LYNN — Residents and community leaders spoke Tuesday night about how a shortage of affordable units, rising rents and a preference for high-end developments has led to a housing crisis in the city.

The feedback was solicited during a heavily attended public forum at Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development, which kicked off a year-long community planning process for a 5-year comprehensive plan aimed at increasing the city’s affordable housing stock.

“Housing is such a big problem,” said state Rep. Peter Capano (D-Lynn). “We haven’t built housing in many years. Nobody can afford a house in Lynn anymore that actually comes from Lynn and is young. The rent is too damn high.”

But it’s not just Lynn, added state Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn).



“We are facing a housing crisis statewide,” said Crighton. “Our state now is among the worst in terms of housing production, but also in terms of affordability, whether you’re renting or owning a home.”

The community input that will lead to the development of an inclusive housing production plan is the city’s chance to address the problem, Capano said.

Coined Lynn Housing for All: A Plan for Inclusive Growth, the future document would meet all of the requirements of a Housing Production Plan (HPP), a proactive strategy for planning and developing affordable housing that would have to be approved by the Lynn City Council, Planning Board and state Department of Housing and Community Development.

A housing production plan is typically undertaken by communities that have less than 10 percent of its units designated as affordable, which is used to develop strategies for housing production aimed at meeting that state requirement under Chapter 40B.

Since the city has met that threshold, with 12.5 percent of its units considered affordable by the state’s Subsidized Housing Inventory, the plan being developed by Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development (LHAND) and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) is not a requirement.

But meeting its affordability threshold doesn’t mean all of the city’s housing needs have been met, which led to the city’s interest in developing the plan, said Karina Milchman, chief of housing and neighborhood development for the MAPC.

For instance, statistics shared by the MAPC showed that more than 42 percent of Lynn households are in a home they cannot afford. More than half of all households in Lynn are low-income, while 63 percent of those are cost-burdened, meaning that more than 30 percent of their income is spent on housing. Many are spending more than 50 percent on rent.

“We want to find some really good solutions that will help our community move forward together,” said Mayor Thomas M. McGee.

The majority of the evening was devoted to discussion about housing challenges facing the city and how better housing options can lead to improvements.

Participants in one focus group spoke about the need for more affordable units, rent control laws that keep landlords from raising rents and forcing people out of their homes, and new development that’s reflective of the entire community, rather than featuring only high-end or luxury units.

The problem is multi-layered, said resident Bob Reynolds, a member of the New Lynn Coalition. People can’t afford rents in places such as Boston or Cambridge and come to Lynn for a more affordable option. But what’s affordable to those people is not affordable to the city’s current residents, which then forces Lynn residents out.

“We’re very concerned with what’s going on in the city and there doesn’t seem to be anything addressing those concerns,” said Reynolds.

He’s not alone in recognizing the trend. According to information prepared by the MAPC, in the past Lynn has remained an option for people with low or moderate incomes, even as Boston and surrounding communities have become more expensive.

But now, greater demand to live in the inner core has driven up housing costs in Lynn, which is coupled with new developments that aren’t affordable to many current residents, according to the MAPC.

“They’re going to keep pushing people out and creating homelessness in the city,” said resident Derek White, a member of IUE-CWA Local 201.

While Tuesday’s session kicked off the public part of the process, planning started in September with data collection and analysis. Two more community forums will be held in the spring and next fall, which will look at where there are opportunities to add more housing and what parts of the city are appropriate for different types of housing.

“We really want this to be a community driven process and a plan that reflects the diversity of Lynn,” said Milchman.