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NEW BEDFORD — Leaders from around the South Coast say the housing crisis is a region-wide problem that demands a region-wide solution.
Dozens of local officials and experts gathered at the Whaling Museum on Tuesday for Greater New Bedford’s first regional housing summit. The Housing for All Symposium was hosted by the New Bedford Economic Development Council, which released a report earlier this year that said the region needs to build 8,700 new housing units by the end of the decade to keep up with demand.
“Dealing with the challenges we have in housing has to be a team effort,” New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell told the crowd.
Establishing a regional approach was a key part of the Building New Bedford Plan, the wide-ranging housing plan that the city launched last year. On Tuesday officials from New Bedford, Dartmouth, and Fairhaven spoke about their plans to support construction.
Ed Augustus, the secretary of the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, praised the city’s plan in his keynote address.
“We need all our communities to do this,” he said. “The cost of housing is too high and that is the greatest threat to the economic competitiveness of the state.”
Augustus called the state’s high housing costs an “existential crisis” because they’re driving young people to leave Massachusetts in search of cheaper markets. The secretary left the summit early to attend a local listening session on housing that his office was running at UMass Dartmouth.
Suburbs must push for solutions, too
Dartmouth is working on its own housing plan, said Dartmouth Select Board Member David Tatelbaum. The town also has plans to spend more of its Community Preservation Act funds on housing, he said.
Housing development often faces opposition in suburban areas, but Tatelbaum said the town is prepared for the pushback.
“We’re going to make it a point,” he said. “There’s an absolute need.”
Planning officials from Fairhaven expressed an interest in setting up “smart growth” zoning districts. Both Dartmouth and Fairhaven are also taking steps to expand the allowability of accessory dwelling units, commonly known as in-law apartments. Their current zoning restricts where and how they can be built.
Cities large and small across the country are facing housing shortages. But New Bedford’s housing crisis is different from the crises in larger metro areas, Mitchell said, because it’s not caused by private equity investors or an influx of wealthy tech entrepreneurs.
“It comes from folks being displaced from places where they can’t afford to live anymore,” he said.
Mitchell cited sections of the Economic Development Council’s report explaining that the people moving to New Bedford from other parts of the state — Boston, Brockton, and Cape Cod — tend to have lower incomes than the people who already live here. The people moving to New Bedford are not like the affluent workers flooding to cities like Boston, but instead are the poorest renters being squeezed out of other markets, he said.
That means New Bedford’s housing crisis will require different policies than crises in larger cities like Boston, Mitchell said. He and other leaders called for building a balanced mix of housing to meet demand in all parts of the market, rather than focusing on subsidized, low-income developments that they worried could concentrate poverty in the city.
New Bedford has to “hustle” for development, Mayor Jon Mitchell said when he introduced the plan last year. Construction costs in New Bedford are about the same as other cities, but the rents are much lower here, which means lower returns for developers. Many of them choose to build in other areas where they can turn a higher profit.
Population outpaces housing construction
Ben Forman, a MassInc researcher who led the research for the report, presented a stark series of figures that showed the severity of the housing crisis. The increasing population of Greater New Bedford has far outpaced housing production, the data showed.
“There’s 3,000 new households trying to fit into 1,600 new housing units in the last decade,” he said.
The report also showed that two-thirds of the city’s renters could not afford a typical apartment in the city if they were forced to move today. And Forman said it’s “deeply concerning” that 86% of New Bedford households don’t make enough money to afford a mortgage for a typical home in the city. That’s because wages have not kept up with housing costs, the data showed.
High housing costs are bad for the local economy, Forman explained. They drive away existing businesses and reduce the amount of savings that residents have to start new businesses. The stress of unaffordable housing also can make workers less productive and distract young students.
New Bedford’s middle-income renters “are actually quite well served,” Forman said. But there are major gaps in supply at the extreme high and low ends of the market. That means there’s a market of very low-income renters competing for too few low-priced apartments, and a market of underserved affluent renters who could afford to pay more.
“You gotta build for all types, wherever you can,” Forman said.
Housing production in the region hasn’t bounced back from the Great Recession, Forman said, and it has fallen even more sharply in the suburbs. Those areas will have to think about adding more dense housing, he added.
The gap between supply and demand is projected to deepen, which is why the report called for building 8,700 new units over the next several years.
“I want someone to tell me where in the city we’re going to find space to build 5,400 units,” one attendee said during a Q&A, referencing the number of new units that need to be located in New Bedford city limits.
Forman responded that a surprising number of units can be added through smart redevelopment of existing space, often known as “infill.” Josh Amaral, New Bedford’s housing director, later said the city is getting creative by focusing on smaller projects and revamping vacant buildings.
Buyers battle high interest rates, bidding wars
Leaders in real estate and banking described a cutthroat housing market for would-be buyers. A local banker said many mortgage applications sit in pre-approval for a long time as buyers struggle to win bidding wars. High interest rates in the 7% range are also a challenge.
“There is definitely a housing crisis and I am in the thick of it,” said Donna Davids, Southeastern Massachusetts Regional vice president for the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS. “There’s no availability.”
Davids said homes that hold open houses on a Saturday can get 30 offers by the next Monday. She recently sold a house to a cash buyer who paid $125,000 over the asking price.
Some people sold their homes to cash out their equity during the pandemic, when property values were high, she said. They rented for a few years, and now, they’re back on the market for a home — with plenty of money to spend and no worries about a high mortgage interest rate.
Collaboration must continue
Local leaders said the event helped set the stage for more collaboration between communities moving forward. Throughout the event, they shared ideas on ways to fund more development, update zoning, and support developers.
