Haverhill Housing Forum Details Housing Challenges in the City, Recommends Key Policy Changes 

The public forum brought together local, regional, and state partners to present the status of housing in the city and recommended policy changes.  

HAVERHILL – On Wednesday, April 6, the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission (MVPC), Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP), and the City of Haverhill hosted the Haverhill Housing Forum. The event, located at HC Media in Harbor Place, featured Haverhill residents discussing their challenges finding housing, an overview of housing data in the city, and key recommendations for how the city can address the housing needs of residents. The event was well-attended by the public, and attendees included Mayor Fiorentini, City Councilors, School Committee members, business owners, and city residents. Attendees were welcomed into the HC Media space with food catered by La Pizza Di Forno to accommodate those opting to spend their evening discussing critical housing issues in lieu of dinner. Well attended by the public, attendees included Mayor Fiorentini, City Councilors, School Committee members, business owners, and city residents.  

“Addressing the housing crisis is the top priority for my administration,” Mayor Fiorentini stated, “increased production of all types of housing is necessary to ensure each resident has access to quality and affordable housing in Haverhill. To that end, I’m grateful our partners at MVPC and MHP worked closely with our Community Development Department to put together this forum to educate and hear from our residents and elected officials on the housing challenges the city faces.”

Jerrard Whitten, Executive Director of the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission, opened the event saying, “Housing continues to be a top priority for all the communities in the Merrimack Valley. We are proud to work with each community on identifying strategies for more affordable and abundant housing.”

To kick off the forum, four Haverhill residents spoke on their own experiences of struggling to find adequate, affordable housing in the city. Stories from panelists included years of being unhoused and the struggles associated with not having a place to call home; the challenge of being a single parent looking for safe and dignified housing to raise children; and the reality of a being a young professional recently priced out of Haverhill—a city that he still calls “home” though he cannot afford to live there anymore. The bravery and vulnerability of this panel of past and present Haverhill residents brought in the important, and sometimes difficult and emotional, piece of discussing housing policy, and the forum planning group is incredibly grateful for the panelists’ time and energy spent on making the forum a well-rounded success. 

“It’s important to understand that people are not just data points, and that housing policies impact residents in very real ways,” says Nate Robertson, Community and Economic Development Program Manager at MVPC, “before diving into the data highlighting Haverhill’s housing challenges, we wanted to show the faces behind the numbers.” 

Robertson conducted an overview of housing data in the city—reviewing the current housing stock, renter vs owner divide, and demographics of residents. According to the presentation, both the state and city have under produced housing for the past 20 years, creating an imbalance between supply and demand for housing units. Robertson explained that this supply shortage has resulted in a majority of renter occupied households in Haverhill to be housing cost burdened—meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. 

Christine Madore, Senior Development Manager at MHP, followed the data with answers to frequently asked questions on housing. Discussing new development’s impact on population, affordability, school enrollments, and municipal finances, Madore explained how multifamily housing does not necessarily have the negative impacts is it often perceived to. Addressing concerns about development’s relationship with school enrollment, she pointed to data across both the city and state demonstrating that new development does not correlate with increases in student population.   

“The concerns heard in Haverhill related to new development are very similar to what we hear in cities and towns across the Commonwealth,” explained Madore, “the good news is, there are demonstrated ways to address those concerns by both analyzing the housing data and implementing effective policy to create housing for all residents in the city.” 

Suggested policy changes mentioned in Madore’s presentation included establishing a municipal affordable housing trust, enacting the Community Preservation Act, revising zoning bylaws to allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and implementing Inclusionary Zoning—a policy that would mandate all new development incorporate affordable housing units. 

Wrapping up with a question-and-answer portion, the forum allowed members of the public to share their ideas and thoughts on housing in the city. Coming out of the forum, Mayor Fiorentini has directed his Housing Task Force to draft an inclusionary zoning bylaw for proposal to the City Council. 

The conditions that created the housing crisis we are in today are decades in the making and changing those conditions will take time. Events such as the Haverhill Housing Forum are a nod towards how community-engaged processes can lead to faster action, and more robust, informed action as a result of hearing real stories from real Haverhill residents. Hosting a housing forum was a first for the City of Haverhill, and it is during an exciting time of rapid positive change in the municipal planning world. Adequate housing for all residents in a municipality is a cornerstone to a thriving community, and events such as this help us get to where we need to go in terms of housing equity.   

Click Here for Haverhill Housing Forum Slides

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About the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission: The Merrimack Valley Planning Commission is a regional planning agency created in 1959 with a goal of consistently planning, developing, and promoting not only the sustainable development of the Merrimack Valley through responsible and efficient use of regional resources, but to also rally and unify the communities to perpetuate the region’s vision. A 16-member Board of Commissioners governs the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission, which serves 15 member communities, including the cities of Amesbury, Haverhill, Lawrence, Methuen and Newburyport, and the towns of Andover, Boxford, Georgetown, Groveland, Merrimac, Newbury, North Andover, Rowley, Salisbury, and West Newbury.

About the Massachusetts Housing Partnership: The Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) is a statewide public nonprofit affordable housing organization that works in concert with the Governor and the state Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to help increase the supply of affordable housing in Massachusetts. MHP works with communities to create innovative policy and financing solutions that provide affordable homes and better lives for the people of Massachusetts.