Massachusetts’ former industrial cities won’t recover economically without substantial improvement in their real estate markets – but the commonwealth’s real estate initiatives are too concentrated on solving problems in Greater Boston to be much help to other parts of the state.
That was the message delivered this morning at a symposium in Holyoke of hundreds of housing, banking and real estate leaders. The event, called "Restoring Prosperity: Housing’s Role in a Western Massachusetts Economic Recovery," was sponsored by HAP Inc., a Springfield-based housing agency.
The commonwealth has 11 "gateway communities" – cities that drive their regional economies. Most of those are former manufacturing centers that once were the population nexus for their areas. The cities, specifically, are Springfield, Holyoke, Pittsfield, Worcester, Fitchburg, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Brockton, New Bedford and Fall River.
Bruce Forman, a senior research associate with MassINC., a nonpartisan think tank evaluating the state of the middle class in Massachusetts, said organizations’ investigation into state housing policies reveals a bias toward Boston. He said the needs of the "gateway communities" are different, and need to be approached with more diverse methods.
"Our review of current housing policies finds that they are overwhelmingly influenced by and oriented toward strong markets in Greater Boston," MassINC asserts. "Massachusetts has no investment programs differentiated to meet the neighborhood revitalization needs of weak market gateway cities."
Although those communities do receive substantial state funding for housing programs, the structure of that funding is often to promote new affordable housing. But the cities in question suffer from disinvestment in their current housing stock, and putting new development in place only serves to draw people away from that existing housing. That leads to further decline, as property owners turn away from making repairs and renovations to housing that is merely depreciating in value.
To have a strong urban economy, cities need residents with a diverse mix of incomes, Forman said. To achieve that, state housing policies ought to be broadened to encourage rebuilding strong middle-class neighborhoods. Doing so would include providing owner-occupants in the select gateway communities with technical assistance, forgivable low-interest rate loans and "home value protection."
