The City of Somerville opened applications for its Inclusionary Housing Program’s new Consolidated Rental Waitlist on April 1.
The waitlist will facilitate access to Somerville’s income-restricted housing initiative, which reserves units in Somerville for people who meet specific income requirements. The applications will be open until May 30.
The program is designed to create affordable access to living in Somerville, prioritizing people who already live and work in Somerville and surrounding communities.
“Folks realize [Somerville is] not affordable in terms of living expenses. So there is a huge need to have income-restricted housing available to the residents,” Alanna Gaffny, Inclusionary Housing Program manager, said.
The City of Somerville requires that all new housing developments with more than four units have 20% of the units designated as income-restricted. There are approximately 400 inclusionary rentals in Somerville, with an additional 250 being added in the next five years.
“[These properties are] the largest vehicle for affordable housing in the city,” Gaffny said. “We make sure that those units go to folks who are at the 50%, 80% and 110% of the area median income for the Boston metro area.”
Eligibility for the consolidated rental waitlist is determined by an applicant’s household size, and income compared to the area’s median income. According to the Somerville Housing Division, households of four making up to $179,520 could qualify to apply for a spot on the Consolidated Rental Waitlist for an inclusionary rental unit.
Immigration status is not required to be disclosed in the application and does not impact a household’s ability to be on the Consolidated Rental Waitlist. According to Gaffny, the waitlist is there for anyone who wants to live in Somerville and meets the eligibility requirements.
“Anyone who wants to call Somerville home and is looking for a rental unit should apply for the Consolidated Rental Waitlist,” Gaffny said. “We’re going to try our best to place you and make sure that we’re getting you in a unit that you can afford long term. That’s really what our goal is, is to keep Somervillians in Somerville and to make sure that they can afford their rent.”
The Inclusionary Housing Program has existed since the 1990s, but in the past it required households to apply for a waitlist at specific properties. The new program will only require one application for all units, which households can edit as they wait without losing their place on the waitlist.
At an information session to discuss the now open application, Benjamin Wyner, Somerville Inclusionary Housing Program specialist, explained the changes to the program.
The program will divide the accepted households into three groups, or “preferences,” which will place them in sections on the waitlist. Current Somerville residents or people with children in Somerville public or charter schools will be in the first preference.
The second preference is for people who work more than 20 hours in Somerville, or who moved out in the past 2 years. The third preference is for people who do not fall into either of the previous groups.
Within each preference group there will be households with a priority status. Households that have a member who is experiencing homelessness, domestic-violence, currently living in an unsafe unit, are in need of a unit that is accessible, have a mobile voucher or are at risk of losing housing may have a priority status.
On June 9, there will be a public, randomized waitlist selection to place each household on the waitlist. Open units will then be presented to those at the top of the waitlist and then work their way down the list.
There is no guarantee of a rental unit if one is accepted to the Consolidated Rental Waitlist: The Inclusionary Rental Program can receive thousands of applicants. The team hopes that the new waitlist will help get people off the waitlist sooner and allow them to collect data on how long the process will take in the future.
Though not every applicant will eventually receive a rental property, Gaffny sees the program as a way to create a strong community in Somerville.
“We want to have a really vibrant, diverse community, and the only way to be able to accomplish that, and to really make sure that we have people who have lived here and have their families here be able to stay, is to make sure there’s that commitment to having income-restricted housing,” Gaffny said.
Applications for the Consolidated Rental Waitlist can be accessed at somervillewaitlist.org. Staff from the Somerville Housing Division are available at inclusionary@somervillema.gov, and will be physically available in the City Hall Annex and Somerville Public Libraries through April and May. The Housing Division provides the application in languages other than English and live translation as necessary.
