CITY TO LAUNCH AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROGRAM

CITY TO LAUNCH COMPREHENSIVE AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROGRAM

 “Sustainable Neighborhoods” plan to broaden and deepen Somerville’s affordability efforts includes 100-home strategy,
expansion of inclusionary zoning, tax credits for benevolent landlords and increased SomerVision housing goals

Mayor Curtatone's Sustainable Neighborhoods Presentation (PDF)

Link: Apply to Serve on Sustainable Neighborhoods Networking Group

SOMERVILLE –In

the face of a regional affordable housing crisis, the City of

Somerville is expanding its already robust housing affordability efforts

to create a comprehensive program that addresses affordability from all

angles and across all needed income brackets, Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

announced today.

Building

off the promise he made in his inaugural address in January 2014 to

protect people who have chosen to live in Somerville, Mayor Curtatone

will present “Sustainable Neighborhoods,” an outline of the next steps

to broaden and deepen the City’s efforts to maintain affordability for

the people and families of Somerville, at the Board of Aldermen’s

Housing and Community Development Committee meeting on Wednesday, Oct.

15 at 6 p.m. The meeting is open to the public.

On

the heels of Somerville recently instituting the highest residential

property tax exemption in Massachusetts at 35%, the Sustainable

Neighborhoods initiative will start immediately with six actions to be

proposed to the Board of Aldermen:

1. 100 Affordable Homes Strategy:

The City will launch a program with the Somerville Community

Corporation (SCC), backing the SCC’s ability to compete for existing

properties available on the market that are currently being lost in some

cases to speculators. The SCC would rehabilitate those homes and act as

a benevolent owner and landlord, ensuring a diversity of units that are

affordable to a range of incomes, with a goal of creating 100 new

affordable rental units within the first three years of the initiative.

2. Comprehensive Zoning Reform: The comprehensive reform of the Somerville zoning code coming by the end of fall will include four key proposals:

a. Expanded Inclusionary Zoning: The

City’s inclusionary zoning ordinance will be expanded to both increase

the number of affordable units that must be created alongside market

rate units, and broaden the reach of the ordinance to include workforce

housing for middle income households.

b. Increase Family Housing in Larger Projects:

To encourage affordability for family housing, the zoning code would

require the creation of more multi-bedroom affordable units in larger 

building projects.

c. Spurring Development in Transformational Areas:

Consistent with the City’s comprehensive SomerVision plan and smart

growth principles proven to help stabilize housing prices, the proposed

zoning code would make it easier to build housing and commercial

development in transformational areas of the city such as

Brickbottom-Inner Belt. That broadened approach will make it easier to

address the supply-side issues around housing affordability and

encourage investment in the creation of more homes.

d. Maker and Artist Districts. The

new zoning code would establish a district for artists and fabrication,

or “makers,” and within that district certified working artists/makers

would be allowed to live in their work space.

3. Tax Credits for Benevolent Landlords: The

City will pursue legislation at the state level that will allow the

City to offer tax incentives to landlords who maintain rents at

affordable levels.

4. Local Transfer Tax: Massachusetts

has a real estate transfer tax, but municipalities currently do not

have the ability to institute such a fee. The City will pursue

legislation at the state level that would allow a local transfer tax on

certain real estate sales where speculators are flipping properties and

realizing large gains in a short period of time, with revenues raised by

that fee dedicated solely toward the creation of more affordable

housing.

5. Setting New SomerVision Goal:

The City’s 20-year comprehensive plan calls for the creation of 6,000

new homes by 2030, with 1,200 of those homes permanently affordable. The

City partnered with the SCC and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council

(MAPC) on a report earlier this year on the effect of the Green Line

Extension on housing in Somerville, and that report concluded that

Somerville will need between 6,000 and 9,000 new homes. In light of that

report, Mayor Curtatone is calling upon the SomerVision steering

committee to reconvene and revise the plan’s housing goal from the

minimum amount called for in the MAPC report to its maximum goal of

9,000 homes.

6. Innovative Affordable Housing Design Competition: In

seeking innovative ways to create affordable housing in densely

populated cities, the City will invite designers to be part of the

solution and submit innovative design solutions for modern affordable

family housing. This demonstration will tap a City-owned surplus

property, providing a brick-and-mortar example of ways to build

affordable family housing in cities.

Sustainable Neighborhoods Working Group to Target Housing Innovation

Those

actions present only the initial steps of what will be a

community-driven process. Somerville’s greatest successes have come from

elected officials, City Hall staff and the talented members of the

community collaborating on the development of a shared set of goals.

