By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and Ward 5 Alderman Mark Niedergang

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

We need bold action to address housing affordability in Somerville. Somerville is thriving, and lots of people want to live here. Young people want to live in hip cities and baby boomers are returning to the urban core. However, many of the people who have helped make our beloved city a wonderful place to live are being forced out by rising rents and home prices. What’s at risk is the ethnic, racial and socio-economic diversity we treasure and the legacy that generations of working-class and immigrant families have established in Somerville. We cannot lose that.

There is a growing crisis across the region; Greater Boston’s housing supply has not kept up with population growth and demand causing escalating housing costs regionwide. The demand for housing near public transit is even more intense. So ironically, the Green Line Extension—so important for our economy, good jobs, environment and quality of life—intensifies the affordable housing challenge we face. Every time we hold an affordable housing lottery, we are inundated with a flood of applications from lower-income households. Middle class families with children looking to settle here find a dearth of options in their price range. Artists, teachers, social workers and even our own city employees are struggling to stay. And speculators are contacting homeowners, offering cash, looking to profit from the work we’ve put in to make Somerville a great place to live, work, play, raise a family and retire.

This month, we launched the Sustainable Neighborhoods initiative—a comprehensive plan that builds upon the city’s many ongoing initiatives to address affordability. Very specific immediate steps are included in this initiative, but we’re just getting started and the effort will grow as we quickly identify additional solutions to pursue. As a key step toward this, we are creating a Sustainable Neighborhoods Working Group, engaging community members and city staff with a broad range of expertise and experience.

We don’t have the luxury of time, so we’ll be asking the Working Group to make its initial recommendations in the early spring. Earlier this year, the city partnered with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the Somerville Community Corporation on a report that detailed the likely effect of GLX on housing affordability. Somerville could become a mostly professional, upper-middle class community if we do not undertake decisive action—and if the 101 cities and towns in Greater Boston fail to do their part in creating the 435,000 new homes needed by 2040.

Somerville has steadily addressed the need for affordable housing for years, but we need to step up our game in this changing and intensifying regional real estate market. This year, we passed legislation that gives Somerville residents the highest property tax exemption of any city or town in the Commonwealth and increased our linkage fee, which will produce an additional $1 million for affordable housing over the next decade. We adopted a rezoning plan for Union Square that increases the required number of affordable units in residential projects around the future T station. Our community overwhelmingly passed the Community Preservation Act that is raising millions of dollars, much of which will be used to create affordable housing. We assist first-time homebuyers and help rehab homes in return for capping rents. Somerville has done a lot on the issue of affordability—but it’s not enough.

We need to be bold and audacious. We can pick low-hanging fruit and not push ourselves out of our comfort zone, and still do some good work. But affordability is a problem that is growing; if we stay safe and comfortable, we will never catch up.

As part of the Sustainable Neighborhoods initiative, we will propose to increase the percentage of new housing developments that are affordable and expand our inclusionary zoning law to include housing for middle-income families and mandate more multi-bedroom family homes. We will seek an increase in our SomerVision goal, aiming for 9,000 new homes with at least 1,800 of those permanently affordable. We will seek historic changes to state law that will give us the power to offer tax incentives to landlords who keep rents affordable, and to allow us to levy a transfer tax on real estate speculators looking to make big profits by buying and quickly selling houses. We anticipate that the Working Group will come up with even more audacious proposals that may be controversial—but this is a debate we must have for the sake of preserving the character of the community we love.

We understand that supply and demand is a major factor fueling this regional crisis—not just in Greater Boston, but up and down the eastern seaboard. However, we also know that we cannot just build our way out of this problem. We must examine every opportunity, every possible leverage point to enhance the affordability of our community. Everything is on the table. The answers cannot come from elected officials and city staff alone—they must come from the community. If you have a perspective to lend, an idea to pursue, share your thinking with us. Apply to serve on the Sustainable Neighborhoods Working Group. We will also need your support as we seek changes that are likely to evoke organized opposition. Cities everywhere are struggling with the challenge of creating a desirable, successful community and keeping that community affordable at the same time. We are not alone and we can learn from others and provide leadership ourselves. It is a monumental task ahead of us, but if we unite as a community and as a region, we can retain the soul of our city.

Community members interested in serving on the Sustainable Neighborhoods Working Group should submit a short statement detailing their interest and applicable skills and knowledge along with a current resume (if available) to Kelly Donato, Somerville Housing Division Director of Special Projects (KDonato@somervillema.gov, (617) 625-6600 ext. 2560. The deadline for applications is Friday, Nov. 7.

For more background information and initial ideas that are part of the Sustainable Neighborhoods initiative, see Mayor Curtatone’s presentation of October 15, 2014 to the Board of Aldermen’s Housing and Community Development Committee at http://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/sustainable-neighborhoods-presentation-10-15-2014.pdf.