Boston is experiencing a set of housing challenges that require innovative solutions, according to Sheila Dillon, chief of housing for the City of Boston and director of the mayor’s office of housing.
“It’s become very difficult to build new housing in Boston,” Dillon said. “Lots of people want to be here. We’re not building enough housing. We’ve got low vacancy, and then rent and sales prices, supply and demand—they go up.”
Boston College’s Joseph E. Corcoran Center for Real Estate and Urban Action hosted Dillon Tuesday at a real estate colloquium. The event included a presentation on the current state of housing in the City of Boston followed by a discussion on the city’s challenges, current goals for affordable housing, and how to juggle inclusive policies with a developer-friendly market.
Dillon, who has served under four mayoral administrations in the City of Boston, detailed current housing challenges that impact the city’s compact geography and slowly growing population of 675,000.
According to Dillon, Boston housing prices are among the highest in the nation. 42 percent of households in Boston are housing cost-burdened, meaning housing costs exceed more than 30 percent of their gross income, she said.
“It’s worse for renters—50 percent of renters are housing cost burdened,” Dillon said. “And 30 percent of renters are severely rent burdened.”
The challenges surrounding housing in Boston also disproportionately impact low-income individuals and people of color, according to Dillon.
“In Boston, you have a much better chance of owning a home if you’re a white household—42 percent—or a much lower chance of owning a home if you’re a black resident—32 percent,” Dillon said. “Seventeen percent if you’re a Latin/Latinx household. So really big disparities, low homeownership rates, and disparities within racial categories.”
The Wu administration, with the support of many city divisions and departments, is working to alleviate these housing issues through initiatives like income-restricted housing, Dillon said, which limits rents at prices affordable to households at different income levels.
“Boston has the highest percentage of income-restricted housing in the country compared to every other major city,” Dillon said. “I think it’s kept Boston a fairly diverse, interesting city, and one where hopefully everyone feels welcome.”
Dillon also highlighted the Welcome Home, Boston program (WHB), which put out city-owned properties for redevelopment.
“We started working with very small, very local developers and contractors of color, and it’s been a very intentional program that we’re building new homes that people can buy,” Dillon said. “We’re also really supporting a new generation of developers in the city.”
Some of the progressive efforts and initiatives of Wu’s team have been hampered by the state. These included rent stabilization, the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, which would help renters buy their homes when they are being sold, and a transfer fee on all high-end real estate transactions.
“Boston is very limited because of its history,” Dillon said. “We have to go to the state to get approvals for a lot of the things we want to do. And it’s not just housing policy, but it’s a lot of other things, taxes and building codes.”
Dillon also emphasized that, as a city official, it is important to maintain a balance between serving the housing needs of the people of Boston while also supporting people who work in the private sector.
“We really want to make sure that we’re building as much affordable housing and making sure that people can stay in Boston or buy a home and stay in Boston,” she said. “At the same time, there’s a very large development infrastructure, and a lot of developers that do good work in Boston.”
Concerning the future prospects of Boston’s housing landscape, Dillon said she believes the priority will be placed on building more affordable housing as well as making existing buildings more climate-friendly and energy-efficient.
“I think Boston will remain very high cost,” Dillon said. “I think we will just continue to see that divide between the folks who are coming here and have so much money … and those that are just on fixed income, and [it’s about] just bridging that divide and making sure that everybody’s got a place.”
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