Opinion: Affordable Housing is Cruel to the Majority
The Amherst Community Homes duplex development by the non-profit developer Valley Community Development is much needed. Amherst is in a severe housing shortage, to the point that it is spilling over into neighboring communities (look at housing prices in Belchertown/Granby/South Hadley along the border of Amherst versus the other side of the towns). The average price for a house for sale in Springfield is around $250,000. It is more than double that in Amherst, with about half of the housing units for sale in town being listed for more than $1 million. There are myriad reasons for this, the most obvious being the socio-economic divide in the Pioneer Valley, but another important factor that is often overlooked is that there is a glut of market rate housing in Springfield. As of May 20, 2025, there are about 210 houses for sale in Springfield on Zillow. In Amherst there are 30. (See above links) Even accounting for Springfield’s population being about 4x that of Amherst’s year-round population, there is about double the number of housing units available for sale in Springfield on a per capita basis. “Well of course Springfield has more houses, it is a city!”, you might cry, but that doesn’t negate the fact that there’s fewer houses going around for more people looking for them in Amherst. Springfield actually built houses for people when they needed them.
Amherst may be finally beginning to build much needed housing, but going back to the duplex development in North Amherst, begs the question, how on earth is it so expensive? It is estimated to cost over $20 million for just 30 affordable housing units. That is almost $700,000 per unit. Not only is this unaffordable for developers, but it is also untenable to continue to build “affordable” housing in a way that cannot be built affordably. Not only is the building of affordable housing expensive, but the subsequent market rate conditions after accounting for affordable units ultimately raises market rates. If a developer can build four units for $1 million, they can expect a 10-20% profit, or $200,000 if we’re being generous, for a gross total of $1.2 million. Split between four units, the market rate would be $300,000. Now imagine one of the units is required to be affordable, which would bring the price down to about $150,000 for one of the units. What do we think the developer is going to do with the prices of the other three units? Developers need to make money too. No company, or individual for that matter, is going to put hours and years of work through meetings, public comments, design standards and more into developing housing to only make percentiles of pennies on the dollar.
When there is a shortage of housing, there is little to no distinction in the market between “affordable” and “market rate”, the only feature that is felt is the lack of supply. Fundamentally, an affordable and market rate unit offers the same thing, a place to live. The only difference is who qualifies. Amherst’s affordable housing bylaw, although only required for projects with greater than 10 units as well as with an option to “buy out” of the requirement to build affordable units, ultimately creates more barriers to developing housing, driving up prices. I do not claim that affordable housing projects and the affordable housing bylaw are the sole cause of Amherst’s housing struggles. However, the regulatory environment created by these “affordability” bylaws, as well as the financial impact of them on developers pushes up market rates. This effect on market rate housing is felt even more strongly in communities such as Amherst with a below-median-income.
Affordable housing is forcing out the majority, the middle and the working class. In its place will be the 20% of the population that can qualify for housing support, and the top 10% that can afford the market rate conditions created by “affordability”. The premise of affordable housing is admirable. Housing should be a human right. However, we must take a hard look at our policies as progressives and liberals to see what is, and what is not working.
Republicans and conservatives are running circles around Democrats and progressively run areas when it comes to not only building and providing housing, but also growing their populations. We must refocus and rethink our priorities rather than being aligned to a policy that is not working. This column is not even going to get into the zoning bylaws, public meetings, and myriad other regulations the town of Amherst has in place that make it incredibly difficult (and subsequently, expensive) to build. Affordable housing regulations take the plight of the housing insecure from the bottom 20% of society, and thrusts it upon the majority. It is cruel, and there are better ways forward, for those that are housing insecure, and for those that make an average living.
Craig Judicki is a lifelong resident of Granby, Massachusetts.