Hometown Hero

Today's Boston Globe features a story about Mo Vaughn, former Red Sox first baseman, and his work to increase affordable housing availability here in Boston and in other regions of the country. Vaughn achieved great personal success as a professional baseball player, and now appears to be focusing his second career on advancing the common good and working on behalf of the larger community. Most recently, Vaughn and his company, Omni New York, LLC, are working to purchase an apartment complex in Roslindale and another in Jamaica Plain. With this deal, the buildings will be kept affordable for the next 20 years.

A growing challenge to those in the affordable housing world, not to mention those living in affordable housing, is the termination of federal contracts for affordable housing. There are several federal housing programs that began years ago that helped developers build and operate affordable units by offering a variety of subsidies. Now that the terms of those original contracts are expiring, many owners are opting out of a renewal process that would continue to keep the units affordable. Instead, owners see the opportunity to sell the properties or rent to market-rate tenants, potentially seeing large profits in a market that has grown exponentially over the last 15+ years.

However, folks like Mo Vaughn and others are working to try to secure these units as affordable. As one could imagine, it is much more expensive to create new affordable units than it is to maintain the stock that already exists. In Massachusetts, there is a bill making its way through the legislative process specifically designed to preserve these so-called "expiring-use" units. S. 782, An Act Preserving Publicly Assisted Affordable Housing, was sent from the Joint Committee on Housing to the Senate Ways and Means Committee on May 19th. One of United Way's partner agencies, Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC) is leading the effort to implement this affordable housing preservation policy.

MACDC has found that Massachusetts could lose over 20,000 affordable homes in the next 5 years due to expiring affordability contracts with the federal government. This bill in particular would ensure opportunities for "expiring-use" properties to be sold to owners who want to keep the units affordable. For those cases where affordability is lost, tenants would receive phased in rent increases to give them time to adjust their expenses or find another place to live.

It's important for the community that we work to provide protection for our affordable housing stock. The need has perhaps not been so obvious as it is now amidst the continuing housing slump. With more and more people being affected by the downturn we begin to realize how critical it is to have a varied housing stock with affordable options for families of all financial means.

Will you consider advocating for the preservation of affordable units or giving to those who advocate on behalf of us all?