A Newtonville resident with disabilities is urging Newton's City Council to lower the price of wheelchair-accessible apartments built under the city's zoning rules.
In a guest essay published Monday, Aug. 31, in the Newton Beacon, Barbara Lischinsky wrote that after months of searching, the only ADA-accessible unit she could find was designated at 100 percent of Area Median Income (AMI). Her income falls below 30 percent of AMI. Even with a Section 8 housing voucher, she wrote, the rent structure would eliminate her Utility Reimbursement Payment and force her to absorb costs she cannot cover on a fixed income.
Lischinsky compared the situation to being offered a wheelchair ramp and then being charged hundreds of dollars a month to use it.
She asked the City Council to amend Newton's inclusionary zoning (IZ) ordinance to set ADA-designated units at 50 percent AMI or below. Without that change, she argued, accessible units labeled "affordable" remain out of reach for disabled residents on Social Security Income or Social Security Disability Insurance. Those units often go to nondisabled tenants who can meet the income threshold.
Lischinsky said she also shared a letter with Newton's Department of Planning and Development before publishing the essay. No public response from the planning department or the City Council appeared in city records as of publication.
Prior concerns about affordability tiers
The disconnect Lischinsky describes is not new to Newton housing officials. The IZ ordinance, updated in 2019, requires 15 to 25 percent of units in qualifying developments to be affordable, with an average affordability target of 65 percent AMI. The ordinance divides units into two tiers: Tier 1 covers households at 50 to 80 percent AMI, and Tier 2 covers households up to 110 percent AMI, according to Newton Fair and Affordable Housing Partnership meeting minutes.
At a Feb. 24 meeting of the partnership, former city ADA coordinator Jini Fairley said the ordinance "does not accomplish the goal of reaching households at less than 60% AMI." Fairley said she had pushed to lower the average to 55 percent AMI, but that effort failed. At the same meeting, partnership member Ann Houston agreed to add research on ADA-accessible unit availability to the Housing Priorities Task Force's follow-up list.
Separately, at a January 2024 Affordable Housing Trust meeting, Houston reported that buying down IZ units from 80 percent AMI to 50 percent AMI would be "prohibitively expensive." Councilor Albright noted that the Zoning and Planning Committee would review the ordinance.
The numbers
A 50 percent AMI two-bedroom unit in Newton carries a maximum rent of $1,928.75 per month under 2026 HUD limits, according to the city's income-limits page.
A Housing Priorities Task Force report presented in February found that 61 percent of Newton's any-age affordable rental units are priced at 80 percent AMI or higher. Half of Newton's housing vouchers are used in other communities because local rents are too high, according to a Newton for Everyone summary of the task force's findings.
Newton had 2,705 total affordable housing units as of February, with 158 under construction and 587 permitted but not yet built. At the Newton Gardens project at 131 North St., developer WinnCompanies plans six ADA-accessible units out of 112 total, about 5 percent, according to a December 2024 Affordable Housing Trust meeting packet.
