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It’s been a year of steady progress on New Bedford’s housing crisis.
More developments are being proposed and moving through the long process of funding and construction. A new vacant property initiative in the city has received national recognition for its success at tackling complex properties. Zoning changes are already sparking interest from developers.
Josh Amaral, director of the city’s Office of Housing and Community Development, says he’s proud of those successes, but the crisis remains.
New Bedford is still trying to dig itself out of a significant housing shortage. Some tenants have adjusted to a grim new normal where they pay a huge chunk of their income for rent, and would-be homebuyers are priced out because a typical mortgage would be two or three times their rent, Amaral said.
Rents and home prices have increased drastically, experts say, because many people are competing for a small number of units. Amaral and other local housing leaders say the main way to bring down prices is to build more homes.
Amaral oversees a broad set of housing strategies laid out in the Building New Bedford plan, which was released in March 2023. In an interview with The Light, he shared the successes he’s proudest of and the challenges his office plans to address in the new year.
More housing on the way
The city has added more than 1,500 new housing units to its pipeline since Building New Bedford was launched, Amaral said. Two-thirds are in early planning phases.
The city has continued its strategy of working directly with developers big and small to recruit them for local projects.
“We want to talk to, particularly, developers who have some sort of niche that we can scratch,” Amaral said. “So, if you’re a historic mill developer, we might have a couple of historic mills kicking around that are a good fit, so we can introduce you.”
Some major projects have already come on the rental market, or are on track to do so in the next year.
Amaral pointed to the completed mixed-income project at 117 Union St. and other projects around the downtown area, like 10@8th, that will finish construction soon. He said he’s hopeful that the empty Keystone lot at 193 Union St. will be ready to break ground soon.
It’s not just downtown — Cruz Construction is assembling funding for multiple historic conversions around the city. In addition, the city just secured $2.5 million in tax credits which will be used by Couto Brothers Development to develop 65 housing units in a former nursing home on Acushnet Avenue.
These large-scale projects usually need heavy subsidies that take years to assemble because construction is so expensive. The city spent more than $11 million of its pandemic relief package to help cover the cost of 149 affordable units, and state and federal programs have pitched in millions more to help fund virtually every large project around the city.
Recent changes to the city’s permitting process have been “really transformative,” Amaral said. Smaller developments with six apartments or fewer can now bypass an expensive and time-consuming Planning Board review. That has led to an uptick in those developments, he said.
“It’s created a little bit of a local ecosystem of developers who are looking for those opportunities specifically, because they know they’re relatively easy to permit,” he said.
The City Council is now reviewing two more zoning proposals that could make more projects possible.
One ordinance would reduce parking minimums for new buildings, which raise costs and often force developers to go through the Planning Board for an exception. The ordinance committee advanced that proposal for full council approval on Dec. 15.
The other proposal would allow new buildings on smaller lots, rolling back rules that effectively make it illegal to rebuild most homes in the city when they’re lost to fires. The ordinance committee plans to take it up on Jan. 26.
Developers are “waiting and watching with serious interest,” Amaral said.
There are also signs that developers are interested in the city’s new transit-oriented development districts, which allow for a dense mix of housing and businesses in “underutilized” areas around the new MBTA stations.
One district includes industrial properties east of Route 18 and parts of the Purchase Street neighborhood near New Bedford Station.
“We have seen some developers kind of poking around trying to figure out what might be possible over there,” Amaral said.
A hotel has already been formally proposed near the station, but no other potential developments have reached that stage yet.
The other transit-oriented district covers a sleepy shopping plaza area near Church Street Station. Those larger properties are more complicated to redevelop and could take more time, Amaral said. He added that multiple developers are interested in a mill in the area.
Vacant property effort fills homes
The city’s vacant property initiative has been “one of the biggest successes” of the Building New Bedford plan, Amaral said. Jordan Latham was hired as the vacant property development manager in late 2023 to help get the city’s hundreds of empty homes back on the market.
There are currently 148 confirmed vacant properties on the city’s registry, down from 399 two years ago, according to numbers provided by Amaral and Latham. Of the 148 properties, 99 are actively on the path to occupancy.
Some vacant properties were foreclosed on by banks in no rush to sell, while others end up in legal limbo after the owner dies with no will. These challenges are complex and sometimes take months of sustained attention to untangle.
The effort has paid off — literally. As dozens of tricky properties have found new owners, it has brought in $648,764 in unpaid property taxes and code enforcement fines that had built up over years of vacancy, Amaral said.
