Massachusetts is one of the most expensive places to live in the United States. In recent years, the state government has asked each community in the Commonwealth to examine its ability to serve its lower income members, and generally to increase production of housing for people at or below 80 percent of median income (for Massachusetts, $60,560 for a family of four), particularly in communities that lagged in maintaining their share of affordable units. But these efforts have not been enough to reduce the housing crisis in the state.
People of low, moderate, and even middle incomes are threatened by displacement every day, as the buildings they live in are bought and converted to condominiums or luxury rentals. Neighborhoods and communities that were once categorized as "working class" or "less desirable" are experiencing intense market pressures, as new transit stops and other improvements attract people to these communities.
For people of color and new immigrants displaced by these housing trends, discrimination adds an additional challenge to accessing housing opportunities. Action for Regional Equity (Action!) seeks strategies to protect and provide affordable housing and catalyze neighborhood improvement and economic development to benefit all members of Massachusetts communities, now and into the foreseeable future.
Action! recommends immediate efforts in three arenas to advance the creation of community controlled housing.
I. Move 10,000 units of unregulated or expiringsubsidy housing into nonprofit or cooperative tenant ownership by 2015. Research reveals growing support from advocates and elected officials for nonprofit and tenant acquisitions
strategies. This level of commitment from the Commonwealth will allow Massachusetts to compete with other states in the region and elsewhere that offer comparable quality of life with much greater affordability. Numerous effective strategies are detailed in this report that will allow the state to pursue this goal aggressively. No single strategy will solve this crisis.
II. Advance the conversion goal through a broadbased community education campaign focused on the benefits of community controlled housing. Massachusetts has a history of organizing and advocacy for community or tenant controlled housing, but there has not been a recent broad-based campaign that specifically focuses on the mounting public need and opportunities to promote community controlled housing. A larger, more coordinated campaign can strengthen and expand current effective efforts.
III. Structure support to enable tenant and nonprofit ownership. Successful community controlled housing examples exist in many local communities, but structures that support the finance and operation of community
controlled housing are currently limited. Action! will work with state and local government to structure financial and legal resources, and build the base of
supporters who can effectively advance community controlled housing, including residents of such housing, tenants at risk, and their allies.