WORCESTER – The Worcester Regional Research Bureau (WRRB) released a new report this week, “Raising Housing: Understanding the Affordable Housing Crisis in Worcester.”
The WRRB report highlights the bleak housing situation in Worcester.
Among the metrics included in the report:
- Massachusetts has the second-highest housing wage in the nation; a full-time worker must earn $44.84 per hour to afford a typical two-bedroom apartment while keeping housing costs at or below 30 percent of income.
- Worcester faces a deficit of more than 8,500 rental units affordable to households earning below 30 percent of Area Median Income, while shortages of higher-income housing push wealthier households into older, middle-priced units, driving up prices across the market.
- Forty percent of all Worcester households and half of renter households are cost-burdened, spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing; one in four residents is extremely cost-burdened, spending more than half of their income on housing.
- From 2013 to 2023, 62 percent of new housing units were built in Metro Boston, compared with just 6 percent in Central Massachusetts
- In Worcester, affording the median two-bedroom rental requires an annual income of $60,000 to $70,000—yet the median renter household earns only $40,000 to $45,000
The report also highlights that Worcester’s housing stock is aging. Housing built before 1960 accounts for nearly 60 percent of Worcester’s housing units. Housing built since 2000 account for under eight percent of the housing stock.
The WRRB also highlights the lack of homeownership in Worcester, noting that Worcester has the highest concentration of homeownership deserts among Gateway Cities in Massachusetts. A homeownership desert is a census tract where under 20 percent of housing units are owner-occupied.
Worcester has adopted several policies allowed by state law intended to enable the creation of additional housing. However, the WRRB report shows that of 17 local policies described as pro-housing, Worcester has implemented 12.
The first of the five policies Worcester hasn’t implemented is for a Smart Growth District. Authorized for opt-in by municipalities in chapter 40R of Massachusetts Law, a Smart Growth District allows high-density housing by right and requires at least 20 percent of new homes to be affordable. Half (13) of the gateway cities in the state have adopted 40R and have a Smart Grown District.
Worcester does not have programs or personnel dedicated to assisting emerging housing developers, like half (13) of Gateway Cities.
Both an expedited permitting process for multifamily housing development and duplexes allowed on at least half of residential parcels are also not policies in Worcester. Seven gateway cities (27%) have implemented those policies.
Four Gateway Cities have policies that allow three-family buildings by-right on at least half of residential parcels. Worcester does not.
