This story was originally published by our news partners at GBH. We are republishing it through the New England News Collaborative.
If Massachusetts wants to make housing more affordable, it needs to help keep rents low in the private market as well as build new units, according to a new report from the Boston Foundation and the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.
It says preserving “naturally occurring affordable housing” — properties that are not subsidized by state or federal programs and are simply cheaper than other units in the private rental market — is vital. With most low-income residents renting in the unregulated private market, rising rents are making many of those who can least afford it rent burdened. It’s a problem that is exacerbated when buildings are sold to new landlords and rents are jacked up.
“If we only focus on new development, particularly in a community like Chinatown, there’s very limited land available,” Lydia Lowe, executive director of the Chinatown Community Land Trust, said at a webinar Wednesday.
“Boston Chinatown probably was one of the first communities in Boston to really be hit hard by luxury development and displacement,” Lowe said. “But it’s a phenomenon that we’re seeing across the commonwealth now.”
The report highlighted the work of community development corporations, nonprofits that acquire property to preserve rents and prevent displacement, before speculative investors and developers move in.
Recommendations in the report include building relationships with tenants and landlords, moving more quickly in the market, working with flexible contractors and increasing public subsidies and support for CDCs.
“Community organizing has been the key to our ability to acquire properties in Chinatown in almost every case, as is approaching the sellers before they go on the open market,” Lowe said.
Two-thirds of low-income households in Massachusetts rent their housing in the private market, the report says, but the supply of lower rent options has been shrinking. According to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Massachusetts lost 163,000 “low-rent” units, defined as rent lower than $1,400, from 2012 to 2022.
“The loss of affordable units in the unregulated private housing market in Massachusetts undermines the progress we have made in creating new affordable housing,” Don Bianchi, director of housing at Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, said during the webinar.
The problem is more prevalent in communities of color. According to a 2022 analysis from the Boston Mayor’s Office of Housing, 58% of BIPOC renters in the city are rent burdened, compared to 43% of white renters.
The neighborhoods of East Boston, Roxbury, Mission Hill and Dorchester had the highest risk of displacement, a 2024 analysis from the office found. Lowe said that many vulnerable residents who may be newly-arrived migrants are not yet eligible for federal housing support.
Developing relationships with landlords can be vital, says Christine Vincenti, director of portfolio management and strategy at Harborlight Homes. Vincenti says that many landlords in the community have kept rent low for generations — but, with low incomes, that can still be a burden.
“You have a lot of people that, even with a naturally occurring rent, are … rent burdened. And so that housing is so important to preserve,” she said. “We saw the need, but we also saw a lot of generational landlords looking to exit.”
That shows the need to increase public support for CDCs in communities outside Boston, says Bianchi, and help the nonprofits acquire affordable housing properties.
“There’s just not sufficient state subsidy money to scale a [Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing] acquisition,” he said. “Municipalities should allocate funding to create programs to replicate the success of Boston’s Acquisition Opportunity Fund.”
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