All across Boston, there is a massive outcry for affordable housing.
We are tired of instability and insecurity. We’re sounding the alarm! Luxury development hurts our neighborhoods, especially low- and moderate-income residents of color.
The Coalition for a Truly Affordable Boston is working to change the City’s Inclusionary Development Policy (IDP), the rule that private developers have to include 13% affordable housing in new buildings. 13% is not enough, and the “affordable” units are out of our communities’ reach!
We need private developers to make 1/3 of new housing affordable, at lower rents and prices we can truly afford!
On Wednesday, October 16, 2019, 150 people built an affordable home on City Hall Plaza and demanded change. Learn more about why the IDP needs to change below, and sign up to take action and make phone calls to City Hall in November!
OCT 16 ACTION
Thank you to the 150 people who joined us on October 16 to build an affordable home on City Hall Plaza and demand change!
You can donate to support the action and future actions. You can also view coverage of the action at boston.com and in the Bay State Banner.
Thank you to the many artists, creators, and partners who made the action possible!
Why Change the IDP and Require Truly Affordable Housing?
The City’s Inclusionary Development Policy (IDP) is the rule that private developers have to include 13% affordable housing in new buildings. 13% is not enough, and the “affordable” units are out of our communities’ reach!
We need private developers to make 1/3 of new housing affordable, at lower rents and prices we can truly afford!
Here are three main reasons why we need the IDP to change and include more truly affordable housing:
Build our city for all of Boston’s residents
Match Boston residents’ real incomes - not the inflated “AMI”
Promote racial justice, not racial exclusion and inequality
A STRONGER IDP WOULD MEAN BUILDING BOSTON FOR ALL ITS RESIDENTS
Only 9% of new housing is Boston is being built for low and moderate income residents who make up almost half of the City. And only 3% is affordable to the lowest-income households facing the most need.
These numbers would increase dramatically if we start requiring 1/3 of housing in private developments to be truly affordable. 13% is not enough! And the 13% is not even truly affordable because the IDP focuses on higher income levels, meaning that almost no units built by private developers are affordable to 44% of Boston.
THE IDP SHOULD MATCH REAL BOSTON INCOMES, NOT USE AN INFLATED “AMI”
The IDP uses an extremely broken income statistic: “area median income,” or AMI. By including cities all around Boston such as Brookline and Newton, the AMI gives an annual income of $113,300 for a household of 4. Most households in Boston make nowhere near that!
Our solution: redefine “affordable housing” to be truly affordable, including households making $0-25,000 and $25,000-50,000 a year.
TRULY AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROMOTES RACIAL JUSTICE, NOT RACIAL EXCLUSION AND INEQUALITY
People of color in Boston make much less than white people because of the combined forces of economic inequality and systemic racism. So not only does using high AMI’s exclude many Boston residents, but it discriminates against people of color. This is another reason that the IDP must redefine affordable housing to truly reach low- and moderate-income households!