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Like all but 27 Massachusetts communities, the small coastal town of Marion doesn’t have enough affordable housing. At least not according to the Department of Housing and Community Development, which tracks town-by-town progress toward the state’s goal of keeping 10 percent of each locality’s housing stock available for low- and moderate-income residents. Marion clocks in at a paltry 1.5 percent, with just 31 of its 2,095 housing units in the affordable housing inventory. But to Stuart Richardson, chairman of the Marion housing committee, the state’s calculations are based on fuzzy math.
“There are plenty of affordable homes in town,” says Richardson. “The problem is they don’t have the deed restrictions, marketing covenants, and all the other good stuff that DHCD requires to [define] them as affordable.”
property tax for deed restrictions.
Marion thinks it has a better way to do just that. In a case that’s drawing wide interest, the picturesque town of 5,100 on Buzzards Bay is pushing a plan to count existing, privately owned homes toward the 10 percent goal. The town’s housing committee has drafted a proposal to waive property taxes for homeowners who meet the state’s income guidelines and who agree to deed restrictions that would hold down the sale price of their homes for future buyers of low and moderate income. (Under state guidelines, that means households earning 80 percent or less of median income in the area, a cutoff that translates to a maximum of $48,250 for a family of four in Marion.)
The housing proposal won unanimous support at Marion’s April town meeting, but it must now be approved by the Legislature as a home-rule petition, and, most importantly, win the blessing of the Department of Housing and Community Development.
Until it hits the 10 percent affordable housing mark, Marion, like the other 324 communities that are also short of the goal, is ripe for large-scale housing proposals under the state’s controversial anti-“snob zoning” law, known as Chapter 40-B. The law allows developers to bypass local zoning approval in towns below the 10 percent threshold if they set aside 25 percent of the units they build as affordable housing. A groundswell of opposition to 40-B has taken hold across the state, with communities saying that oversized projects are threatening everything from municipal budgets to town character. Marion is now in the throes of its first 40-B battle, contesting a plan for 192 units of rental housing.
But as they brace themselves for more 40-B proposals, town leaders are hoping at least part of the solution lies in their own backyard. Including existing homes in the affordable housing count would help Marion meet its goal while also helping lower-income homeowners who, facing rising tax bills, are “hanging on by the skin of their fingernails,” says housing committee chairman Richardson.
Edna Bumpus may not be in such dire straits. But the 68-year-old widow, who makes do on Social Security and a small pension, is finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. She says she would gladly sign up for the program.
“Everything’s going up, but your income doesn’t,” says Bumpus, who pays $1,200 a year in property taxes on the tiny two-bedroom home she shares with her daughter.
Based on a survey of 523 homeowners whose property is assessed at $125,000 or less, researchers from University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth estimated that 48 home-owners would qualify and be interested in swapping future appreciation in their home’s value for tax relief today. If they did so, that would bring Marion’s affordable housing count up to 4.4 percent–not enough to ward off 40-B proposals, but a step closer.
“We’re not solving the problem,” Richardson says. “We’re solving part of it, and in the process, we’re serving the people in town.” Richardson says he’s already heard from officials in several other towns, who seem eager to follow suit if Marion’s proposal is approved.
Which is exactly what has some housing advocates worried. “It doesn’t produce any additional affordable housing,” says Aaron Gornstein, of the Citizens Housing and Planning Association.
Tom Callahan, director of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, sounds a similar concern. “We need new production, because too many people are chasing too few housing units,” he says. At the same time, Callahan says there has to be flexibility in meeting affordable housing goals, especially for small towns like Marion. “We have to use all the tools available to us [to increase the stock of affordable housing], and I think this is a creative approach,” he says of the town proposal.
Bumpus isn’t concerned about the deed restriction. She plans to leave her house to her daughter, who works at a local manufacturing company and is likely to qualify under the state’s guidelines for affordable housing.
But what about homeowners whose heirs won’t qualify to take over the family home, or those tempted to give up equity they might later need for health care or other retirement costs? Anyone considering the Marion program would “need to think this through,” says Len Raymond, director of the nonprofit Homeowner Options for Massachusetts Elders, which provides counseling to older homeowners.
So far, state officials are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the Marion plan, which has not yet come before the Legislature. “I think it shows some good thinking on the part of the community,” says Sarah Young, deputy director for policy development in the Department of Housing and Community Development. “It has to be looked at and balanced against what else they’re doing.”
Plenty, say Marion officials. At the April town meeting, residents also approved a new “inclusionary zoning” bylaw, which requires that any new housing development of six or more homes set aside at least 10 percent of the units as affordable housing.
“Holy smokes, you talk about support, that’s awfully good,” Richardson says of Marion’s housing package. “The town right now could not be more behind the business of affordable housing and getting to 10 percent.”
