Unlocking Opportunity: an ASSESSMENT of BARRIERS to FAIR HOUSING in NORTHAMPTON
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Unlocking Opportunity: AN ASSESSMENT OF BARRIERS TO FAIR HOUSING IN NORTHAMPTON 2019 Prepared by the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission in conjunction with the Northampton Housing Partnership Unlocking Opportunity: An Assessment of Barriers to Fair Housing in Northampton Prepared by Pioneer Valley Planning Commission 60 Congress Street Springfield, MA 01104 August 2019 Acknowledgements Northampton Housing Partnership Gordon Shaw Carmen Junno Richard Abuza Dan Krassner Jim Reis Alexander Jarrett Mark Goggins Julio Alves Rev. Todd Weir Edgardo Cancel Patrick Boughan Rebecca Lockwood Kyla Prior Theresa Poe Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Allison Curtis Ashley Eaton Catherine Ratté Jillian DeCoursey Special thanks to Peg Keller, Northampton Housing and Community Development Planner, who provided invaluable information and guidance throughout the creation of this document. This report was funded by the City of Northampton through a general fund appropriation as recommended by the Mayor and approved by the City Council. Cover photo credit: Richard Cowles, Paradise Pond Apartments West Street, Northampton Project Architect: Peter Frothingham, Real Estate Project Manager: Karen Leveille, HAP Housing Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................iv Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 1 Identified Impediments to Fair Housing Choice .............................................................................. 2 Actions to Address Identified Impediments ..................................................................................... 3 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 2 Protected Classes and Expansion of Fair Housing Protection ......................................................... 4 Barrier 1: Cost of Housing ....................................................................................................................... 8 Barrier 2: Limited Job Opportunities .................................................................................................... 17 Barrier 3: Limited Knowledge of Fair Housing Rights and Lack of Trust in Enforcement ............... 19 Barrier 4: Lack of Housing for Families ............................................................................................... 20 Barrier 5: Impediments to Accessibility for Those with Disabilities ................................................. 22 Barrier 6: Limited Public Transportation ............................................................................................. 25 Barrier 7: Section 8 Voucher Discrimination ....................................................................................... 27 Barrier 8: Northampton Housing Authority Local Preference ............................................................ 29 Barrier 9: Fair Market Rent Calculation ............................................................................................... 31 Barrier 10: Difficulty of Navigating Affordable Housing System ...................................................... 32 Barrier 11: Service Agencies Have Limited Resources ........................................................................ 33 Barrier 12: Northampton Housing Authority Information Accessibility ........................................... 34 Barrier 14: Length of Affordable Housing Waitlists............................................................................ 37 Barrier 15: Lead Paint............................................................................................................................. 38 Barrier 16: Sub-Standard Housing Stock ............................................................................................. 42 Action Plan ............................................................................................................................................. 44 Appendices ............................................................................................................................................ 49 Appendix A: Community Engagement ................................................................................................ 50 Appendix B: General Background Data ............................................................................................... 55 Appendix C: Public and Private Sector Characteristics ....................................................................... 80 Appendix D: Current Fair Housing Profile .......................................................................................... 95 Appendix E: Housing Projections........................................................................................................100 Appendix F: Terms and Definitions ....................................................................................................105 Executive Summary The Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), home to Northampton, Springfield and most of the cities and towns in the Pioneer Valley, ranks third in the country for MSAs with the highest dissimilarity indices between White and Hispanic populations.1 This index, used by HUD to assess levels of segregation between two groups, measures whether a racial or ethnic group is distributed equally across a region in the same way as another racial or ethnic group. A higher score, simply put, means higher levels of segregation between racial and ethnic groups. The City of Northampton is a welcoming community, rich in cultural and social amenities. Northampton itself is considered a “community of opportunity”—an area that provides access to high-quality education, a healthy and safe environment, sustainable employment, political empowerment, and avenues for wealth-building.2The city of Northampton is working to figure out how to address the legacy of institutionalized racism and disparate access to opportunity that resulted in our segregated region. According to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission’s Fair Housing Equity Assessment (FHEA), if the population of white people and people of color were evenly spread across the region, communities in the region should be 70/30 white/people of color. Northampton’s population is 81% white and 19% people of color. Northampton is committed to sustainability that specifically includes a focus on equity, as stated in the Office of Planning and Sustainability’s mission: Identify and implement the community vision for a sustainable and resilient future with a healthy and equitable economy and environment. Northampton’s land use regulations and local zoning are very forward-thinking with respect to the current trend to end zoning exclusively for single-family homes. In 2013 the city completed a long-term effort to overhaul the city’s zoning which resulted in expanded by right options for residential development as well as other changes that made it easier to develop housing in the city3. This Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice aims to identify and advance the city’s efforts to address barriers in access to housing and opportunity in Northampton. The inclusion of ‘access to opportunity’ with the focus on housing is grounded in decades of research that demonstrates that segregated neighborhoods where people of color were systematically forced to live not only have poorer quality housing but also poorer quality schools, grocery stores, roads and sidewalks, street lights and other infrastructure and other social determinants of health resulting in higher rates of preventable disease, lower rates of education, earning power, poorer health outcomes, economic opportunities and shorter life expectancy. In addition to race, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development recognizes that people experience discrimination in housing based on disability, national origin, sex, familial status, marital status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status, genetic information, ancestry and because they 1 7 http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010/SegSorting/Default.aspx. This study assigns a dissimilarity value for all MSAs in the country. The University of Michigan, Population Studies Center analyzed the MSAs with more than 500,000 people and ranked the Springfield MSA as the most segregated MSA in the country when considering White-Latino segregation. 2 The Geography of Opportunity: Building Communities of Opportunity in Massachusetts, The Kirwan Institute, January 2009. 3 Detailed in Appendix C, pp79-81 1 receive public assistance/housing subsidies. This update to Northampton’s Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice has found that there are impediments to Fair Housing Choice in the city. Identified Impediments to Fair Housing Choice • Cost of Housing and generational wealth • Zoning stops the production of multi-family disparity housing • Job opportunities lacking • Local preference • Lack of knowledge of fair housing rights • FMR does not capture the living expenses and little trust in organizations that do the for Northampton work • Information about how to access • Not enough housing with more than 2 affordable housing is difficult to find and bedrooms even harder to navigate • Not enough visitable rentals • Service agencies are tapped for resources • Growing affordability gap • Limited transportation