By Andrea Macho
Boston University News Service
Worcester’s housing crisis reflects a nationwide trend: a severe shortage in affordable units caused by increasing rents and long wait-lists for Section 8 vouchers. This combination is forcing residents out of the city they’ve called home for generations.
“The fact that we have families or individuals that have spent their entire life here, maybe their parents and their brothers and their siblings have spent their entire lives in Worcester, for them to now be forced to have to go find housing outside the city they love, that’s the crisis we’re in,” said Alex Corrales, chief executive officer at the Worcester Housing Authority.
A Forbes analysis published in January found the Worcester metro area to be the third most competitive rental market in the United States. Worcester had one of the lowest vacancy rates nationwide, just 1.7%, and had seen the third-highest rent increase over the previous year, bringing the median rental price to $1,995, according to the study.
Amid these challenges, Corrales said the Housing Authority is working hard to expand affordable housing, promote resident self-sufficiency and support some of the community’s most vulnerable populations, including the elderly, chronically homeless and disabled. One major effort includes a large-scale revitalization project aimed at modernizing outdated public housing and increasing access to safe, affordable homes.
“When we take on these redevelopment projects, it’s not just rebuilding the number of apartments that were there. It’s how do we rebuild those and then add more, so we have more units that we can offer that are affordable for our community,” he said.
Corrales offers a straightforward solution to Worcester’s housing crisis: build more affordable units — a lot more of them.
While developers often meet the minimum requirements outlined by the city’s inclusionary zoning ordinance — which mandates development projects with 12 or more units must either include a set amount of affordable housing or contribute to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund — Corrales said he believes that simply meeting the baseline requirement isn’t enough.
As a model, he points to his agency’s redevelopment of Curtis Apartments where an additional 150 apartments are being created. This redevelopment project will replace all existing apartments and create new modern apartments, for a total of 527 units.
The Worcester Housing Authority manages around 3,000 federal and state-subsidized public housing units.
Corrales’ message is simple: If you want to develop in Worcester, you should be part of the solution. “We’re losing people in the city and it’s becoming a problem — if it’s not already a problem.”
Despite some progress in revitalizing the city’s housing infrastructure, challenges continue because the challenges are multifaceted, according to Colin Novick, executive director of the Greater Worcester Land Trust. Because the demand for affordable units is higher than ever, the middle class is left with fewer options.
“The price of houses is going up, and up, and the available supply is not able to meet the demand,” Novick said, pointing to external pressures.
“We have a lot of commuters from the Boston train line, and that pressure, and the prices they are prepared to pay, are driving some of those price increases and reduced supply,” he said.
“That desirability (to live in Worcester), coupled with factors we’re facing across the Northeast, like concentrations of old housing stock that lack the kinds of amenities younger buyers and renters are seeking, rising cost of construction and materials, and an elevated interest-rate environment, collectively act as barriers to getting more shovels in the ground, more, much needed job opportunities and more housing stock,” said a spokesperson for the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce.
This is evident in the numbers alone.
“Eight years ago, if I gave out 100 vouchers of Section 8, 93 people would be able to find an apartment within the city of Worcester,” said Corrales. At that time, the Worcester Housing Authority had a 93% lease-up rate — referring to the percentage of people able to secure a lease using a Section 8 voucher. Today, it’s just 52%.
Section 8 is a federal program that provides rental assistance to low-income individuals and families, helping them afford housing in the private rental market.
With approximately 20,000-22,000 people currently on the wait-list for affordable apartments, the demand is overwhelming and continuing to grow. The lack of available units isn’t just a statistic — it’s a harsh reality that can set individuals back years.
“For someone who’s been on the wait-list for 10 to 12 years waiting for a Section 8 voucher, waiting for some help finally coming their way, they receive a voucher, they go out and search for an apartment for four to six months. They can’t find one, so they have to return the voucher and reapply, start all over again, and wait another 10 to 12 years,” said Corrales. “That just isn’t fair and that’s what we’re facing today, that half the people I give vouchers to are going to lose them and have to restart all over again.”
Uncertainty at the federal level also threatens to slow progress and makes it difficult for organizations to plan long-term.
“Several proposals to cancel commercial leases for federal agencies and proposed cuts have been announced and just as quickly been shelved,” said the Chamber spokesperson. “Until the proposed action becomes reality, it may be too early to tell. It is something we continue to monitor.”
“I expect available funds for investment in building new housing to be tighter and to reduce new starts, which will continue to exacerbate the supply issue,” said Novick. “Tax incentives, I expect to get bogged down or canceled, reducing access for new buyers. Interest rates, I would expect to climb a bit, making borrowing harder. Housing subsidies, I expect to see get bogged down or eliminated.”
He said he believes these challenges may cause developers to postpone new projects and encourage homeowners to remain in place.
Corrales echoes these concerns, highlighting how potential cuts may affect the authority’s ability to serve the city’s most vulnerable.
“Whether those cuts are to important social service programs, whether it’s funding for our Section 8 vouchers, whether it’s critical funding for us to modernize and rehab our public housing units, any significant cut in those areas can certainly be detrimental to our ability and being able to continue to do the work that we do,” said Corrales.
“I want to say that we are certainly in a healthy position. In terms of our management of our finances, we’ve certainly set ourselves up to make sure that we’re prepared to absorb certain cuts, but certainly, depending on how deep those cuts are, they certainly will have a ripple effect.”
This story originally appeared in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
