Activists wary of senior-only housing

A growing number of suburbs are encouraging seniors-only projects that help them meet state affordable housing requirements but shut out low-income families, activists say.

''Our concern is that these projects are being done to the exclusion of family housing," said Aaron Gornstein, executive director of Citizens' Housing and Planning Association, a Boston-based group that advocates for affordable housing. The group plans to release a statewide report on the trend later this month.

A state law known as Chapter 40B is pushing suburbs to provide more affordable housing. The law allows developers to bypass certain local zoning regulations if they promise to sell or rent at least 20 percent of their units at below-market rates. Developers get that break until 10 percent of the housing stock in the community is affordable.

The citizens group said it has found that seniors-only projects now make up 20 percent of the housing planned or recently built in the past three years under the affordable housing law.

Age-restricted developments have been approved in recent years in a number of communities in the Globe West circulation area, including Lincoln, Westborough, Hopkinton, Ashland, Stow, Marlborough, Hudson, Sudbury, Southborough, Wayland, Millis, and Norfolk.

Philip Hailer, spokesman for the state Department of Housing and Community Development, acknowledged the trend, but said state officials are powerless to stop it.

''There is a very real need for elderly housing, and we encourage such development. But over the years, some communities have issued permits for this type of housing simply to discourage families with children moving into their town," Hailer said.

These projects, Gornstein added, bear little resemblance to the public housing projects for the elderly run by many communities. Instead, they are amenity-filled condos that cater to active adults age 55 and older.

''In some towns," Gornstein said, ''you are seeing three, four, five of these projects in a row."

Projects built under the affordable housing law can encounter stiff resistance from communities because of the anticipated influx of young children into local schools. Town officials say empty-nesters and graying baby boomers put far less of a strain on town budgets.

Gerry Desilets, planning director for the South Middlesex Opportunity Council, a Framingham-based social service agency, blames cuts in state aid to cities and towns for forcing communities to base housing decisions on the bottom line.

''Towns are hard-pressed to bring in people that will eat up services," he said. ''Property taxes are so high already."

Mark Whitehead, the town planner in Lincoln, which recently approved an age-restricted project, said such projects require ''fewer town services all around."

Such developments may help towns balance their budgets, but the lack of affordable housing for families is harming the region's economy, said Lynn Sand, who heads the 495/MetroWest Corridor Partnership, an economic development organization.

The number of adults ages 18 to 45 who live in the suburbs has fallen sharply in recent years, in large part because of high housing costs, she said.

''Clearly, the cost of living in Massachusetts is a primary reason for the outflux," she said. If companies can't hire workers because the workers can't find a place to live, she added, companies will relocate.

In its annual study of national housing costs, the National Low Income Housing Coalition found that housing expenses in Massachusetts were topped only by those in California.