Pages
Stay In Touch
More
© 2021 The Somerville Times. All rights reserved.
By Charles Lane
The City of Somerville set some bold goals this year when it comes to housing – Mayor Joseph Curtatone joined a 15-community coalition that aims to increase housing production in the Greater Boston area to 185,000 new units by 2030.
In addition to the goals of the coalition, the city has made some of its own housing commitments. Its award-winning “SomerVision: 2010-2030 Comprehensive Plan” commits to the construction of 6,000 new housing units.
The next large-scale project in a position to help Somerville meet its and the region’s goals is USQ — the redevelopment of Union Square. The USQ project includes 200 new permanently affordable units and 1,000 new units in total. The project will also generate $10.9 million in housing linkage fees which can be used to fund the construction of even more affordable housing, above and beyond those units already planned. Building these units is an important step in lifting the heavy burden of high housing costs for many families.
USQ construction is slated to begin in 2019 with the D2 block. D2 will include 450 housing units, of which 90 will be affordable at three different income levels: 50 percent of area median income, 80 percent of area median income and 110 percent of area median income. All of these residences will be adjacent to the future Green Line Station, providing the opportunity to tackle the burden of housing and transit costs simultaneously while expanding access to the region’s many resources. The project also includes the first 175,000 square feet of commercially taxable lab space and a retail component framed by a new plaza that will provide for the public’s equal access to transit. These projects are soon to be before the Planning Board while the currently vacant land they will be built upon continues to be reviewed by the Board of Aldermen who need to approve the transfer of a small parcel of land in order to complete the first development site.
According to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), two-fifths of Greater Boston households are contributing what it considers a “burdensome” amount of money toward their housing. That’s why the Boston area’s strong job and population growth in recent years has been both a blessing and a challenge. Since 2010, the 15 cities and towns that make up the Metro Mayors Coalition added almost 110,000 residents and 148,000 new jobs. But in that time, there have only been 32,500 new housing units added in the area. Here in Somerville, roughly 5,000 new residences have been built since zoning ordinances were last overhauled nearly 30 years ago.
As MAPC Executive Director Marc Draisen told WBUR in October, “Increasing the supply evenly and reasonably throughout the area does have an appropriate effect on costs – it stabilizes rents, it stabilizes home prices.”
If you found this article of interest, please consider sharing it.
“Increasing the supply evenly and reasonably throughout the area does have an appropriate effect on costs – it stabilizes rents, it stabilizes home prices.”
Does anyone here really feel that there has ever been a change for the better in prices for rents or ownership here? It seems to me that the more people we attract here, the more expensive it will become to rent or buy here, anyway. It’s not going to make it cheaper to live here. I don’t think any densely-populated city is cheaper to live in, which is why many people move away to lesser-populated areas where the real estate is cheaper.
I’ve lived in Somerville my entire life, and I have never, ever seen costs go down for anything, be it taxes, fees, homes, etc. The more money we bring in here, the more the City wants a cut of it. The Residential Exemption helps homeowners like me a little bit, but the taxes still go up for most of us, and those like me who own single-family homes don’t make any income from our property, so there’s no way to get that money back in the form of rent.
So, we have more jobs in the area, great. Why does that mean we need to build more living units? What’s the point of allowing the GLX into the city if we are trying to make sure everyone who works here gets to live here, too? If everyone who works here lives here, there’s no need for it. Those who can certainly afford it can afford to commute into the City to work. Or is the GLX for residents who can’t get a job in their own city and have to go out for one?
It seems that nobody cares enough about low-income people to make affordable housing more available than high-end apartments and condos. The percentage of affordable housing is always the smallest.
Perhaps giving landlords incentives to lower their rents, in the form of rebates or tax cuts would help give low-income families a better chance. At least it would show a real intention to help the less fortunate here.
But maybe the problem isn’t the fact that we are attracting too many people to live here. The problem for the City is the kind of people they want to attract here. If you can’t pay the fees, there’s nothing in it for them.
Talking about caring about immigrants and low-income families means nothing if the City continues to build expensive real estate here. Talk is cheap, but living here isn’t.
Maybe, as it is said in the article, population growth in the area has been both “a blessing and a challenge.” Doing the right thing shouldn’t be a challenge. It’s only when you are trying to get as much money as you can without looking greedy that the challenge presents itself.
I admit I don’t understand the logistics behind this. But as a resident who’s been here for over a half a century and watched the changes around me, I can’t honestly say I feel it’s been for the better. All I can see is more and more people being packed in an already crowded city, and it hasn’t made the cost of living here any better for me. I can only imagine I’m not alone in that feeling.