Building with 43 affordable-housing units gets funding it needs
Now that the governor has approved a package of state and federal funding, the Housing Corporation of Arlington (HCA) can go forward with construction of a 43-unit affordable housing development.
Building is scheduled to start early next year at 10 Sunnyside Ave. in East Arlington
“So, when you get your award, it’s this massive amount of money. It’s all the subsidy you need for your project, typically,” HCA Executive Director Erica Schwarz said of Maura Healey’s action earlier this summer. “And, without that, we just can’t start construction. That’s the money we needed.”
That money is on the order of $10.6 million, a figure made up of the $9 million from the Healey-approved package plus another $1.6 million — via the North Suburban Consortium, of $615k in HOME funds plus a pending HOME ARPA application totaling $985k. And there’s likely even more, though amounts have not to date been specified: “The funding is rounded out by local funds, Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston funds and a permanent loan; during construction, we will also have a construction loan,” wrote Gabrielle Geller, an Arlington-based real-estate developmentconsultant to the HCA, in an email earlier today.
HCA Executive Director Erica SchwarzMoney ‘wasn’t guaranteed’
Schwarz emphasized how hard it can be for organizations to get their hands on this kind of grant, which is made up of federal low-income housing tax credits and some state money.
The HCA had previously completed a detailed application for the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, which the governor has officially signed off on.
“[The commonwealth usually will get] many more applications and total amount of dollar requests than they can ever fund in any one round,” Schwarz said in a recent interview conducted via email. “It’s very competitive.”
Even excellent, thoughtful projects sometimes get rejected, she said, so “you kind of end up getting in line. So the fact that we got funded this time was really fantastic. It wasn’t guaranteed, even though our project is 100 percent ready to go, it is so needed [and] Arlington hasn’t been funded in a while — but it wasn’t guaranteed.”
Schwarz said she initially received only a somewhat “cryptic” message from the state.
“The state [sought to] keep the announcement a secret until it’s actually publicly announced at an event [which took place June 20] … The state invites you to the event because they want you to be there, but they don’t explicitly say what’s happening, but you kind of know.”
These are the expected income limits at new housing complex / data courtesy Erica Schwarz
Income formula called suboptimal
According to Schwarz, the building will be Passive House certified, which means that it must meet high standards for sustainability and energy efficiency. “We have fantastic architects. It’s going to be a beautiful building for people to live in,” she said.
In addition to affordable and a few “deeply affordable” rental apartments, Schwarz said the building also will have a community room, at which the HCA will offer some services for tenants.
Of the 43 units, 32 are reserved for those earning no more than 60 percent of the area median income, while the other 11 apartments are to be designated for those earning 30 percent of AMI
Even so, using this formula, it’s difficult to make rent truly affordable in a place like Arlington, according to Schwarz.
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development sets the AMI, but, in her view, that metric has not been working here as well as it does elsewhere.
“That number looks at the actual incomes of people living in a region in greater Boston that includes a lot of wealthy regions—like Lexington, like Arlington—and, over the past many years, includes increasingly more people who make a lot of money. We’ve had a boom in tech and biotech jobs in our region —people who are making really, really big incomes.”
Those additional large incomes drag up the area median income, leaving behind those who work in other industries, many of which have seen wage stagnation, she believes. “These rents keep inching up, but the population [the HCA serves] — their income isn’t going up at the same rate. So, it’s really a flawed system.”
Because HCA follows federal fair-housing law, Schwarz said, affordable housing is assigned by lottery among qualified applicants who indicate interest. The federal government also sets certain parameters for how organizations such as the HCA are allowed to market new developments.
If any given tenant’s lease is up and that tenant decides to move out, Schwarz said, then the HCA notifies the next household on the waitlist.
An artist rendering of the planned building at 10 Sunnyside Ave., potentially to be open for occupancy in 2026.ARPA funds via trust now sought
In early July, the Arlington Affordable Housing Trust announced that it would administer $3 million in federal money previously received through the American Recovery Plan Act aka ARPA, which was created to help communities cope with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The trust “strongly prefers” housing meant for those at or below 60 percent of AMI, Schwarz said.
“I do plan to apply for the Town’s funds for housing,” she said. “I’m still working to identify which project or projects would be ready to use those funds. There may be another site where we can plan another [accessory dwelling unit] like the one on Dorothy Road, but I am also aggressively looking for other sites to acquire [at which] we can create more affordable units, with help from the Housing Trust’s funds.”
The HCA recently completed a small two-bedroom home on Dorothy Road. Located on the land of another of the HCA’s houses, the ADU is two stories and 900 square feet total.
Aug. 26, 2022: Decision expected in September on construction of proposed affordable-housing complex
This article by YourArlington freelancer Jacob Posner was published Friday, Aug. 16, 2024, based on information from Housing Corporation of Arlington Executive Director Erica Schwarz, Arlington-based consultant Gabrielle Geller and YourArlington’s files.
