New Bedford's 'tremendous' housing needs raised during Amaral interview for city post

NEW BEDFORD — The city's 'tremendous' housing needs came up during the City Council's recent Joshua Amaral interview for the Office of Housing and Community Development director's post.

Born and bred in New Bedford and a product of New Bedford public schools, as well as a former school committee member, Amaral said he knows the terrain he will be traversing if he's confirmed in the post at the council's full Dec. 6 meeting. He received a unanimous favorable recommendation after the council committee meeting on Nov. 22.City Council President Ian Abreu said during the interview the director's duties would be akin to threading a needle due to the city's full-spectrum housing needs.

"Obviously we have a tremendous need in the city for affordable and workforce housing," Abreu said. "I also know there's a need for a lot of market rate housing and development here because we also want to attract new families into the city as the South Coast Rail service comes in, and as other new developments start to pop off."

So, Abreu continued, how do you foster the growth of affordable and workforce housing while trying to bring in new growth through market rate housing developments? "How do you thread the needle?"

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Amaral said most people in the city would agree that "housing is certainly a hot button issue and a top priority."And they'd also agree that "New Bedford doesn't have quite enough housing," he said. "Improving the stock and getting units on line is first and foremost," and he pointed to efforts being made for housing on Union Street and the West End.

Another avenue, he said, would be to evaluate the city's vacant properties with an eye toward "bringing some properties that are underutilized back on line for the purposes of housing."

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A need for affordable housing

In the end, what matters to most people when you talk about "affordable" housing is what they can afford given the dynamics of their individual budgets. "When we talk to people from the public they don't necessarily get caught up on 'capital A' affordable housing so much as housing they can afford."

In New Bedford in the last few years, he said, rents have increased faster than wages to a point where people on fixed incomes can't afford their rents.

In the past, "Somebody with a $1,200-a-month social security benefit may have been able to rent an apartment for $800 and kind of get by for the rest of the month," he said.

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"Those units are now $1,200, $1,300, $1,400. At the same time you can compare those units to most if not all other communities in Massachusetts — except for maybe way out west — and they're still pretty much the cheapest units to live in across the state. So short of moving south — and those units are kind of increasing in price, too — or moving to certain places like pockets in Rhode Island there's not many places elsewhere to go. So you've got this mix where it's an expense problem in that the rents are higher than they've been but it's also a bit of an income problem in that folks here just typically have less resources at their disposal than other places in Massachusetts."

Managing all these dynamics are important, he said, and will entail more outreach to housing developers to convince them, as with other businesses, that New Bedford is the right place for them.

They need to be shown "why you should develop in New Bedford. Here's why we can make it economically viable. Here's the market analysis that's going to show — whether it's market rate or affordable units — the units are going to be well utilized."

He added, "I think we have a role to play in leading the region. I think trying to get out there with developers and making it as easy as we can to facilitate development in New Bedford to meet the need of our residents has to be a priority."

The Office of Housing and Community Development's mission, as stated on the city website, is engaging "residents, non-profit organizations, developers and the general public in articulating the city’s needs and priorities for expanding the stock of safe, decent and affordable housing, stimulating economic development, supporting programs and services for community development and revitalizing neighborhoods; in so doing it administers strategies that effectively utilize federal funding resources helping low and moderate income residents achieve theirvision of a healthy and viable community."

Funding is chiefly provided through federal programs like the HOME Investment Partnership Program, the Community Development Block Grant program, the Emergency Shelter Grant program and competitive funding for the Supportive Housing Program from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Amaral's experience with the housing crisis

Amaral's experience as the assistant executive director of People Acting in Community Endeavors Inc. since September 2018, as well as with the Homeless Service Providers Network, including the last couple of years as chair, has helped prepare him for the city post, he said.

"At PACE we've received virtually every form of funding the Office of Housing and Community Development has to offer. A lot of community action agencies like PACE and their community development offices have great working relationships with each other and the goals are pretty much aligned."

Amaral added, "The Office of Housing and Community Development is essentially the administrative entity for the Homeless Service Providers Network. So I've gotten to know folks in the office, but more importantly I've gotten to know the entire range of the homeless service providers, which is 60 to 70 different agencies of folks that attend those meetings."

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: New Bedford's 'tremendous' housing needs, what to do?