Last year, the Greater Boston area reached some grim milestones as its housing crisis continues to escalate: Average monthly rent is now above $3,000, and the median down payment for a house rose to an eye-watering $105,000, according to a recent report from the Boston-based public policy think tank the Pioneer Institute.
Now, Boston officials are hoping that empty school and other city buildings could be a fix as a means to boost housing supply.
At a hearing Monday, officials from Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration updated the City Council on the city’s efforts to convert old school and municipal buildings into affordable housing. The city has several projects underway to reimagine municipally owned properties and presented several successful examples of old school buildings redeveloped into housing.
Despite the progress, city leaders acknowledged the process is time-consuming and faces financial constraints.
Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, who asked for the hearing, called housing affordability one of the most critical issues facing the city. Converting properties the city already owns into homes for people could be a key part of its strategy to address the crisis, she said.
“Our city owns much land and many buildings, such as parking lots, schools, police stations, libraries, that are vacant or underutilized,” Louijeune said. “I’m hopeful that today we can start reimagining how we use these assets and how we can help address this housing shortage in a meaningful way.”
A citywide land audit by Wu’s administration in 2022 found that 5.4 percent of the city’s properties is either vacant or underutilized. That is equal to 9.5 million square feet of land, the equivalent of about 165 football fields. Most of that available city property is empty, without existing structures on it, officials said.
Right now, there are at least six large properties that the city is in the process of repurposing into housing, which will eventually create an additional about 1550 apartment units, about 80 percent of which will be income-restricted, said Sheila Dillon, the city’s chief of housing.
Among the examples Dillon shared with the council Monday was the former William Barton Rogers Middle School in Hyde Park, which reopened in June as a residential apartment building with 74 income-restricted units for LGBTQ-friendly seniors over the age of 62.
But while myriad funding sources contribute to these projects, Dillon said it’s still not enough, and the city will have to find more to keep the effort going.
Wu and other advocates have pushed for lawmakers on Beacon Hill to allow Boston to implement a transfer fee, or a new tax on high-dollar real estate sales, which Wu has said could raise up to $100 million per year for affordable housing projects across the city. But the measure remains in limbo at the State House since it failed to pass before the end of formal sessions this summer.
Boston also recently allocated its last $7 million of federal pandemic relief, or ARPA, funds to continue several affordable housing and small business programs. Out of the $560 million the city received as part of the program, more than 40 percent went to housing initiatives.
“Transfer fee didn’t pass, and ARPA is drying up, so I think we’re going to have to really look at asking the state to help us more with our projects we want,” Dillon said.
In response to questions from councilors, Dillon acknowledged that renovating old buildings or building new ones is an expensive proposition, especially in the current environment in which both labor and materials are extremely expensive. It also comes with the trade-off of the revenue the city could reap if it sold some of these properties.
“Some cities take their assets and see them as revenue generating; we have chosen when possible to create affordable housing or open space or senior centers,” said Dillon. “Occasionally, a site just doesn’t have value as affordable housing or urban agriculture or community use, and then we will get it appraised and we’ll put it out on the market, but that’s rare, and that’s only after we’ve looked at other options.”
Despite the urgent need for more housing, these projects can also take longer than is ideal, in part because the city prioritizes a robust community engagement process that can take more than six months.
Dillon admitted the process can be improved, but defended the time the city spends gathering public input, arguing that communities should have a strong say in what happens to public assets they’ve used or relied on for decades.
Dariela Villon-Maga, the founder of DVM Housing Partners, a Roxbury-based, Black-owned firm that produces affordable housing, agreed. She said one project she worked on had more than a year’s worth of public input before the city even solicited proposals from developers.
“I can say firsthand that there was tremendous buy-in from the community based on that, and that also allowed us to move forward a lot faster,” Villon-Maga said. “Intentional community engagement does reap those benefits.”
Niki Griswold can be reached at niki.griswold@globe.com. Follow her @nikigriswold.