The city was nationally recognized for the program with an award from the NewDEAL Forum, and has presented the strategy at conferences for housing officials.
“We’re very proud of that work and I still think we’re only scratching the surface on what’s possible there,” Amaral said.
About 20 households have received assistance from the city’s first-time homebuyer assistance program, and 15 households were helped by the home repair cost program — some recipients got money from both programs. Both were funded by an allocation of pandemic relief money that has now been nearly depleted.
The pandemic relief programs were aimed at a slightly higher income bracket than most existing homebuyer assistance programs. Amaral said that’s because the people who have enough income to buy a house in New Bedford generally make too much money to be eligible for those other programs, but they still need help. With the pandemic relief money almost gone, the city will look for other ways to fund that assistance, he said.
Homeless services adapt to shifting Trump policies
This has been a year of massive changes for the region’s network of homelessness service providers, known as the Bristol County Continuum of Care.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is the primary funding source for these local agencies, which means they have had to adapt to shifting priorities under President Donald Trump — while still managing the daily challenges of a worsening homelessness crisis.
Some of the administration’s changes have to do with housing programs designed to get people out of shelters. The local continuum of care operates dozens of units of “permanent supportive housing,” apartments that come with supports but don’t require a recipient to stay sober or be employed to receive assistance.
The Trump administration wants continuums to instead prioritize “transitional housing,” which comes with a time limit and requires recipients to work or participate in programs such as addiction treatment.
While President Joe Biden introduced a new timeline requiring continuums to compete for grants every two years, the Trump administration abruptly switched back to annual funding this fall, with a tight 45-day application window. Continuum staffers cancelled vacations and raced to apply by the January deadline, Amaral said.
But the administration withdrew its funding opportunity this month, right before a court hearing on a case challenging the changes to permanent supportive housing.
The shift to transitional housing would bring an end to “Housing First,” a service model that provides long-term housing with no conditions.
The change isn’t “all bad,” Amaral said. Transitional housing’s more hands-on case management might help some recipients live better, he said. Time limits could help open up units for people still in shelters, which would then open up shelter beds for people on the street, he said.
“Some of the folks in our permanent supportive housing units are fairly stable and should be moving on from the program, but have little incentive to do so,” he said. “The system has been sort of stuck.”
If the change to transitional housing happens, service providers will have to help many current recipients find alternative places to stay, Amaral said. The continuum is building a “safety net” for that scenario, he said.
Looking to 2026
Some parts of the Building New Bedford plan are goals Amaral can check off his list. Other parts of the plan are ongoing commitments.
In the new year and beyond, Amaral is optimistic that falling interest rates will be the final push that some developments in the pipeline need to be viable.
The vacant property initiative will expand in 2026 to include storefronts, Amaral said. Selling off vacant city parcels, including schools and public safety buildings, will also continue after the process was slowed by legal issues this year.
New Bedford can’t build its way out of the housing crisis alone, Amaral said. He reiterated the city’s calls for surrounding towns to approve more multifamily housing in their own borders, including affordable projects with income restrictions. The city can’t force the towns to take action, but it’s ready to help them if they reach out, he said.
“We have more work to do, and housing remains a top issue here and everywhere,” he said.
Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org.
It’s great to read another article about proposed housing, but shouldn’t there be a similar economic development surge going on to create jobs? How are the residents going to afford to pay the rents for the proposed housing when in a recent article it stated New Bedford residents are struggling to find work and half of our city’s households are receiving some form of state or federal aid.
First is, many residents are just too lazy to work. Yes they are U.S. born, yes they are natural citizens. What’s not fair is hardworking, U.S. citizens, natural citizens are working 1 or 2 jobs and can’t afford a home. Yet the first of the 2 are given a break and get all kinds of Benny’s. Now I am not talking about veterans, no matter what their income is, they should be first served! Also, those with disabilities, I talking actual disabilities. Not those who are residents in the city of New Bedford and claim their child, then children are disabled getting multi benefits. Those who do try to use the system, should be fined and jailed and THEY ARE OUT THERE !
What are names?
Those people?
How many tax dollars should be spent on that?
There is no shortage of jobs, in wind.
Why are so many of our city’s households receiving some form of state or federal aid.
Poorly educated people?
Don’t worry. When ICE finishes their pogrom there will be plenty of jobs in the fish houses, construction labor, and uhh the minute man car wash available.
Wind jobs.
