Boston Council Scrutinizes Deed Restrictions on Affordable Homeownership at Packed Hearing

BOSTON — September 19, 2024 — Boston's City Council housing committee held a contentious hearing on deed restrictions affecting nearly 3,000 affordable homeownership units, with city officials defending recent reforms while community advocates and homeowners demanded deeper changes. Committee Chair Liz Breadon convened the session on Docket 0704, sponsored by Councillor Tanya Fernandes-Anderson, which drew a full chamber of residents and sharp disagreement over whether restrictions preserve community stability or trap Black and Latino families in a second class of homeownership. Sheila Dillon, Chief of the Mayor's Office of Housing, said the city has already updated its deed rider for new units — raising the annual appreciation cap from 3 percent to 5 percent compounded, extending capital improvement credits from 1 percent to 3 percent per year, and dropping the city's option to extend the 30-year term by an additional 20 years — but acknowledged that changes to existing agreements remain under study. Former state senator Diane Wilkerson, representing 44 Roxbury homeowners, told the council that Black homeownership in Roxbury has fallen from 32 percent in 2020 to 26 percent, called the restrictions "the only vehicle available to Black and Latino people" that is being actively constrained, and alleged those homeowners never signed the covenant now being used to extend their restrictions to 50 years. The Boston Housing Authority First Home Program offers grants up to $75,000 toward purchase, and the Mayor has directed that sellers of deed-restricted homes be made eligible for first-time buyer assistance when purchasing market-rate homes — a change not yet in effect.