Eagle - Tribune
Home at Last program takes aim at high housing costs
By Colin Steele, Staff writer
January 13, 2006
ANDOVER — On a busy suburban, two-lane road, cars pass one of those familiar white signs that marks the border between towns. But this sign isn't like the others. It reads, "If you don't already live in this town, you probably can't afford to."
It's not a real-life scene — it's a catalog cover for a new countywide affordable housing initiative — but nevertheless, it's true. Massachusetts' high housing costs are affecting potential homebuyers, businesses and even the state's population.
"People don't live like this in other parts of the country," said Sarah Bartley of the North Shore Housing Trust. "In parts of the South, where I have friends living, they rent entire houses for what I pay for a one-bedroom apartment."
The Home at Last program, a partnership between the Citizens' Housing and Planning Association and the North Shore Housing Trust, hopes to change that in Essex County. The League of Women Voters of Andover and North Andover hosted a kick-off meeting at Memorial Hall Library last night that drew more than 50 people.
"Hopefully this will be a stimulus for us to advocate for affordable housing in Essex County," league President Peggy Kruse said.
The goals of Home at Last are to dispel myths about affordable housing and promote its creation. A video shown at last night's seminar highlighted Andover's success and featured several Merrimack Valley residents who live in affordable homes.
Louise and John Nirider moved to Haverhill after the costs of living in their Ipswich home of 38 years caught up with them.
"We couldn't get any affordable housing within Ipswich," John Nirider said in the video.
Andover is one of the few area towns that has met the state's goal that 10 percent of a community's housing stock be affordable. Houses, apartments and condominiums must be subsidized and available only to people in specific income levels to qualify.
Virginia DeBiase moved to an affordable unit at Greenwood Meadows in Andover because it was "about all I could afford," she said in the video.
With housing costs so high, especially in Andover and other wealthy towns, such projects can make it easier for teachers, police, firefighters and other municipal employees to live in the communities where they work, said Joan Duff, chairwoman of the Andover Housing Partnership Committee, before the meeting.
They have a similar benefit for the private sector. Businesses have left the area because their employees can't afford to live here, said Joseph Bevilacqua, president of the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce.
"(Affordable housing is) a place where not just employees but also managers can live in order for us to remain competitive," Bevilacqua said before the meeting.
It can also help keep young, skilled workers in the area.
"We want people who have grown up, gone to college and now come back to work in the Merrimack Valley," Bevilacqua said. "And one of the first questions they're going to ask is, 'Where do I live?'"
The video also aimed to eliminate stereotypes some people have about affordable housing. Most developments today are not housing projects; instead, the affordable units are right alongside market-rate units. And in fact, Chapter 40B, the state's "anti-snob" zoning law, requires the affordable units in a development to be identical to their market-rate counterparts from the exterior.
"Very many of the affordable housing projects that we have in town are attractive and appropriate," Duff said.
Affordable housing statistics
Under Chapter 40B, cities and towns must set aside 10 percent of their housing units as affordable. Here's how Merrimack Valley communities stack up:
| Lawrence | 14.8% |
| Andover | 11.8% |
| Haverhill | 8.5% |
| Methuen | 6.3% |
| North Andover | 5.9% |