It is nice to build housing units that people can buy for themselves. However what is not mentioned is that rental properties are becoming artificially expensive as the city does not control who is buying the existing properties, and the out of city LLCs buying to make a profit which often means people get un-housed, not for the benefit of people who live here but for unknown investors who have no interest in the city beyond what money they can make. There is a lot of property flipping going on for a quick buck at people’s expense. What is the city doing for its renters. It is obvious it is concerned about those wanting to make money as they throw people on the street.
What are their names?
Do you personally know any?
Are any your relatives?
The city should control real-estate ownership?
Josh Amaral, former school committee member. I am very proud of you too. I am the previous mailroom clerk/ Adult ed clerk retired. You have come very far and this is exactly what New Bedford needs. Keep up the great work! Congrats to you and your team as you know the support from coworkers makes a great deal of difference.
The city council passed rent control 2 years ago and this foolish uncaring Mayor has made life tough for to many with his vetoe of rent control and his increasing the city’s operating budget by over a quarter of a billion dollars with no new revenue sources. And for the last 4 years revenue losses. SHAMEFUL
I am a parent of young adults. I agree with Leaning Right: here’s why. My child has been looking for a real job that can be accessed by public transit. By real, I mean one with enough hours and pay to make it worth the trek on foot and the time waiting and riding it takes to get there and back, for as little as 2-3 hours at minimum wage per day. Retail (the mall and other shop clusters) has been unhelpful: they want people who can stay past the time the buses run. And they often offer only a few hours per week. For something more full-time, my child personally had interviewers say that a license and car were needed– most outrageously for a single-site job within WALKING distance of our home. It seems to be a way to reject an applicant without really saying so. Several friends and acquaintances report the same bias, including one young man we know who went through an entire landscaping course thru MassHire only to be told he’d need a car, when he was looking for work. Don’t tell me there aren’t such jobs in this town– I see their trucks going by every day. Do they hire New Bedford residents at all? Or is that another silent disqualifier? Taking an Uber would eat that day’s paycheck. Yet even the state run job fairs are hard to get to without a car.
Whatever happened to FREE park and ride and carpooling? I grew up in a place that used those. Is anyone designing those kinds of spaces? Here, you could park way up Mt. Pleasant, in a tiny lot, and hoof it to the train station, in maybe 10 minutes or so. Never mind the weather. That is, if your job was near a place the train served. Kids starting out don’t usually work online. (Like you can, Will Gardner!) They need a real, accessible, in person job to pay for the car, the insurance, meals, eventually rent etc.
This need has to be met before they or anyone can support a home. ALL the members of our household need a paying job, to afford said home. Lots of places don’t even pay! (This is called an internship, or “volunteering”, whether you end up being offered a paying position from the same place or not. Unpaid work does NOT count toward “Social Security.” But it’s still work.) At present we have one car, but we’ll need another if this is the new reality. We already have to shift around for parking, and we do live in a residential area, single family and duplexes mixed. Some places have driveways; even so the street is always full.
So some want money spent on… People. (We get crappy schools.) Parking. (Unending holes in the roads.) Dare I say green space? (More stores, more houses, more Development…) Whatever. We are “the richest port in the USA”. The town is full of evidence that there used to be wealth here. What shows that there is anything here now at all? Where IN NEW BEDFORD (not neighboring towns) is the money? I’ve spent 20+years living here within my means. Without government assistance. Now that I’m older, rather than having security, money is tighter than ever. We need another income– and if we don’t get enough of one, will have to make do. Somewhere else. Somewhere better. “Not in my back yard” huh. NIMBY doesn’t refer to a thing. It’s me, my family, and those of us who, once upon a time, thought this might be a place we could live and do and be. But from where we stand now, that’s just a fairy tale.
A lot of good comments here, the nimby comment in the council meeting was a complete joke. When it comes to housing or parking, there should be discretion in deciding if a housing project is a good fit for a neighborhood, and it’s the same with making changes to parking, every area is different, and should be looked at on a case by case basis. Time for the City Council to do their job and not just make a one size fits all decision.
Isn’t the real need in this city “JOBS” seems that before tackling housing and parking that this should have been the real goal all along, we see plenty of new convenience stores, donut shops, laundromats, cell phone shops, and dollar stores, but don’t we really need companies that will provide good paying jobs where residents can afford to pay their rents and have enough left over to live a decent quality of life. New Bedford needs leadership and a new direction.
Amen to that.