Healey tours Main South development to highlight affordable housing crisis

WORCESTER — It was a day of celebration and sobering reality.

Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, plus a host of local and state dignitaries, toured Grand Street Commons Monday, a new $18 million affordable-housing development on Grand Street in Main South.

After touring two of the developments 48 units — 46 of them classified as affordable — Healey told those in attendance that this was an “important project.”

Acknowledging the need for more affordable housing, not just in Worcester, but statewide, Healey said, “We are nimble, innovative and responsible and our marching orders are, 'Let’s get up and go,'" to increase the supply of affordable housing.

What Healey heard was those marching orders need to happen now.

Steve Teasdale, the executive director of the Main South Community Development Corporation that has redeveloped numerous properties in Main South including Grand Street Commons, gave Healey and others in attendance some numbers to highlight the affordable-housing crisis in Worcester.

Affordable housing demand high

One is 1,700 applications were submitted for the 48 units at Grand Street Commons, 46 of them for tenants earning no more than 60% of the Area Median Income.

That translates to $43,000 annually for one person, $57,000 for a family of four.

Another number Teasdale shared is 16 more developments on par with Grand Street Commons could be built in Main South right now and it still wouldn’t satisfy the demand for affordable housing in the neighborhood.

There’s more, according to Teasdale.

Roughly 64% of renters in Worcester earn less than $50,000 yearly, and while 5,000 new units are currently being developed or are in the planning stage in Worcester, only 6% are classified as affordable.

“There is an affordable housing crisis in Massachusetts, and the (Healey) administration recognizes that,” said Teasdale. “I’m delighted to see the administration come to Main South to make a point of it.”

City inclusionary zoning needed

While highlighting that Worcester’s current building boom is “laudable,” Teasdale said many longtime city residents are being priced out of their homes.

Teasdale not only called on more financial support from all levels of government, but also urged Worcester to approve an inclusionary zoning ordinance.

The city’s economic development committee is reviewing the proposed ordinance. It calls for developers of more than 12-unit projects to set aside 15% of habitable square footage at 80% of area median income or 10% of habitable square footage at 60% area median income (roughly $53,000 for a family of two) or some combination of the two.

If approved by the City Council, Teasdale said it would create 500 units of affordable housing in the city.

One person who would likely support passage is Steve Wage.

Wage rented part of a three-decker in Worcester’s west side for 12 years, but had to vacate when the owner decided it was time to sell the building because of the city’s hot real estate market.

It took Wage, 66, a total of 18 months to find affordable housing. He was the first tenant to move into Grand Street Commons.

“I have a roof over my head and I’m warm now,” said Wage.

The Healey administration says it’s taking the afforable-housing crisis seriously, pointing to legislation it filed last week to create the Executive Office of Housing and a cabinet level position to run it.

A Healey spokeswoman said there is language in the legislation that requires lawmakers to take a vote within 60 days.

Addressing those in attendance, Healey said, “We understand the need for more housing now. It’s our responsibility to increase housing.”

Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @henrytelegram

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Gov. Healey tours Main South development to highlight affordable housing crisis