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Joseph Petty, Worcester mayor and city councilor
Updated: February 21, 2022
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Opinion: Affordable house is key to the city's future
By Joseph M. Petty
Housing is the cornerstone of our communities, our lives, our economy.
The housing deficit our commonwealth faces, along with increasing construction costs and exclusionary zoning practices, has driven the price of new homes to record highs.
Over the course of the two decades I have spent in public office, I have seen the issue of housing change dramatically. I saw the implosion of the housing market in 2008 and the wave of foreclosures and evictions that followed. I have seen the increasing attention paid to density as we seek to create more livable and walkable communities in our cities and our suburbs. More recently, I have seen new residents flock to Worcester’s historic housing market.
The coronavirus pandemic put our housing crisis in stark relief. Our state delegation responded by passing the RAFT program and eviction moratorium to keep people in their homes while our world was turned upside down.
Affordable housing is an indefinite term. Sometimes it’s purpose-built housing, like the new developments being undertaken by the Worcester Housing Authority. Sometimes it is a housing voucher for a working mother in a rented apartment. Sometimes it means simply housing that is affordable for a working family.
Affordable housing too often is a pejorative term. For me, affordable housing means senior housing, veteran housing, workforce housing, homes for those living with HIV and AIDS. Affordable housing means jobs. Not just for the developers, engineers, and architects who create the plans, but for the inspectors and the carpenters and roofers who build the homes.
As we look at the size and scope of federal investment in our state through the historic ARPA program, we need to look to create a variety of offerings in the affordable housing space even as we invest in our existing housing stock. This funding is allowing greater flexibility in how it can be used. For example, we’re investing an additional $1.5 million into lead abatement to create more units that can be rented to families with children.
We are fortunate to have a strong legislative delegation. Through their efforts to pass the housing bond bill, we started a first-in-the-commonwealth revolving loan program to encourage reinvestment in our three-deckers, bringing them up to health and safety codes. Many of these have unrented units due to aging owners, physical plant issues, and sometimes roofs needing to be replaced. This program is intended to bring those units back online.
We need to create a variety of affordable and workforce offerings. This will allow seniors to move into more appropriate units as they seek to downsize and free up larger units and single-family homes for growing families.
Through smart planning and investing in our historic multi-family homes, we can build density around transit hubs and create the energy- and resource-efficient communities to last for the next century.
Joseph M. Petty is the mayor of the City of Worcester.
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