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

By Klaus Schultz

A few days ago, I read this “pro/con” piece about housing in The Nation and it immediately reminded me of the fierce housing debates that some of us get into on Somerville social media. Like so many of these things, I doubt that anyone will read it and immediately change their mind on the issue, but I think it’s useful to see the cases for building more market rate housing versus not doing so laid out side by side.

Rather than just post the link into one of our many Somerville Facebook groups and start duking it out, I thought I’d try to actually organize some coherent thoughts around these issues – as they pertain to Somerville specifically – and see if The Somerville Times will publish it. And THEN link to Somerville social media to have a community conversation about important local issues (i.e. duke it out in the Comments section).   

The “Pro” authors cite research that building more market rate housing creates “migration chains” to open up existing housing for people with lower incomes, and there is at this point a large amount of research that building more housing does reduce overall rents. However, I do NOT think that Somerville can rely on this mechanism to create greater affordability here. I say this as someone who supports building more housing overall, enough that I joined Somerville YIMBY and the statewide pro-housing organization Abundant Housing Massachusetts. 

Right now, the Boston area is not building enough housing anywhere. When rising rents displace people from Somerville, they’re encountering higher prices and scarcity in Malden, Everett, and even further-away Haverhill and Methuen. Worcester rents are skyrocketing. I think we all at a bare minimum want people who can’t afford rising rent in Somerville to be able to afford to live somewhere in the area, and therefore, not only Somerville, but every city and town in the area, needs to build more. 

But I also hope we can agree that we should do everything possible to avoid displacing lower- and middle-income people from Somerville at all. When the Green Line extension is complete, Somerville will have the best public transit access in the entire state. Public transit is a great amenity for affluent folks, but an absolute lifeline for lower- and middle-income families. Car dependency is a huge financial burden on families. Further, pushing lower-income families into long car commutes makes an absolute mockery of any “progress” we might claim on our Somerville Climate Forward plan.    

Where I take issue with the “Con” piece is the authors’ conclusion that the only way this can happen is if we reject “cutesy” zoning changes and focus exclusively on building a large-scale social housing program. I absolutely believe that we should have social housing and tenant protections. And it seems to me that an environment where it is easier to build more housing in our city is complementary to those goals. The public housing in Clarendon Hill is finally getting replaced, with a mix of market-rate units in the development helping to fund it. Separately, the developer of the site of the Star Market on Broadway in Winter Hill is proposing a plan for 55% market-rate and 45% subsidized affordable units, which is possible due to tax credits for low-income housing and the fact that thanks to Somerville zoning changes they won’t have to build parking on site. 

The question to me is, how can we make these types of projects the kind of development we get in Somerville, and how can we make them happen quickly in the face of the displacement and climate crises we face? I hope that the city expands upon its existing Affordable Housing Overlay to create a density bonus program that allows for higher buildings when the additional units are subsidized affordable. I hope the city uses the funds it has from ARPA to both directly build social housing and establish the capacity to make it sustainable. And I hope that we change the zoning in the wealthier enclaves of the city so that they are also part of the solution.  

We can have the “does new market-rate housing lower overall prices?” debate forever, but in Somerville, we need lots of subsidized affordable housing quickly, and I’m in favor of all mechanisms for making that happen.