Tony Sapienza, president of the Economic Development Council, said he hoped the event would be the first of many gatherings. He said Tuesday’s meeting educated leaders on the magnitude of the problem and solutions that could work.
“We all learned a few things,” he said.
Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org
Editor’s note: Tony Sapienza is a member of The New Bedford Light’s Board of Directors. The New Bedford Light’s newsroom is scrupulously independent. Only the editors decide what to cover and what to publish. Founders, funders and board members have no influence over editorial content.
Please, no more low income housing in New Bedford, we have far too many housing projects and section 8 units and we can’t continue to live with more low income people, it’s not good for anyone.
We need more housing of all kinds and for everyone. New Bedford shouldn’t be like every other town and city in the Commonwealth trying to kick out or marginalize our poor more than they already are. We should strive to be a city for all.
Zach,
As I stated in my previous reply, the largest portion of people seeking affordable or low income housing have a habit of turning average neighborhoods into less desirable housing. Between drugs, crime, and ability to pay their rent on time each month lease potential buyers away from New Bedford, and that won’t be changing anytime soon. If someone gave me a multi family home to manage and own, I would rent an apartment for less than $2,000 per month, almost anyone can find a months rent, but to pay it on time each month is almost impossible.
Bottom line, there are too many deadbeats in the city who want an apartment but cannot afford it, and they don’t take care of their property once they move in, that’s a fact.
That large portion of people seeking affordable or low-income housing will still exist even if they don’t have apartments though. You may not consider them deserving of living in an apartment, but where do you otherwise expect them to go? Are they supposed to be living in tents on sidewalks like in California? Are they supposed to be taking up cots in shelters or living in their cars? Or are we trying to play the same game seemingly every other city in the Commonwealth is by trying to price them out to the next poorest city so that they’re someone else’s “problem” instead?
In addition, how many of these lower income people are doing menial or working class jobs that we all rely on in some way? Most of these people have jobs, and what happens when they’re forced to leave and there’s no longer anyone to stock the shelves at the supermarkets, take care of the children at the local daycare, clean the floors in the schools, strip the dirty linens in the hospitals, or even just serve your food at your favorite restaurant? We need those people doing less skilled labor who can’t afford $2k per month rents just like we need the plumbers, accountants, engineers, and auto mechanics who can.
Society is a spectrum of people working together to create a greater whole, and we’re ultimately harming ourselves when we decide to ignore the suffering of others around us. Lower income people in New Bedford are currently suffering due to an acute shortage of a basic necessity. These people often do valuable work in our community and therefore deserve to live in the community we share with some comfort and dignity. I’m not saying that a janitor should have the same accommodations as a cardiac surgeon, but they should still be accommodated.
Fun to see how this problem is addressed versus how crime is addressed.
If there was a problem with crime the city would pay lots of money for more cops. Yet when there is not enough housing the city doesn’t just pay a lot of money to directly build houses. Instead they wring their hands and wonder what can be done.
If the issue is not enough housing, build more housing. Don’t create some convoluted system to indirectly boost incentives to make developers more rich, that won’t work well, and to the extent that it does work, will have returns 5-10 years from now, instead of immediately. Housing is needed immediately.
No other problem would be dealt with so indirectly, and with more impotence.
Where would you suggest more housing be built in the city? New Bedford owns very little land, and even if the city owned more land, who is going to build the housing? There’s no profit for a developer to buy land, build housing, then have low income people living there, it’s just not profitable even when 100% of people pay their rent.
These are not exact #’s but I read that NB has close to 1,700 subsidized units and provides another 2,000 vouchers not counting the several NPO’s in town that provide transitional & permanent housing to hundreds of people.
According to a New Bedford basic needs assessment completed in 2010 —18%, 17%, and 16% of households in NB are extremely low, very low, and low income, respectively.
This means that 51 percent of all households in New Bedford qualified for federal and state affordable housing programs based on household income in 2010. Fast forward post Covid, the incredible recent rent increases and these #’s surely have increased.
New Bedford was the 2nd poorest city when I was a kid growing up Presidential Heights (2nd generation born & raised in PH) and now I think we are the 6th poorest in the state. How’s this possible with the tremendous industry we have here?
We are persistent if nothing but persistent and chronic poverty are different; the former focuses on places with a long history of high poverty while chronic poverty is used to identify people consistently in poverty. NB is an unfortunate double winner and has been for decades and decades. Why is this?
Research suggests people living in high poverty areas experience significant barriers to well-being whether or not they’re poor themselves. I definitely feel my mental health is compromised by living here – absolutely. It’s noisy, it’s dirty and guns and drugs are a thing. But so is gentrification and well, like everyone else p, I can’t afford to move and to be honest, I’m not sure I would because I love it here.
The longer poverty exists in ann area, the more likely the community will lack adequate infrastructure and support services for all.
Let’s do something different and build housing AND community. Josh Amaral can we do mixed income housing? Where is poverty is not so concentrated? There are other communities in the country like New Columbia in Portland, Oregon where they created a neighborhood with a mix of housing types affordable to people at all income levels. They developed 854 wopping units, including public housing, affordable rentals, senior housing, and both market rate and affordable homes for sale. I know people in NB who have been living in the same apartment for 30-40 years – this is not a rental, this is their home.
This is a great city, awesome people, unbelievable location – so much promise. All I keep thinking is don’t forget to VOTE because nothing changes if nothing changes and I feel NB has been there and done that.
I wouldn’t live in the same building as welfare collecting people, they don’t work, many are on drugs and I don’t want any part of that.