Fired up by last fall’s decisive victory in the fight to preserve 40B, Massachusetts’ controversial affordable housing law, the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA) is launching a campaign to re-brand affordable housing in the minds of reluctant municipalities.

The “Welcome Home Massachusetts” campaign, set to launch in early 2012, is intended to help provide support to local groups who already want to increase affordable housing, as well as to better educate the public about how affordable housing works in Massachusetts and who it helps.

The three-pronged campaign will involve creating a project website with information, tools and resources on affordable housing; launching a publicity and education campaign through the media; and offering logistical support for proposed projects in approximately 15 communities over a three-year period.

CHAPA developed the plan after more than a dozen meetings with more than 350 civic, business, academic and faith-based leaders.

“One of the things we heard was that people don’t know what’s going on in their communities,” Carol Marine, community outreach manager for CHAPA, told Banker & Tradesman.

The agency hopes to remedy that in part through the website, which will have an online guide for building community support, fact sheets and exemplary developments so that “somebody working on a development in Burlington can find out [how an existing developer handled] an accessory use bylaw in Chicopee,” Marine explained.

Carrot & Stick

Many cities and towns remain wary of developers seeking to put forward affordable projects, particularly those who go the 40B route, which can allow qualifying projects to override local zoning board decisions if the community they’re planned for lacks affordable housing.

“Often, the only time officials become involved in a 40B issue is when it’s already in their community, being proposed,” said Michael Jaillet, town administrator for Westwood and a supporter of the campaign. “Oftentimes, it becomes an emotional issue, involving the community in a lot of [negative] feelings.”

But the ongoing economic downturn has provided a window of opportunity for advocates to try and change minds on the issue.

“A lot of these communities have part-time planners, and they were desperately treading water, trying to keep up with all the subdivision applications they were getting, all the standard permitting requests, when the economy was so hot. Now, a very real and practical consequence of the development cycle slowing is that they are more able to spend time on more long-term planning efforts,” said Paul Matthews, executive director of the 495/Metrowest Partnership. “Communities that have [master development plans] in hand could sit in a meeting and slap the plans down and say, ‘Well, here’s where we want more development. Here’s where we want preservation.’”

“[40B] was often seen as a carrot stick sort of thing,” agreed Jaillet. “I think the state has provided some tools for communities to take a more proactive approach.”

Last year’s ballot question, he said, helped people to see the affordable housing issue “more broadly, about what affordable housing is, why it’s necessary, what the benefits are, who it reaches.”

Put in that light, Jaillet continued, there was “a larger amount of support for 40B than might have been expected, and I think has inspired people to take another look at 40B.”

Affordable housing advocates said they see reason to hope, too.

“People’s lifestyles have changed. People are interested in bringing commuting times down because nobody wants to spend their life in a car,” said Susan Gittelman, executive director of B’nai B’rith Housing New England, a nonprofit affordable housing developer. “So I think that – I really feel that there’s an enormous amount of will at the community level to really figure out how to plan for and address community [development] over the long haul.”

Marine emphasized that the campaign was still under development, with funding now being sought for the third stage, which would provide select cities and towns across the commonwealth with hands-on help in planning, organizing and advocating for projects.

Marine said her group has been in contact with about 2,500 people who have been significant supporters of the campaign, and have expressed a desire to stay involved.

Michael Jaillet

Paul Matthews