2021-12-00-CPC-rpt (Needs Assessment)

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THE CURRENT SETTING The effort in Lexington "to maintain a range of affordability" is increasingly difficult. The current median sale price for a one family home in Lexington is approximately $1,600,000 affordable only to families of five making at least$522,000/year(400% of the area median income). Even the least expensive homes on the market(older 2-bedroom houses) cost more than $600,000, affordable only to families making at least$179,400 (165% of the area median income for a family of 3). Current monthly market-rate rents in Lexington average approximately $2,500 for the least expensive a 2-bedroom apartment, affordable only to families making at least $104,400/year(96% of the area median income for a family of 3). The gradual replacement of smaller homes with larger, more expensive homes continues. Escalation of the cost of more modest residences and properties, due in some measure to developers' willingness to pay high prices for teardown sites, has limited LexHAB's ability to secure and rehabilitate such residences for affordable housing. In 2016 the Lexington Housing Authority completed the construction of four new ADA apartments at Greeley Village; this new construction would not have been possible without CPA funding. As Caileen Foley, the Executive Director of the Lexington Housing Authority said, "Housing Authorities have to be very creative to build more housing." Data from the recently completed 2020 census reveals some concerning trends relative to affordable housing in Lexington. Since the 2010 census, approximately 780 small houses were torn down to make way for larger, more expensive homes. During the same period the Town added 364 new housing units. Unfortunately, only three units were added to the Town's Subsidized Housing Inventory. If this rate of development of market-rate units continues apace, Lexington will soon be in danger of falling below the 40B 10% affordability requirement. One way to measure the need for more low-income and affordable housing in Lexington is to review the wait lists for both Lexington Housing Authority and LexHAB properties, and the response to lottery applications for first-time homebuyer opportunities in new private developments. Although both federal and state public housing wait lists are centralized, it is possible to estimate the numbers of individuals and families who selected Lexington as a preferred place to live on their applications. Of the 100,000 or so applicants on the CHAMP (state public housing)wait list, almost 4900 families selected Lexington and 3000 elderly or handicapped individuals listed Lexington as one of their preferences. This is an increase of over 1000 in both categories since 2020. The average wait time for a unit at Countryside Village (federal) is four years. The average wait time for a unit at Greeley Village, Vynebrook Village and scattered family sites (state public housing) is four to five years. Only approximately 15 units in the entire Lexington Housing Authority portfolio are vacated in any given year. The prospects for a family or an individual to acquire a `Section 8' voucher are equally grim; the average wait time for a voucher is 8 years. Data from LexHAB show a similar trend. There were 176 applicants for the lottery for the six new affordable units at"Farmview" on Lowell Street; 122 names remain on the wait list. In the fall of this year, there were 61 applicants for a `wait list' lottery for LexHAB SHI units; at the time of the lottery, there were no vacancies in any of the units on LexHAB's SHI inventory. 9