Report: Mass. could lose 10,000 units of affordable housing
By Ann Kenda
A report from the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation says Massachusetts could lose almost 10,000 units of affordable housing over the next decade.
The report predicts a crisis in housing affordability when dozens of federally subsidized mortgages expire and owners are then allowed to convert the units to market rate housing. Affordable housing is reserved for low and moderate income families at rates they can afford.
“We know that the loss of these existing affordable rental units will exacerbate the crisis in affordable housing, both in Massachusetts and across the country,” said Roger Herzog, executive director of CEDAC, in a written statement. “The Commonwealth has done quite a bit in recent years to preserve affordable housing. The passage in 2009 by the Massachusetts Legislature of legislation to ease the challenges of expiring use, which was focused on finding effective ways to preserve publicly assisted affordable housing, has given us some tools to monitor and address the problem. But there are additional solutions that need to be contemplated on the federal level.”
Currently, families in affordable housing pay an average of $700 a month in rent. CEDAC says it’s predicted that those rates will at least double without invention, putting them out of reach for many working families.
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