MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS  2004–2006

Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s "Leading the Way II" campaign exceeded its production target of 10,000 new units, bringing the Leading the Way Initiative total to 18,000.  With this four-year initiative (successor to a similarly successful multi-year campaign), the City of Boston met its goal of 7,900 private, market-rate units, and 2,111 of the planned 2,100 affordable units.

The Commonwealth Housing Task Force successfully advocated for legislation encouraging 40R/40S zoning overlay districts to stimulate the construction of smart growth and affordable housing.  The Commonwealth Housing Task Force brings together housing organizations, housing developers, the business community, organized labor, academic institutions, elected and appointed officials, smart growth advocates and many others to craft new policies to increase city and state resources available for housing production. Building on its success passing the 40R “Smart Growth” legislation, it won the passage of 40S legislation, which provides financial incentives to municipalities to off-set increased school costs associated with new housing. This provided the needed incentives to make 40R functional and, as of year-end 2006, 12 municipalities approved 40R smart growth projects/districts. As of early 2007, a total of 14 communities have approved 40R zoning districts.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts received national awards for its work on homelessness and Smart Growth.  In May 2006, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness recognized the Department of Transitional Assistance, whose work has eliminated the need to use hotels for temporary shelter. In November 2006, the Federal Environment Protection Agency gave the Executive Office of Commonwealth Development its “Overall Excellence in Smart Growth” award.

As of the end of 2006, 119 communities had adopted the Community Preservation Act (CPA) and $212 million in CPA projects had been approved.  From 2004 to 2006, the number of municipalities adopting the CPA increased 86%—from 64 to 119. Housing accounts for 32% of the total CPA-approved funding, creating a $68million investment in affordable housing, with 871 units of CPA-funded housing completed or underway.  The Community Preservation Act, enacted in 2000, allows communities to adopt a property tax surcharge and spend the resulting funds on affordable housing, open space and historic preservation; the state matches the local funds from a special trust fund.

A new Housing Bond Bill was passed in July 2005 to recapitalize the state’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund and Housing Stabilization Fund.  The Affordable Housing Trust Fund was created seven years ago with a stated goal of investing $100 million over five years, but the target funding level of $20 million per year was only achieved for the first two years, and no funding would have been available in future unless additional bond funds were provided. The Housing Stabilization fund was created in 1993 to help communities and developers acquire, preserve and rehabilitate affordable housing; a successful program, it would have had no funds available after a final funding round planned for 2005. In addition, housing advocates secured an increase in the general housing budget from $80 million in FY05 to $111 million in FY07.

Affordable Housing Finance magazine named Maverick Landing its “Best Overall Project” in 2006.  Maverick Landing is the most recent of the Boston Housing Authority's successes in rebuilding public housing projects through the Federal HOPE VI program. This East Boston mixed-income development has 396 units, 305 of which are affordable. Despite recent cuts to the HOPE VI program, the Boston Housing Authority is building on this model to address the distressed Franklin Hill project.

Governor Deval Patrick’s gubernatorial election brought new hope for state action on housing.  Governor-Elect Patrick’s Housing Transition Working Group made a number of recommendations for the new administration, ranging from elevating the Secretary of Department of Housing and Community Development to a cabinet level position, to increasing production of affordable housing, to committing to the elimination of homelessness. Governor Patrick highlighted affordable housing as a major goal in his inaugural speech in January 2007.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS 2004–2006

In 2006, Mayor Thomas M. Menino made changes in both inclusionary development and building guidelines that guarantee the future production of affordable and sustainable housing.  In May, the Mayor announced a substantial increase in the cost to developers of creating off-site affordable housing, in lieu of making 15% of the on-site units affordable, increasing the funds available for affordable housing. At the same time, changes were made to the income eligibility for affordable units, so as to better target affordable housing resources to those that need it. In December 2006, the Mayor announced that Boston will become the first major city in the nation to require new buildings be built to the US Green Building Council's LEED Certified standards. This follows his earlier initiative to require green building standards for City funded affordable housing projects.

In October 2006, the Boston Housing Authority  announced the availability of 700 Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers and a re-opening of its waiting list.  Section 8 vouchers may be used to rent private housing anywhere, and are the most sought-after form of housing assistance. Since May 2004, the Boston Housing Authority had not been able to release new vouchers, due to Federal funding cuts.

In May 2006, Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced a new effort to bring lenders, the City of Boston, and nonprofits together to combat the rising tide of foreclosures.  In October, this was followed up with the announcement of new funding for a foreclosure prevention effort and an agreement between the City of Boston and 6 lenders (the “First Choice Lenders” seal of approval) to provide refinanced mortgages at reasonable rates for homeowners who had financed with sub-prime and predatory lenders.

Federal Section 8 Voucher funding cuts were beaten back, saving thousands of households.  After an attempt to radically change the Section 8 Voucher program failed in 2005, in January 2006, the US Department of Housing & Urban Development announced that funding would be cut to the Section 8 Voucher program. This would have further reduced the number of families helped, and the program already served 100,000 fewer families (nationally) in early 2006 than in 2004.

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