NORTHAMPTON — With a goal of making housing more affordable, both Amherst and Northampton are among 43 cities and towns across Massachusetts earning a 2025 Housing Choice Initiative designation, providing them better access to state funding and technical assistance to support housing growth and local planning efforts.
The designations, which the communities have held for several years, come as Northampton and Amherst continue to adopt policies that support increased housing production by lowering costs and reducing barriers to development.
“This is an indication that Northampton tries to meet the demands for both affordable and market-rate housing,” said Carolyn Misch, director of the city’s Office of Planning & Sustainability.
In Northampton, 400 new housing units were created between 2020 and 2024, a nearly 3% increase in housing stock that exceeded a 300-unit goal. In Amherst, 483 new housing units were created over the same five-year span, a better than 4.5% increase in housing stock that exceeded both a 3% increase and a 300-unit goal.
Now in its eighth year, the 2025 round is the first to incorporate Housing Choice 2.0, an expansion of the program by the Healey-Driscoll administration that introduced new paths to eligibility, modernized best practice criteria and rewarded communities for reactivating rehabilitated housing units.
“The high cost of housing is one of the greatest challenges facing Massachusetts residents, and communities across the state are stepping up to meet it,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement announcing the designations on Tuesday. “It’s great that these 43 cities and towns are doing the work to create more reasonably-priced homes, support their residents and lead by example.”
By being in the Housing Choice program, communities can apply for specific grants from that program, and better their chance of securing grants from the MassWorks Infrastructure, Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities and Complete Streets programs, and several other grant programs.
Northampton has earned multiple $250,000 grants in the past from the Housing Choice Initiative, said Keith Benoit, community development planner for Northampton.
Four years ago, Northampton allocated the money for pre-construction and infrastructure to develop 25 affordable housing units at two sites at Village Hill. Then, two years ago Northampton received the money to plan the sites and infrastructure improvements to support affordable housing at four properties, including on Cooke Avenue, Chapel Street, Evergreen Road, Oak Street and Prospect Avenue.
Misch said the city has applied for three grants this year that are related to this designation.
Those receiving the designation include Gateway Cities, rural towns, fast-growing suburbs and seasonal communities. In western Massachusetts, the only other communities earning the distinction were Pittsfield and Williamstown.
To qualify, municipalities must meet specific benchmarks for housing production over the past five years and demonstrate progress in implementing local policies and best practices. Housing Choice 2.0 introduced new eligibility “on-ramps,” offering towns multiple pathways based on scale of production and policy leadership. This year, the program also piloted a provision allowing units brought back online through rehabilitation to count toward a community’s total.
“Every unit counts when it comes to solving our housing shortage, and these communities are proving what’s possible when we lead with urgency, creativity and data,” Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus said in a statement “Whether it’s 150 homes or 15,000, every one of these communities is helping us build a stronger, more livable Massachusetts.”
In addition to the Housing Choice Initiative, the Healey-Driscoll administration has initiated other efforts to get housing built, such as $5 billion Affordable Homes Act, implementation of the MBTA Communities Law, creation of the Momentum Fund, the State Land for Homes initiative to jumpstart housing production on state land and increases in housing tax credits and subsidies and the elimination of renter-paid broker’s fees.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
