Statement on the Announcement of the Housing Accelerator Fund

With the majority of Boston residents struggling with the cost to rent an apartment or purchase a home, we need to explore and embrace solutions that create housing access and affordability for all income levels, including our workers, families, young professionals, seniors, and students.

We’re used to the government giving away our public funds and public land to private developers to subsidize housing production.

We’re used to our public assets being used once and lost.

There’s a better way.

That’s why I called for exploring Mixed-Income Social Housing in my inaugural speech and first legislative filing last February. Social Housing is an innovative and fiscally responsible approach to housing production, investing public funds in mixed-income developments that recoup investments back for the public good instead of private profits — while also driving private investment in housing creation.

The local housing authority in Montgomery County, Maryland has successfully created hundreds of homes in a mixed-income, mixed-use community that opened last year.

They did it without needing traditional federal tax credits or funding. And they’ve found a way to do it that’s financially sustainable — and actually pays for itself.

In March, I sponsored a City Council hearing to discuss how we can bring these policy strategies to Boston, and hosted Paul Williams from the Center for Public Enterprise, a policy expert who’s been working closely on implementing these innovative approaches in Montgomery County and throughout the U.S.

I’m thrilled that Mayor Wu is advancing these policies that I’ve championed, with today’s announcement of a new Housing Accelerator Fund. This investment fund of up to $100 million will drive the creation of mixed-income housing, with the returns on investment reinvested in future projects.

The Housing Accelerator Fund will be a major step forward in bringing Mixed-Income Social Housing strategies to Boston as an important part of addressing our housing affordability crisis — and I look forward to working with my City Council colleagues to bring it to fruition.