Vacant Public Land Could Harbor Thousands of Homes in Boston

The Greater Boston area has the land to add tens of thousands of much-needed housing units to the region. Whether or not it has the political will is a more complicated question.

Utilizing a mere 5 percent of the metro area’s vacant public land could lead to the delivery of 85,000 housing units, MassLive reported. The conclusion was reached in a recent report card published by the Boston Foundation, Boston Indicators and Boston University Initiative on Cities.

The report card is published annually, taking into account housing trends and demographics to analyze affordability in the region.

The government is the major landowner in Greater Boston. The state owns roughly 7 percent of the land, while municipalities account for another 17 percent. An estimated 20 percent of the state-owned land and 40 percent of the municipal land is vacant, approximately 112,000 acres in total.

Tight inventory has strained housing affordability. Home values have surged 86 percent since 2015. About a quarter of the cities and towns analyzed in the report boasted a median home price above $1 million during the first six months of the year.

Renters aren’t faring much better: in the past nine years rents in Greater Boston have risen by about 47 percent.

The authors of the report suggested the state streamline the planning process and ease the ability to build houses on public land. There are a multitude of points in the process where a project can be halted, especially as community opposition gains steam.

Massachusetts state officials this year signed the Affordable Homes Act, creating an analysis of its land to find parcels for affordable housing development; Boston conducted an audit of its own land two years ago.

The bill includes $30 million earmarked for the disposition of state-owned land. There are also measures to streamline the planning process and a requirement for towns to permit housing of at least four units per acre on state land.

— Holden Walter-Warner