Check SCREEN READER MODE to make this survey compatible with screen readers.
Needham, MA Community Housing Survey
The Needham Planning Board is sponsoring the preparation of a Housing Plan to obtain updated documentation on demographic shifts and housing conditions. This will help identify priority local housing needs to guide decision-making on the Town’s future housing agenda. To undertake this work, the Planning Board appointed a Working Group composed of representatives of various local boards and committees as well as at-large members of the community.
The Town of Needham has not had an approved Housing Plan in place since 2007, although it has made considerable progress in producing affordable housing since then. A total of 894 units were added to the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (“DHCD”) Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI) maintained under MGL Chapter 40B, although 238 were actually affordable to those with incomes at or below 80% of area median income and 656 were market-rate units. In counting a community’s progress toward this Chapter 40B 10% threshold, the state counts all housing units in rental developments in the SHI if the development meets a number of requirements under Chapter 40B including that 25% of the units are deed restricted and targeted to those with incomes at or below 80% of area median income (or 20% restricted to those with incomes at or below 50% of area median income), the limits of which are included in the table below. These restricted units are often referred to as “A” affordable. There are moderately-priced units available on the open market that do not qualify for the SHI, referred to as Market Affordable Housing, but they still help address housing needs in the community as do the market-rent units in 40B rental developments.
Despite surpassing this 10% threshold, the Town recognizes that significant unmet housing needs remain, particularly in the context of unprecedented housing prices. Consequently, the Town is revisiting its housing agenda by obtaining updated documentation on the local housing dynamic and preparing a Housing Plan to strategically address identified priority housing needs.
The active engagement of the community is a key component of the planning process. The Working Group has held public forums and workshops to solicit community input. A summary of this input and other materials related to the preparation of the Needham Housing Plan can be accessed at www.needhamma.gov/housingplan2021.
The Housing Plan Working Group is issuing this Community Housing Survey as another means of obtaining community input into the important issue of housing. The Survey is meant to be easy to complete and will only take a few minutes.
Responses to this survey are due no later Thursday, May 19, 2022 at noon. For questions, email planning@needhamma.gov.