Repealing 40B Will Help Massachusetts

Do you really want developers and their banks making decisions for you?

Special interest lobbyists continue to make false claims in the press about 40B's contributions to affordable housing as part of an ongoing disinformation campaign. These elite power-brokers along with the head's of CHAPA, DHCD and other developer lobbyists, continue to make outrageous claims that suggest 40B is good for us! All the while, they continue to get rich while Massachusetts ranks 49th in national housing affordability,working families are left behind and the environment and economy are degraded.

Here's the real truth, according to the state's own statistics and official reports:

40B Developments
  1969-1999 2000-2006
Total Developments 499 480
Total Units 26,264 28,109
Rental Developments 387 151
Home-Owner Developments 112 320
Total Affordable Units 19,279 8,337
Total % Affordable 73.4% 29.7%

Conclusion: 40B builds less affordable housing; doesn't make its "affordable" housing realistically affordable; and forces the construction of unnecessary and expensive market-rate homes. Massachusetts ranks 49th in national housing affordability.

Fact: Page 47 Greater Boston Housing Report Card 2006-2007:

  • % of Communities Affordable to First-Time Homebuyers earning 80% AMI in 1998 = 72%
  • % of Communities Affordable to First-Time Homebuyers earning 80% AMI in 2006 = 4%

*Editor's note: During the period above when affordability dropped 90%, 40B units were built at record-highs (developing more than the prior 31 years combined)! Considering these staggering losses in affordability, 40B is clearly not producing the kind of housing that is needed as seen by the following chart:

Alternatives to 40B Win
Year Total Affordable Units by Other Programs Total 40B Affordable Units
2003 2086 989
2004 2298 1185
2005 3095 1449
2006 3320 894
Total 10,799 4,517

*Source: Data used and calculated from Greater Boston Housing Report Card 2006-2007, Table 5.1; Update on 40B March 2007 and data from the Massachusetts Municipal Association

The results show that not only do alternative programs (such as inclusionary zoning) clearly outpace 40B, but they make valuable contributions of affordable housing that serve a much wider range of deserving residents. The fact that Boston is the perennial leader in affordable housing production and has never used 40B (it utilizes inclusionary zoning) is reason enough to pursue inclusionary zoning instead of 40B.

Developer lobbyists and Beacon Hill power-brokers also claim 40B has led to the creation of 80 percent of all new affordable homes in Greater Boston over the past five years. The truth can be found on page 19 of the "Update on 40B Housing Production" report, March 2007. 40B's Contribution to expanding our stock of affordable housing is limited. The Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI) has increased because of other programs and loopholes. The report concludes: "The majority (an estimated two thirds) of additions to the SHI since 2001 have resulted from homeowner repair programs, the qualifying of existing housing that serve clients of DMH /DMR, and market rate units in rental developments for which the host community gets credit on the inventory."

*Editor's note: This confirms that 2/3 of additions to the state's affordable housing stock come from programs other than 40B, existing units that are re-named and from market-rate homes. This number also ignores completely the contribution of approx. 2,000 units of affordable housing per year produced by cities and towns, of which 0 will be counted by the state because it doesn't fall under 40B's definitions. RESULT: Best case scenario is that 40B has contributed up to 33% and other programs have contributed more than 67%

40B puts profits in front of people. Help us stop what the Inspector General has called "one of the biggest abuses in state history." Click here to help us now.