring affordability restrictions, to be matched with $50 million in new preservation funds from MassHousing.
  • $25 million for the development of supportive housing for homeless families and individuals with disabilities.
  • $34 million to advance mixed-income housing development.
  • $25.5 million to accelerate the preservation and redevelopment of local public housing communities through public-private partnerships.
  • $14 million to local affordable housing funds, and to advance small-scale affordable housing development in communities.
  • $12 million in additional capacity for capital projects at state-supported public housing communities.

The administration also is doing an inventory of 20,000 state-owned properties to determine which can be sold to private developers for housing production. One of the first initiatives calls for the sale of a 5.5-acre parcel on Kneeland Street in Boston for up to 2 million square feet of development.

Baker’s Housing Plan Seeks 18 Percent Increase

by Steve Adams time to read: 2 min
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