That

process will be driven by a new Sustainable Neighborhoods Working Group

that will represent experts in the field, stakeholders and advocates,

industry professionals, City Planning and Housing staff, and residents,

bringing together a variety of expertise and experience around the issue

of affordable housing to recommend bold and innovative ways that the

City can address affordability for families. Those approaches must

protect and preserve the affordable housing already in the city, expand

the City’s resources to create more, and broaden the initiative to

include middle-income housing for working families, while recognizing

that building more housing alone is not enough to control this systemic

challenge.

Call for Regional Action

Mayor

Curtatone has advocated for a regional approach to the housing crisis,

citing the joint MAPC-Somerville-SCC report that the 101 cities and

towns in the Metro Boston region need to create 435,000 new housing

units by 2040 to accommodate retiring baby boomers and new workers, with

most of those units needing to be multi-family homes and in urban

areas.

In

addition to the City’s new affordable housing initiatives, Mayor

Curtatone is issuing a clarion call for every city and town in the

region to institute real, comprehensive plans to produce their share of

the homes that are needed over the next three decades, and to publicly

pledge to do so within the next six months.

“Somerville

has led the way on affordability. We have approved the highest

residential property tax exemption in the Commonwealth, set aggressive

inclusionary zoning requirements, and our community overwhelmingly

passed the Community Preservation Act, which we plan to dedicate first

and foremost to affordable housing. But Somerville cannot do this

alone,” said Mayor Curtatone. “Even our best efforts will be for naught

if other communities do not meet their own obligations to create more

housing and embrace smart growth principles. We have seen bits and

pieces done throughout the region, but each city and town needs a

comprehensive approach that cumulatively will bring the impact we need

region wide. Boston is now releasing recommendations to tackle

affordability, which is encouraging, but we need broad, regional

collaboration by all metro area cities and we need a clear commitment to

that today.”

Building Upon Current Affordability Programs

Somerville

has a wide variety of affordability programs already in place,

including its community-driven SomerVision plan, inclusionary zoning

policy, residential property tax exemption and the Community

Preservation Act. The City also creates affordable rental units through

its housing rehabilitation and de-leading programs, and assists

first-time homebuyers through closing cost and down payment assistance

programs. Additional programs assist with heating system replacement for

income eligible homeowners and support housing for those at-risk of

becoming homeless. The City’s linkage fee on commercial construction

also generates funding for the creation of more affordable units, the

Tenancy Stabilization Program, and housing grants that serve the needs

of low and moderate income households. The Board of Aldermen voted in

the past year to increase the linkage fee to generate an estimated

additional $1 million for the City’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

“Everything

we’ve done over the past decade has been about building community, from

making our city more walkable and bikeable, to bringing more jobs,

services and homes to our neighborhoods through smart economic

development, but all of these efforts must start with affordability,”

said Mayor Curtatone. “Our current efforts are wide-ranging, but still

too limited in scope for the regional challenge we face. It’s not a

problem for only lower-income households, but for middle-income

households. And even today there are members of our community for whom

affordable housing dedicated to lower income households remains out of

reach. A true community looks out for its neighbors. In my inaugural, I

said that over the past decade, I have learned I’m never alone when I’m

fighting for the people of this community. And I know that we are not

alone today. This is a monumental task. We are taking on an issue that

no city, anywhere, has ever completely solved. But we are united, and

therein lies all the difference.”

“Not

only is Somerville a tremendously desirable place to live, but we are

experiencing the extraordinary housing market pressure of Boston and

surrounding urban areas,” said Ward 5 Alderman Mark Niedergang, Chair of

the Housing and Community Development Committee. “Ironically,

Somerville’s success over the past decade in advocating for the Assembly

Orange Line Station and the Green Line Extension and making our city an

exciting, dynamic place heightens the affordable housing challenge we

face. We must accelerate our efforts to build more affordable housing,

to keep people and families in our City who have contributed to our

community, and to maintain the diversity that we cherish.”

“The

City has been a great partner with SCC over the years in trying to

maintain the economic diversity that makes Somerville such a terrific

place to raise a family today,” said SCC Executive Director Danny

LeBlanc. “We’re at a tipping point, both in Somerville and in the

region. The Green Line Extension we have fought for is coming, as is a

wave of new development, and we need a robust plan for affordable

housing so that residents of all income levels can stay here and we can

sustain a Somerville for everyone.”

"As

President of the Board of Aldermen I welcome the comprehensive proposal

put forward by the Mayor,” said Board of Alderman President Bill White.

“This proposal appears to address concerns expressed by me in my

inaugural speech this year and by the entire Board of Aldermen.  I look

forward to the Board's thorough review of these proposals and the input

of our residents."