Dive Brief:
- An affordable housing preservation program in Boston has reached its goal five years ahead of schedule of helping protect 1,000 rental homes from private investors who might flip them for a profit, the city announced last week.
- The Acquisition Opportunity Program helps “mission-driven” developers purchase existing housing that goes up for sale, “keeping the current tenants in place and guaranteeing the homes stay affordable in perpetuity,” according to a press release.
- The program attempts to counter the effect of private investors snapping up those properties, potentially displacing tenants and contributing to gentrification.
Dive Insight:
Boston is relying on the Acquisition Opportunity Program, which launched in 2016 as a pilot, to help stabilize “rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods” and preserve affordable housing in others, according to a press release. The city has invested $97 million in the program over the last eight years.
The program offers nonprofits and affordable housing developers zero-interest loans in exchange for a commitment to keep tenants in their homes and rents affordable for at least 50 years. The developers must also set aside at least 40% of the units for low- and moderate-income families. The city uses a competitive request for proposals process to select participating developers.
Adler Bernadin said in a statement that the program allowed Bernadin’s company, Lavi Investment LLC, to acquire 45 units that private investors would have otherwise bought. “I’m proud to say that 78% of those units are dedicated to families holding mobile housing vouchers—families well below 60% of the area median income,” Bernadin said. “Some of these families have recently transitioned from living in homeless shelters.”
The program is the only one that “has been able to move nimbly and quickly to respond to [the affordable housing] crisis” in the East Boston neighborhood, Sal Colombo, executive director of the East Boston Community Development Corp., said in a statement. Colombo’s organization has acquired over 150 units with the help of the program.
Other cities and states nationwide should learn from the program’s success, Mike Leyba, co-executive director of grassroots community organization City Life/Vida Urbana, said in a statement.
Now that Boston has hit its 1,000-home goal, it is setting another to help preserve over 350 more affordable housing units by the end of 2026.
