TOWN OF NATICK Housing Production Plan

submitted for an additional 5 ownership units at 20 South Avenue and 138 rental units at
Paperboard will be added soon. That means 11.66% of the town’s housing stock will be
considered to be subsidized, and the Town of Natick has exceeded the state’s 10% goal (Merkel,
2012) (Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, p. 2012) See
Appendix A for the Town of Natick’s SHI. It is important to note that all of the units on the SHI
are not necessarily affordable or below market rate. In rental projects, for example, all units are
counted on the SHI even if only 20% are actually affordable to lower-income residents.
There are a total of 973 actual affordable housing units in Natick. Table 29 below breaks down
these affordable units by tenure and type. The table differs slightly from the state’s Subsidized
Housing Inventory (explained under “Chapter 40B” above) because the summary table only
includes units that are truly affordable and constructed.
Table 29
SUMMARY OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN NATICK
Rental
Family 271*
Senior/Disabled 559
DMH/DDS 52
Ownership
Family 97**
Total 979
*Chrysler and Paperboard totaling 130 are not yet built.
**South Natick Hills is still adding units
A core issue in many communities is some older deed riders on affordable units allow for
annual increases in sales prices. This kind of allowances has resulted in prices that quickly
exceed the maximum sales price threshold for households earning up to 80% of AMI. The units
therefore may become ineligible to be listed on the SHI. In these situations, the Affordable
Housing Trust may wish to work with owners of affordable units to try to “buy down” their
unit so that deed riders can be replaced with the state’s standard Local Initiative Program Deed
Rider. This will ensure long-term affordability and will allow the unit to remain on or be added
to the SHI. In addition, some communities are having issues with projects that use HOME
funds for homeownership development and/or for down payment assistance or first time
homebuyer training. There is a disconnect between what HOME will allow and the standard
form of deed rider required by DHCD.
State Public Housing
State public housing falls under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 667 for elderly housing
and Chapter 705 for family housing. State-aided public housing generally refers to projects
built with 100% state funding (i.e. construction grants or payments to the local housing
authority to cover debt service). There are some units whose construction has effectively been
paid by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through annual
payments to cover debt service, and some of their operating costs have been paid through
Section 8 programs. In elderly housing, occupancy is restricted to households with a member
46 | P a g e L D S C o n s u l t i n g G r o u p , L L C