headline from the Mayor’s Office   / read more

$22 MILLION IN NEW FUNDING FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING ANNOUNCED

is money that may already have been spent, it depends. But for the neighborhoods of Mattapan, Dorchester, Downtown Jamaica Plain, Roxbury and the Fenway, it is good news well received.

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New affordable housing development equals new apartments, condos or single family homes.  Affordable housing for income restricted individuals and families is the best kind.  To become eligible to rent or purchase an “affordable home” your annual take home pay could be as low as $19,200 ( even lower with housing vouchers) and many of our elderly citizens desperately need the help.  So do millennials on the up and up.

Now these are new stock. Brand shiny new apartments no one has ever lived in before. A 1 Br would rent for no more than $1150.00 The rent rates are fixed by government. Affordale rent rates reflect a percentage discount for making less than $68,000 a year in income.  So if you make $40,000 you are eligible for a low rent rate. If your friend makes $52,000 and wants to live in the same building they would pay $1,774 or more for the same rental – when that affordable rental unit is designated income restricted by way of a chart that shows rents based on 30,50,50 nd 70% AMI or the area median income ( $68.5k) per individual.

Millennials on the up and up can quickly figure out if they are in an affordable housing situation right now. You take all your housing costs for rent/mortgage  and compare it to your monthly income.  Is  it between 30-35% of your income? If it is, you are living in an affordable housing cost scenario.