A Time for Linked Fees for Affordable Housing

“Incentives Proposed to Build Affordable Housing” [Oct. 16] correctly points out the difficulties in developing incentives to encourage production of affordable housing.

Over the years, I have been involved as a developer working with communities to put together effective incentive packages that can gain consensus. In Boston, for example, we have developed linkage fees and community benefit packages that have created trusts to produce affordable housing and to provide social services. Naturally, developers will resist linkage fees. But when the market is strong and the competition is stiff, such plans can be put in place.

One significant example I have been involved with in Boston over the last 10 years has yielded a 36-story tower in the financial district now under construction that is fully leased and an office building in the inner city, both of which were developed under a linkage program I helped develop with the city of Boston. These linked projects have provided funds for trusts to the tune of millions of dollars for affordable housing and social services in the two impacted communities, Roxbury and Chinatown.

Another variation on this theme is the Land Bank on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. This bank is funded with 2% of each real estate transaction on the island with the purpose of preserving open space and keeping it from development. Now that the affordable-housing crunch has hit Martha’s Vineyard, we are looking at using some of these funds for the creation of housing.

The challenge of developing incentives for the creation of affordable housing is critical today. It can be done. The real challenge is creating such incentives when the economy and real estate market are on the downside. But it is incumbent upon the public sector and the broader community to aggressively negotiate with developers to put such incentives in place, as the affordable-housing crisis affects us all.

Philip S. Hart

Los Feliz