On Fall River’s waterfront, the debate over market-rate housing unfolds
September 17, 2026
If there’s one thing advocates, officials, residents, and experts can all agree on, it’s that Massachusetts’s Gateway Cities need more housing. A lot of it.
What kind of housing needs to be built? That’s where the agreement ends.
In Fall River — where one in five residents live in neighborhoods with highly concentrated poverty and the median household income sits at $57,000 compared to the state’s $104,000 — it can be difficult to consider that the city needs anything other than more subsidized housing production, especially when you factor in the state’s affordable housing shortage.
And yet the South Coast community is on track to see its 20-acre waterfront transformed by a massive mixed-use development consisting of parks, commercial space, and up to 1,500 new housing units to be built over a 10-year period, all of which the city has indicated should be market rate.
The move has sparked criticism from affordable housing advocates who argue that the waterfront plan should include at least a partial commitment to income-restricted units given that nearly half of renters in Fall River are considered “cost-burdened,” or spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent. But economic development advocates and experts say too much affordable housing can further concentrate poverty, while market-rate housing benefits low-income renters by expanding the overall availability of housing.
It’s all part of a broader debate over development and market-rate housing that has landed in almost every Gateway City in the Commonwealth, often playing out through dueling opinion pieces and policy reports. In these communities, housing costs are rising, supply is well below demand, and vacancy rates remain low, meaning competition is too high to stabilize prices. New developments — as well as their proponents — are often met with resistance and backlash, either because the projects lack affordability, are branded as “luxury” housing, or because of gentrification concerns. But local leaders often push back, arguing that what these cities need is a mix of housing that attracts businesses, jobs, and higher incomes that will spur economic development.
As post-industrial era cities like Fall River seek to attract more buying power, break up concentrated poverty, build up the middle class, and revitalize their communities, they are grappling with pro-development and pro-affordability ideals that often seem to be at odds.
“What if everybody’s right? More housing is needed, and affordable housing is also acutely needed,” said Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies real estate and economic development. “With this ‘debate,’ you end up with people talking past each other when they’re really talking about the same thing, which is just the supply crisis.”
Published by MassINC