THOMAS MENINO
‘A major issue’

More than 10,480 new housing units have been permitted and 3,300-plus affordable rental units were preserved in Boston in the last four years. But city officials feel even more can be done.

City officials are hoping a housing conference this week will spark new ideas. The conference, “Housing Boston 2012: Strategies for High-Cost Cities,” will feature some of nation’s biggest supporters of affordable housing, including U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros and Freddie Mac Chairman Richard Syron. About 400 participants from throughout the country have registered to attend.

“Housing is not a topic that everyone is talking about now,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. “The housing issue is a major issue but most people don’t want to get involved on the political front. It’s so important we put this on the front burner.”

Charlotte Golar Richie, director of the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development, said the conference is designed to acknowledge the city’s housing accomplishments and to address its challenges. The conference will include experts who can discuss the best practices that have emerged nationwide and ways to adopt them in Boston, she said.

“We know that we still have an uphill battle in terms of issues like homelessness and in terms of this emerging issue of foreclosures Â… and the city is still not as affordable as we want it to be,” she said. “We still have some daunting challenges but we want to acknowledge that we’ve come a long way since the mayor declared a housing crisis in the city.”

The conference comes two months before a seven-year campaign to address the city’s housing needs wraps up.

In 2003, the city embarked on Leading the Way II, a four-year effort to permit 10,000 new units – 2,100 for lower-income households. The city also sought to raise $25 million in new revenues for affordable housing, preserve 3,000 affordable rental units and target $10 million to fight homelessness.

Golar Richie said the city already has surpassed its goal of permitting 10,000 new units. To date, the city has permitted 10,484 new units, 2,111 of which are affordable to low- to moderate-income households, and preserved 3,322 affordable rental units, according to Golar Richie.

In addition, the city has been able to raise $9.4 million through private grants and city resources for its homelessness prevention initiative.

Leading the Way II followed Leading the Way I, which was launched in 2000 and involved the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Department of Neighborhood Development and Boston Housing Authority establishing a three-year comprehensive plan to address the city’s housing needs.

The agencies sought to permit 7,500 new units and restore 1,100 vacant public housing units. City officials say they exceeded those goals by permitting 7,900 new units, 2,200 of which were affordable, and preserving 5,500 rental units over three years

Now, city leaders are hoping to build on those campaigns. Menino said some type of housing initiative will be announced at the conference, which will take place Thursday and Friday at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. But Menino could not provide details to Banker & Tradesman last Tuesday.

“It’s not completely worked out,” he said.

‘A Terrific Partner’
Joseph Kriesberg, president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, praised the city for its efforts to produce more affordable housing, including the establishment of a linkage program that imposes fees on large-scale developers for housing and jobs programs.

Kriesberg also said the city has provided a steady stream of funding to community-based nonprofit development groups, made publicly owned land available to them to create new housing, and encouraged private partners to invest and work with them.

“The city has been a terrific partner with [community development corporations], which is one of the reasons we have such terrific CDCs in the city,” he said.

Still, Kriesberg said the city could further encourage private developers to work with CDCs, especially under the city’s inclusionary zoning policy, which requires developers of projects with 10 or more units to either make 13 percent of the units affordable or to build the units elsewhere in the city.

In addition, Kriesberg said the city can work with nonprofit groups to preserve affordability at existing rental properties that are not government subsidized. CDCs are just beginning to work with the city and private sector to identify financing tools that would enable nonprofit owners to acquire such properties, Kriesberg said. The goal is to lock in long-term affordability before an owner decides to sell or convert the property to condos.

“What we’re saying is it’s cheaper – especially in a softer market, it’s a lot cheaper to work with existing properties. It doesn’t increase the housing stock but it ensures that a piece of the stock is available for working families,” he said.

Vince O’Donnell, who is vice president of the Affordable Housing Preservation Initiative for the Local Initiatives Support Corp., agreed that Boston has been among the top cities in the country when it comes to working with CDCs.

Boston has been a leader in affordable housing preservation, according to Vince O’Donnell, vice president of the Affordable Housing Preservation Initiative for the Local Initiative Support Corp.

“They’ve been actively involved and actively engaged at the leadership level,” said O’Donnell, who will participate in a panel discussion and plans to discuss Boston’s success in preserving housing.

O’Donnell said Boston has been effective in utilizing state and federal housing programs and resources, including the project-based Section 8 program. But some of those housing programs had built-in risks and the low-income multifamily housing that was built is now in danger because use restrictions are expiring, he explained.

In particular, Boston has had to deal with properties that are at risk of converting to market-rate because of the prepayment of subsidized mortgages and because owners are choosing not to extend their contracts to provide affordable housing.

Nicolas Retsinas, said market trends in some high-cost cities have led to a “bifurcated population” where the poor are left behind and there are pockets where high-income households reside.

“That’s not a balanced community,” he said.

Many local leaders have historically relied on the federal government to address housing and provide resources, but the federal government has cut back in the last 20 years, Retsinas explained. Boston has tried to “fill this vacuum,” he said.

“What has been particularly interesting and noteworthy of Boston and the mayor is that he has put [housing] on his agenda and is willing to be held accountable,” he said.

The conference begins Thursday with a neighborhood housing tour. A forum takes place the following day starting with a keynote address by Cisneros.

The conference is being sponsored by The Warren Group, parent company of Banker & Tradesman, along with Bank of America.