What are the benefits of an incentive that raises the income threshold for affordable housing from 50% area median income to 70%?
People earn a wide range of incomes below the level needed to afford housing in Brookline, not just people who earn less than 50% of the area median income (AMI): $70,100 for a family of 4 as of 2022. Not only do different families earn different incomes, but a family can have different incomes at different life stages.
For example, a family who has access to 50% AMI capped affordable housing may, as a result of improving their economic circumstances, earn more than 50% AMI but still earn less than enough to afford housing on the open market in Brookline. The family will be rewarded for that hard work by being forced to find a new home out of town.
Since rent control was repealed and inclusionary zoning was established in the early 1990s, only 104 on-site affordable housing units have been created in Brookline using our zoning codes; zero units along Harvard Street. The only other affordable housing that has been created has used Chapter 40B.
By creating a mechanism within our inclusionary zoning by-law that can raise the income cap to access affordable housing from 50% to 70% AMI in specific circumstances, developers will have an additional incentive to build affordable housing that our zoning by-law has failed to generate to date.