Brookline Housing Authority Wins Grant To Help Families With Rent

BROOKLINE, MA — The Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the Brookline Housing Authority $1.3 million to help 75 households —who qualify— pay for rent.

"This is a great opportunity to expand housing choice for persons with disabilities and provide rental assistance to eligible families in Brookline," said Carlos Hernandez, director of leased housing and admissions with housing authority.

According to Brookline Housing Authority Executive Director Michael Alperin the ability to help an additional 75 families is significant, considering there is a wait list for the vouchers that is years long.

"It's very hard and very rare to have this many vouchers to give," said Alperin.

The Brookline Housing Authority owns and manages 1,448 units of low income public housing across town. In addition, the body assists families with low incomes by administering Section 8 rent vouchers. The 2020 voucher program allowed 1,072 families with a median household income of $19,500 to live in Brookline who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it, allowing them to pay 30 percent of their salary on rent, and letting the voucher make up the difference to the landlord.

Once a household qualifies for a voucher, they can use it annually until they can make 80 percent of the area median income, which is above $80,000.

The housing authority applied for the federal funding through the CARES Act.

The $1.3 million comes in the form of "mainstream vouchers" which serve households that include a non-elderly person with disabilities and provide rental assistance similar to the Section 8 voucher program.

Any household that makes below the 80 percent of greater Boston's Area Median Income and that includes members between 18 and 62 and has at least one person who has a disability can apply on the Brookline Housing Authority website. The housing authority will administer the vouchers to the first 75 households who qualify by the end of January.

Alperin said Brookline public housing and Section 8 holders bring important diversity to town.

Statewide, 47 percent of those families in public housing are Black, 21.2 percent identify as Hispanic or Latino.

"We're serving disproportionate amount of people of color, and it's important that these types of programs bring diversity to Brookline," Alperin said.

Alperin said he often hears stories of people with vouchers being turned away by a landlord. But that is against the law and discriminatory.

"As long as the voucher pays the rent they are legally obligated to accept that payment and rent that unit to that person," Alperin said. "I really hope as a community we stop hearing stories of landlords not accepting payment. It's heartbreaking to hear that going on in Brookline. "

The Brookline Housing Authority is in the process of renovating two buildings, one at 61 Park St.; the other at 90 Longwood Ave. The authority is also in the process of applying with the town to build a friendly 40B on Marian Street with 139 units by 2024.

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