In one of his first speeches as Undersecretary of Housing and Community Development, Aaron Gornstein pledged considerable new funds to fight homelessness this year, with public housing reform and fostering homeownership also on deck for 2013.
Gornstein said the agency would have five key areas of focus for 2012: Reducing homelessness; sustaining the existing public housing stock, while reforming governance of the sector; expanding the affordable housing stock; addressing the foreclosure crisis, and planning for growth.
On the homelessness front, Gornstein said he wants to expand existing efforts to move families from emergency shelters to permanent housing using the "Homebase" program. Approximately 10,000 families have been transitioned since the program started in July, 2009.
According to Gornstein, moving more families out of emergency shelters and getting them into permanent housing could save the state up to $100 million through fiscal year 2013. He also said that more permanent housing would eliminate the need for families to live out of often inadequate motels for long periods.
"Our goal is to eliminate the use of hotels and motels as emergency shelter by the end of fiscal year 2013," he said.
Regarding public housing, Gornstein lauded ongoing efforts to reduce capital costs of operating the housing through efforts including energy-efficient retrofits and federalizing some existing stock to make it eligible for federal subsidies. But he also hinted that the state will be looking to consolidate its public housing authorities to reduce administration costs. He said there are 242 such bodies throughout the commonwealth today, more than 200 of which oversee fewer than 500 units and many which oversee fewer than 100 units.
A task force chaired by Gornstein and appointed by Gov. Deval Patrick after the Chelsea Housing Authority scandal broke last year is expected to issue a report in June.
In the near-term, with federal funding cut, DHCD’s affordable housing pipeline is clogged, and the state’s own 40R program has been cut in the current budget. But despite the gloomy immediate prospects, Gornstein said he wanted to refocus the agency on creating more affordable purchase housing as opposed to rental. He said he plans to convene an advisory group in September with the goal of funding new homeownership programs for 2013.
"We’re hoping the market will continue to show some signs of life," in order to get that done, Gornstein said.
He also said he wanted to develop a new form of zoning, tentatively called "compact centers." The centers are meant to encourage new housing developments in areas already marked for economic development projects, with density and affordability requirements about half that required under 40R, to make the prospect of new developments more palatable to cities and towns.
Gornstein spoke Wednesday at a plenary session of the Commonwealth Housing Task Force, an advocacy group affiliated with the Boston Foundation. Before taking up his position as undersecretary, Gornstein was the long-time executive director of Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA).
