Six Towns Introduce Regional Affordable Housing Effort

The following is a press release shared by our friends over at Sudbury Patch.

Six towns northwest of Boston are holding a kickoff planning meeting next week to launch the newly formed “Regional Housing Services Office,” which will support municipal affordable housing efforts across the region.

The meeting takes place Thursday from 10 a.m. to noon at the Flynn Town Office building in Sudbury, located at 278 Old Sudbury Road.

Bedford, Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, Sudbury, and Weston established this Regional Housing Services Office as an innovative approach to managing affordable housing from a municipal perspective. The six towns signed an Inter-Municipal Agreement in February which became effective on July 1 to formalize a regional approach to affordable housing, under a new agreement brokered by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) that aims to increase efficiency in administering housing programs and services.

The six towns are planning to use the regional office to preserve investments in affordable housing through regional monitoring and expertise. The Regional Housing Services Office is located in Sudbury, and Sudbury will deliver the agreed-upon services. 

“The Regional Housing Services Office will help member communities monitor affordability compliance and restrictions as well as identify and maintain lists of ready-buyers and ready-renters, thereby increasing access to affordable housing,” said MAPC Chief Housing Planner Jennifer Raitt, who is managing the implementation portion of the project on behalf of the planning agency. 

The establishment of the Regional Housing Services Office is the result of a two-year effort sponsored by MAPC using funding provided by the state’s District Local Technical Assistance (DLTA) program, and led by the town managers of the six participating towns.

DLTA funding helps promote regional collaboration, economic development, better land use and zoning, and environmental protection across the Commonwealth. The funds are administered each year through a competitive process managed by MAPC, which is the regional planning agency serving the people who live and work in 101 cities and towns of Greater Boston.

The Regional Housing Services Office is funded through membership fees paid by the participating towns, and will provide oversight and monitoring services for the towns. The initiative was granted a third year of DLTA funding for MAPC to assist with activities to launch the new office.

“Our regional housing approach makes efficient use of housing resources and expertise. The office helps municipalities plan, permit, monitor, and maintain their affordable housing stock while increasing opportunities for low and moderate income households,” said Sudbury Community Housing Coordinator Beth Rust, who manages the regional office. “Once we see the results from our first year of operation, we hope other neighboring municipalities will seek to join.”