The town of Brookline, which includes the Coolidge Corner area (above), is taking steps to preserve and create housing for lower-income individuals and families.

The town of Brookline – where the median selling price for a single-family home was $775,000 last year and monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment can be as much as $1,600 – may not be known as the most affordable town in the commonwealth to live.

But Brookline officials, recognizing that affordable housing is one of the town’s most pressing issues, have been taking steps to preserve and create housing for people with lower incomes.

In recent years, they’ve approached nonprofit groups to save rooming houses along desirable parts of Beacon Street that could have been converted into pricey condominiums or tourist-attracting bed-and-breakfast hotels. Now, they’re appealing to rental property owners who are thinking of selling to first consider nonprofit affordable housing developers.

In September, the town’s Board of Selectmen sent a letter to 140 owners of 170 rental properties with eight units or more encouraging them to contact the town’s Housing Division if they were thinking of putting their property on the market or were doing estate planning and wanted to explore the tax benefits of selling their properties to a nonprofit owner. So far, the town hasn’t had any response.

“What we think we’re doing, really, is planting a seed. I don’t believe we think anyone is going to respond immediately, but at some point when someone is considering retiring or selling, our hope is that that they’ll think of us first,” said Fran Price, Brookline’s housing development manager.

The letter also asks owners to contact the town if they would consider “accepting financial incentives” to restrict rents on at least 25 percent of the units at their property to make them affordable to people of lower incomes.

The goal of the letter is to keep rental properties off the market in order to give nonprofit groups that are interested in creating and preserving affordable housing in Brookline enough time to come up with a plan to purchase them.

Affordable housing developers typically rely on multiple sources of financing to fund the projects, and the process of securing the funding can be lengthy and complicated, explained Price. That puts nonprofit groups at a disadvantage when they’re competing with developers of market-rate units – who usually can afford to pay more and come up with a purchase offer faster – to buy a building.

“When a building comes on the market, it’s hard to quickly come up with resources,” said Price. “[And ] often when a rental property comes on the market, it is priced for condo conversion.”

‘Proactive Policy’

Price said there are property owners in Brookline who have owned properties for a decade or more and because values have escalated so much over the years, they may be facing capital gains taxes if they sell. Such property owners may be eligible for tax benefits if they sell to a nonprofit owner.

“We would like to speak to owners prior to them putting buildings on the market … [and let them know] that it’s possible for them to make a profit and they can also see their buildings preserved and serve the community,” said Price.

“[The letter is] one part of multifaceted approach that the town is taking to preserve and create a stock of affordable housing in town for the long term,” said Roger Blood, chairman of the town’s Housing Advisory Board.

Part of the approach is Brookline’s inclusionary zoning law, which has been in effect since the late 1980s and requires developers of 16 housing units or more to set aside at least 15 percent of the units as affordable. Meanwhile, developers of projects with six to 15 units are required to either include affordable units or make a financial contribution to a housing trust fund.

In other efforts, the town provided $1 million to a buyer who purchased three senior apartment complexes in town totaling 525 units about two years ago, and in exchange, the owner agreed to preserve two-thirds of the units as affordable for 40 years.

“We’re just completing a major comprehensive plan that includes considerable attention to affordable housing and a need for more of it,” said Blood. “The need has been identified and the town has made a major commitment to this as one of its goals.”

But in order to develop affordable housing, the town needs financial resources and land, said Blood. “They’re both in very short supply,” he said. “In order for us to advance, we’ve got to look very seriously at not just developable parcels but also the existing housing stock.”

The town is particularly seeking nonprofit developers who would either create or preserve the affordability of between 25 percent and 100 percent of the units within a property. The “affordable” units would be for people earning up to 80 percent of the median income – which in Brookline translates into $62,650 for a family a four.

“We’re looking to preserve affordable housing rental opportunities for people who may not even qualify for current programs and might be right over the federal guidelines but can’t possibly afford to live in Brookline,” said Price.

Joseph Kriesberg, president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, said he was not aware of any other communities that are taking such an approach. Cities, including Boston, have often intervened and asked owners of expiring-use properties – properties with affordable units that were built using federal funding but are eligible to convert units to market-rate once the mortgages are paid off – to consider selling to affordable housing developers instead.

“I suppose it’s a good idea,” said Kriesberg of Brookline’s efforts.

However, Kriesberg said in a town like Brookline, where property is very expensive, it may be difficult for nonprofit groups to come up with the necessary resources to purchase properties unless the town is offering some subsidies.

“I’m not trying to be negative. Brookline should be commended for getting creative and trying to … house low- and moderate-income people,” said Kriesberg. “[Especially because] there’s not a lot of buildable land in Brookline.”

Kriesberg said towns are going to have to be more “creative” at a time when public subsidies aren’t always available.

“We need to be finding ways to work with private owners to do mixed-income projects,” said Kriesberg. “Those type of solutions are going to be essential … Not only do towns have to be flexible and creative, but so do nonprofit groups.”

Price said the town does have some subsidies to assist with either the acquisition or the renovation of properties. About 7.6 percent of Brookline’s housing, or roughly 2,000 units, were considered affordable to people of low- and moderate-incomes, according to the latest statistics made available by the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

Under Chapter 40B, the state’s so-called anti-snob zoning law, in communities where less than 10 percent of the housing is deemed “affordable” by the state, developers can go through a speedier permitting process and sometimes bypass local zoning if they are creating housing where at least 25 percent of the units are for lower-income households.

“The town is under a lot of pressure to develop housing,” said Price. “[But] the town has a very proactive policy and our goal is to preserve our neighborhood and increase our affordable housing. We really want the housing to be affordable permanently.”

Recently, Brookline worked with nonprofit groups like Boston’s Pine Street Inn and Braintree-based Caritas Communities to purchase lodging houses – which offer single rooms that can be rented on a weekly basis – that were for sale.

Another group, the Brookline Improvement Coalition, bought a lodging house eight years ago that it still owns and operates, according to Price, and the group also purchased another property and worked with the Committee to End Elder Homelessness to create nine small apartment for low-income seniors.

Aglaia Pikounis may be reached at apikounis@thewarrengroup.com.