Medford housing action plan done but not approved

By Neil Zolot

The Affordable Housing Trust Fund (MAHT) Action Plan and Guidelines for 2025-2030 is essentially done, but the board is waiting until October to submit it to the City Council, pending some minor adjustments like incorporating graphics and an acknowledgements page. 

“We should hold off until we have a complete report,” MAHT Chair Lisa Davidson said at the board meeting Wednesday, September 3.

In discussion, Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn suggested a meeting between MAHT and the City Council to fully explain the plan without the time pressure that comes with a regular City Council meeting. 

“Their agendas are very long,” she said.

The action plan was first introduced at the July 30th meeting. Public comments were solicited through August 7, but were few and far between.

 “We received no substantive feedback," said Housing Planner Katherine Buckingham. “Changes made since then were minor,” she said, a reference to small adjustments in language and grammar.

 She said her biggest takeaway regarding comments at various meetings was “the need for affordable housing and the difficulty of moving from renting to home ownership.” 

The Affordable Housing Trust Fund was established in 2024. Its general goals include:

• Addressing local housing needs and meeting production goals
• Working to meet state law that requires every community to have at least 10% of housing units be on the Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI) (The plan sets a target of 120 homes being added to the SHI annually, or 600 SHI units by 2025.)
• Continuing to promote initiatives to address local housing needs.
• Promoting a welcoming, diverse, intergenerational, and inclusive
  city with an ideal mix of housing choices that offer diverse options to residents with varying needs and preferences
• fostering safe, well-designed and sustainable housing to ensure new homes of all types are sensitive and compatible in scale, siting, and design to neighborhood context
• integrating affordable and diverse housing options throughout the City at a scale that is compatible with the built environment
• preserving the affordability of existing affordable homes
• expanding local capacity to implement housing
  initiatives
• promoting transparency and engagement and increasing awareness of fair housing issues

The City Council will likely approve the plan but it could also be sent to a subcommittee for study. However, Buckingham and at least one city councilor think it has a good chance of being approved.

“Many councilors are supportive of affordable housing and having more affordable housing,” said Buckingham. “This is a roadmap.”

“All of us will have to look it over, but I don’t think it will be all that controversial,” City Councilor Matt Leming said in July. “Most members feel affordable housing is a priority.”

Other MAHT news 

The meeting marked the one-year anniversary of establishment of the MAHT. Davidson even brought cupcakes to mark the occasion. She was re-elected to chair the group during reorganization. Penelope Taylor was chosen as vice-chair and Kayla Lessin as treasurer.

Teda Marie DeRosa, who was nominated by Lungo-Koehn to fill an empty seat vacated by Lisa Sun, also attended the meeting.

The MAHT also established a working group for fundraising, which DeRosa volunteered to oversee. 

“We need money to do the work we want,” Taylor said.

Funding could come from Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT), the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Community Preservation Committee (CPC), which has its own source of grant funds, and linkage fees from developers. The City Council appropriated $80,000 to study adding linkage fees related to affordable housing to existing linkage fees related to parks and open space and road and sidewalk improvements.

The members also voted to loan Medford Community Housing (MCH) $100,000 to complete work on a three-unit building at 703 Fellsway. The loan was approved with a 2% interest rate with repayment “dependent on cash flow due after full occupation.” 

“There are a number of financial sources, including HUD and the CPC, but we need help to close the books,” MCH member David Brosnan explained. “Delays have cost money. Every week or month that goes by has added costs. The building is just a few weeks away from completion, but it took a while to get
electric power hooked up.”

The building on a formerly vacant lot will have two 3-bedroom apartments and one 1-bedroom unit. Rents are calculated to be $2,297 for the larger units and $1,862 for the smaller one.

“We’re trying to make them available to people of moderate means,” Brosnan said. “Our target group is people making 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI).” 

The AMI is a regional calculation with Medford in a cohort with similar communities like Everett and Malden but also high-income communities like Newton, North Reading and Winchester, which calls into
question the definition of affordable. Due to the affluent communities in the AMI, it doesn’t reflect earnings in Medford, so “affordable” rents are based on incomes higher than those in the city. Housing for people earning 30% of the AMI is usually public housing, 60% considered deeply affordable, 80%
affordable and 100% moderate, but the income levels in wealthier communities could skew the AMI above the means of many Medford residents.

“We’re doing well on affordable housing. We’re trying to get as many units as we can in the pipeline,” said Lungo-Koehn, referring to affordable units being included in new developments on the Fellsway and Mystic Valley Parkway, compliance with the MBTA’s multifamily zoning requirement, and efforts to institute inclusionary zoning to require affordable units in other developments.

 She also noted that Medford was recognized as one of 43 communities in Massachusetts as a Housing Choice Community, which gives the city access to exclusive state funding opportunities and technical assistance that support growth and local planning.

“The Housing Choice Initiative recognizes communities that are adopting policies that support increased housing production and lower costs,” an August statement from City Hall reads. “To qualify for the designation, municipalities must meet specific benchmarks for housing production over the past five years and demonstrate progress in implementing local policies and best practices.”