USING REAL BOSTON INCOMES, NOT “AREA MEDIAN INCOME”:
We need truly affordable housing that matches our incomes.
In addition to requiring developers to make 1/3 of new housing affordable, we need the IDP to redefine “affordable” to make sure that new housing is truly affordable. The current requirement is building housing that is out of reach for our communities and many Boston residents, including most people of color.
The IDP uses an extremely broken income statistic: “area median income,” or AMI. Rather than looking at incomes in Boston and in neighborhoods here, the AMI measures a typical household income based on cities all around Boston — including Brookline, Newton, and even part of New Hampshire. Using all these wealthy cities to calculate the AMI gives an income of $113,300 for a household of 4. Most households in Boston make nowhere near that amount!
Because the AMI is so far removed from Boston residents’ reality, affordable housing is often built for different income levels based on a “percentage of AMI.” (Further below are two visual aides for how to translate between “AMI levels” and incomes.) This gives the City of Boston the power to design its affordability requirements to truly reach low- and moderate-income households.
Current IDP v. TRULY AFFORDABLE IDP
However, the current IDP is set at 70% AMI for rental units, meaning an individual who makes close to $55,500 or a household of 4 that makes close to $79,300. For ownership units, prices are set for households making 80-100% AMI, meaning an individual who makes close to $63,500-$79,350 or a household of 4 tha makes close to $90,650-$113,300. This is far more than what many households in Boston make!
The Coalition for Truly Affordable Housing is demanding that IDP rental units be truly affordable, including households making $0-25,000 and $25,000-50,000 a yeaer. We define “truly affordable” as:
Rental units that are affordable at an average of 40% AMI, including a range from 30-70% AMI.
Ownership units that are affordable at a range of 50-110% AMI.
For example, imagine the 2 bedroom apartments in a new apartment building under the current IDP. (Most new units are studios and 1 bedrooms, which is another problem we are fighting, but put that aside for the moment.) 87% of these units would be market rate, likely renting at $3000 or more a month. The “affordable” 2 bedroom units would be $1,492 a month, not including utilities — far more than what many Boston households could afford.
With the Coalition for a Truly Affordable Boston’s proposal, 33% of the 2 bedroom apartments would be affordable. The affordable rents would range from $586 a month to $1,492 a month, at an average of $812 a month — a range that reflects the actual incomes of Boston residents!
Translating Between AMI and Incomes
Here are two visual aides for translating between AMI levels and incomes.
The first diagram below shows what different income levels from 30% AMI to 100% AMI look like for an individiual, and for a household or family of 4. For example, a household of 4 that makes $50,000 a year would fall between 40% AMI (which is $45,300 for a household of 4) and 50% AMI (which is $56,650 for a household of 4).
Alternatively, the below chart from the BPDA’s web site gives a more thorough way of looking up income levels and AMI’s. Think about a household you know — maybe it’s one person, or maybe it’s a family with a few children. For example, say there is a household with two parents and two children which has an income of $50,000 a year. Then:
Count the number of people in that household and find that number on the left side of the chart below “HH size.” For our example, we would look in the row labeled 4 under HH Size.
Go across the row and find where the household income falls, in between two of the numbers in that row. For our example, $50,000 is in between $45,300 and $56,650.
After finding where the income is in that row, look at the top of the columns to figure out the AMI. For our example, $45,300 is in the 40% AMI column, and $56,650 is in the 50% AMI column. So our family makes between 40% and 50% AMI.
