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The most comprehensive database of Massachusetts’ affordable housing inventory spotlights the use of age-restricted housing to maintain racial segregation, its creators say.
In 44 cities and towns, not a single unit of non-age-restricted affordable housing has been built despite state laws such as Chapter 40B that make it easier for developers to build income-restricted projects.
“Age-restricted housing in Massachusetts has been used in a racially exclusionary way,” said Katherine Levine Einstein, a Boston University political science professor. “Those communities tend to be overwhelmingly white.”
Age-restricted units represent nearly 40 percent of the state’s 208,000 affordable housing units, according to the Housing Navigator database created in 2021.
Nonprofit Housing Navigator Massachusetts Inc. was founded in 2019 to expand online technology that helps low-income households find affordable housing. Its “Housing Navigator” tool is designed to provide one-stop shopping for low-income households seeking to apply for affordable housing.
At the same time, it has provided researchers with a database that enables them to analyze disparities and mismatches between housing demand and need in individual communities.
The MBTA Housing law which took effect in 2023 requires communities with MBTA service to allow multifamily development near transit stations, prompting communities including Lexington, Brookline and Newton to approve rezoning in 2023.
The MBTA Housing law also does not require any minimum affordable housing component in communities subject to the law, speakers at the forum sponsored by Housing Navigator Massachusetts Inc. noted.
Milton, which does not have any non-age-restricted affordable housing, approved a rezoning plan at a December town meeting to comply with the MBTA Communities law. But opponents submitted a petition forcing a townwide referendum Feb. 13 that could overturn the rezoning.
Overall, nearly half of all income-restricted apartments in Massachusetts are located in just 14 communities, comprising about 22 percent of the state’s inventory. Those communities are all characterized by lower-than-average income and home ownership levels, and higher-than-average populations of people of color.
The Housing Navigator collects data about nearly 3,800 income-restricted properties across the state, including both public housing and projects built by developers under programs such as the Chapter 40B affordable housing zoning law.
Image courtesy of Housing Navigator MA
