A public-private partnership preserved nearly 4,400 affordable rental housing units in Massachusetts during 2015, the largest number of units preserved in a single year since the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation began collecting data in 2010.
Data released this week by CEDAC showed state financing helped preserve nearly 5,300 housing units in 38 developments, including more than 840 market rate units. Long-term contract renewals under the federal Section 8 program preserved an additional nearly 2,100 affordable apartments.
CEDAC officials said preservation efforts have been boosted under a six-year-old law known as Chapter 40T, which features public notification provisions for tenants and state and local officials, a right of offer and right of first refusal for the state or its designee to purchase publicly-assisted housing, and tenant protections for projects with affordability restrictions that terminate.
But officials also asserted that Massachusetts is at risk of losing thousands of affordable units over the next few years due to expiring affordability restrictions. A CEDAC database tracks over 1,500 projects with 130,000 housing units that are privately-owned but feature publicly assisted affordable housing.
Community development corporations recently reported record-setting affordable housing efforts that they said are tied to a community investment tax credit implemented in 2014.
And Boston Mayor Martin Walsh in late April declared his support for a surcharge under the Community Preservation Act that he says would cost the average homeowner $28 per year but generate $16.5 million annually for the city, and leverage millions of dollars in state funding that could be spent on affordable housing, historic preservation and open space. Walsh also announced recently that the city is on target to meet its goal of creating 53,000 units of housing by 2030, after permitting 565 units in the first quarter for a total of 17,183 units that have been permitted or created since October 2014.
CEDAC preserved 3,854 affordable units in 2010, 2,246 in 2011, 3,260 in 2013, and 3,278 in 2014. Numbers were not available for 2012.
Gov. Charlie Baker at 11:45 a.m. Monday plans to announce housing production and preservation capital investments at the Housing Opportunity 2016 Conference hosted by Urban Land Institute. The conference will be held at the Boston Marriott Copley Place.