In about May 2007, Tufts University grad students Emily Cohen, Amy Mattlage, Matt Reardon and Chia-Hui Shen from the Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning program conducted a Chinatown housing inventory report titled “Housing in Chinatown: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”.

The students and the Tufts University program worked in collaboration with a community group, the Chinese Progressive Association, for guidance and input. The purpose of the student’s work was to combine both classroom learning and field work. The Blogger makes this note here because some of their findings will be used in this post. (Can’t upload the report here as file is too big).

The previous post we had wondered if inclusionary zoning was good or bad? Inclusionary zoning is the policy of setting a percentage of the total housing development for affordable units in exchange for density exemptions or fast-tracked permitting. Commercial developments are governed by a policy called linkage.

The Tufts students’ report gave a breakdown of affordable units built since 2000. The 1st number are market-rate, the 2nd in parentheses are the affordable units through inclusionary zoning.

Archstone: 365 (*10)
Lincoln Plaza: 76 (11)
Metropolitan: 136 (115)
32 Boylston: 16 (2)
*Lofts Avana: 29 (3)

Total: Marke-rate: 622 (Affordable: 141)

*Archstone was originally obligated to provide 30 affordable units, but negotiated a payout for 20 units with the Hong Lok House.
* At the time of the report in May 2007, Lofts Avana was not completed.
Source: “Housing in Chinatown: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”

There are other projects in the pipeline that will eventually boost the number of affordable units created by inclusionary zoning (120 Kingston/Dainty Dot, Parcel 24, Rogerson Communities/Hong Lok House) but as of right now Chinatown has seen an increase of 141 more affordable units. Chinatown recorded a total of 3,274 housing units in Census 2000.