By Josh Resnek
From week to week, we have been following the major developments as they rise higher and higher.
Why not.
Development like that now going on only comes once in a lifetime in a small city like Everett.
The same has happened in Chelsea where a half dozen hotels have been built and several thousand new apartment units, and hundreds on the Everett line by the former Stop & Shop property.
The same has happened in Chelsea where a half dozen hotels have been built and several thousand new apartment units, and hundreds on the Everett line by the former Stop and Shop property.
Everett is unique among many Gateway Cities because there are so many units going up here at the same time.
High inflation and rising interest rates have not dulled the rush to build in Everett.
It is the same as many Gateway Cities because so few affordable housing units are being built to augment the upscale, higher priced housing units shortly to come on line.
From recent experience, developers here know that all the units will be taken as soon as they are ready to be rented.
The Boston housing market is so crowded, and rental paces have become so expensive with so few units available, that Everett has come to look desirable for those seeking decent housing in self-contained developments closer to Boston than having to live in the suburbs.
The Monday Boston Globe ran an editorial bemoaning the state’s lack of support for adequate funding to facilitate affordable housing from being built.
While the Globe didn’t say it, the state needs to put up billions in incentives and real cash for developers to build affordable housing.
Instead, the state has ponied up $85.9 million to 57 projects with 3,818 units, according to the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, as reported in the Globe editorial.
“Demand far outstrips supply, which is limited because the Legislature caps the program at $10 million annually. According to state data analyzed by the MassINC Policy Center, a think tank and advocacy group that has led on Gateway City issues, the state has awarded $25 million to projects from money that will only be available from this year through 2026. Developers have expressed interest in an additional $14 million worth of tax credits beyond the available funding. The projects in that pipeline would create 1,782 new housing units at an average cost to the state per unit of $22,330. Andre Leroux, director of the Gateway Hubs Project at MassINC, said the actual interest in tax credits is likely far higher, since the state has not solicited applications since 2021,” wrote the Globe editorialists in Monday’s newspaper.
The state’s failure to infuse cash into the mix for developers constrains the affordable housing/market rate housing initiatives that might tend to make a difference.