City achieves record-breaking housing production in 2017

Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced today that the City of Boston has broken a record in annual housing production. The continued production of housing at all levels is a critical component of reaching the administration’s goal of producing 53,000 new units of housing by 2030 in order to ease the City’s housing shortage.

Since January 1, 2017, 5,349 permits for housing have been issued. Since the City began tracking housing production 22 years ago, this is the largest number of new units permitted in a single year, outpacing the previous record of 4,583 set in 2015.

During 2017, the City also reached the 1,000-permit mark for new, income-restricted housing. Nearly 19 percent of all housing permitted in the City this year will be below market rate and restricted to low-, moderate- and middle income households.

“While our population is growing faster than ever, we have been working to meet the housing demands of our growing city,” said Mayor Walsh. “I believe that Boston’s growth must benefit everyone who lives here, and I’m proud that we are building housing for a range of incomes.”

Deed restricted units have been permitted in 14 out of Boston’s 15 neighborhood planning districts -- nearly every neighborhood in the city. Of the 1,009 deed-restricted units permitted in 2017, 453 -- just below half -- will be restricted for households with incomes below $50,000, while 18 percent -- 183 units -- will be affordable to households with incomes below $31,000.

"The City of Boston is making remarkable progress in creating new housing and we are proud to be a partner in these efforts,” said Joe Kriesberg, President of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations. "We are particularly pleased to see both the record setting rate of overall housing production and the permitting of over 1,000 income restricted units in 2017. While housing affordability challenges remain daunting, the City’s strategy of leveraging both public resources and private market forces to create housing for a wide range of incomes is working.”

Among the highlights of this year’s affordable housing production were Dorchester’s Harmon Apartments, 36 units of ADA-compliant accessible housing for people with progressive neurological disease, including services and technological adaptations, and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg House, where 22 units will be reserved for extremely low-income seniors; seven units for chronically homeless seniors, which will have specialized services provided by HEARTH, Inc, and a five-bedroom pod, run in collaboration with Jewish Family & Children's Service, designated for low-income individuals aging with lifelong developmental disabilities.

In addition, the Boston Housing Authority has been pushing forward on the redevelopment of its properties, including the permitting of Phase One (144 units) of the Whittier Choice Neighborhood Initiative—a collaboration between the Boston Housing Authority, the City, Preservation of Affordable Housing, and Madison Park Development Corporation. Whittier CNI will ultimately add more than 500 units of mixed-income housing to Lower Roxbury, including more than 200 units affordable to extremely low-income households.

The City’s Inclusionary Development Policy, which was recently strengthened to require more investment in affordable housing from developers, has also led to the creation of income-restricted housing in some of Boston’s most challenging neighborhoods for the creation of below market rate housing, including Chinatown at PBX Residences; the South Boston Waterfront at 399 Congress Street, and in the Fenway, at Fenway Center.

Production of housing for moderate- to middle-income families, largely the result of the Inclusionary Development Policy, remained strong as well, with 545 deed-restricted units permitted. These units are located in neighborhoods across the city, with the largest number (62) coming from Dorchester’s South Bay project.

Combined, the 5,349 units of housing permitted in 2017 will add $2 billion to the City of Boston’s tax base, and will generate $19.5 million in new tax revenues.

Boston is a leader in affordable housing; approximately 19 percent of the City’s housing stock is set aside as deed-restricted housing. To continue to provide housing equity, it is critical that all of these units remain affordable. This year, the City was able to preserve
nearly 1,200 units of affordable housing that were at risk of being converted to market-rate housing. The goal for preservation of affordable housing is to preserve 1,000 units of at risk housing annually.

Since the launch of Mayor Walsh’s housing plan:
● 24,454 new units have been permitted, representing $13.9 billion in development investment and 25,700 construction jobs created.

● When complete, these developments will be enough to house 48,600 new residents, and begin to relieve pressure on rents in existing housing.

● 4,649 new income-restricted units have been permitted, of which 2,234 are targeted to low income households. There are an additional 4,240 deed-restricted units in the City’s development pipeline

● For moderate- and middle-income households, 7,799 units have been permitted. 2,415 of these are income-restricted, while 5,384 are units that, while not income restricted, are expected to be affordable to middle income households based on market analysis.

Given that Boston Planning & Development Agency approved 5,776 housing units in 2017, it is expected that the 2018 will be another strong year for new housing permits.