Fixing up vacant properties could go a long way toward addressing Massachusetts’ housing crisis, but building more homes is still necessary to meet demand. Read more about why that process isn’t as simple as it sounds.
Like most real estate agents, Brian Allen visits a lot of homes. But as he scours properties around Worcester in his white SUV, what he often thinks about are ghosts.
They’re buildings that have been vacant for a while and few people know they exist. During a recent drive, Allen points out one after another. There’s the empty triple-decker with a collapsing porch. Another with boarded-up windows. One looks like it’s under construction, but Allen knows better — he says it’s been that way for a while.
“It’s just fascinating. The histories of all these random houses,” he said, noting he has clients who want to buy some in hopes of returning them to the rental market. “They’re everywhere.”
Advocates say vacant properties are “low-hanging fruit” when it comes to addressing Massachusetts’ dire housing shortage. According to some estimates, the state needs over 200,000 more homes and apartments in the next decade to keep up with demand and help stabilize prices.
State officials have responded with calls to build more housing. But another part of the solution could be the more than 60,000 residential units statewide that have been vacant for an extended period. Some communities say they’re innovating with ways to resurrect them.
“It’s way cheaper to bring those vacant properties back to life than it is to build a new unit,” said Ben Forman, a research director at the MassINC Policy Center.
Why so many properties are left to crumble
Vacant properties are nothing new in Massachusetts. During the Great Recession, the surge of foreclosures emptied out thousands of homes and apartment buildings.
Many of those properties have gradually returned to the market thanks to state and federal financial assistance to address blighted properties. Still, experts say the problem is perpetual.
That’s because many of Massachusetts’ multifamily homes are over 100 years old. Some catch on fire. Others gradually fall into disrepair as owners struggle to afford maintenance.
Take a dilapidated triple-decker in Worcester’s Vernon Hill neighborhood.
Outside, paint is peeling off the wood siding of the building. Some windows have holes, others are covered with plywood. Inside, walls have been knocked out, electric wiring hangs from the ceiling, and broken glass across the floor crunches as you walk around. The property has been deteriorating since a bank foreclosed on its previous over a decade ago.
Shiran Aguila’s family bought the building with a plan to renovate it and return the units to the rental market. But Aguila admits that hasn’t been a priority over the years, and he hasn’t decided how he’ll pay for the repairs.
“Time goes by fast,” he said. “We ended up purchasing other properties and stuff like that and we just sort of put this on hold.”
Physical condition isn’t the only factor.
Some homes or apartments end up vacant because of discriminatory policies.
A property can also sit empty if the owner has died, and the heirs can’t agree on what to do with it. If it’s unclear who the heirs even are because the late owner didn’t leave a will, the property can fall into legal limbo as a probate court hashes out who owns the property.
In other cases, owners may refuse to rent out their units.
“If these were easy cases, they’d be on the market.”Jordan Latham, New Bedford’s vacant property development manager
George Fedyk inherited his yellow triple-decker in Worcester after his parents died. He doesn’t need all the space for himself. But he remembers his parents’ experience with tenants. He said one renter abused his girlfriend.
“One night, 3 o’clock in the morning, she’s thrown against the bureau, he’s beating her up,” Fedyk said. “I just [haven’t] wanted to be bothered having renters and stuff in here.”
He said he’s considered selling the property. But in addition to it being his parents’ former home, it was where he lived with his son and wife before they also died. The emotional ties have made it hard to part ways.
Clear benefits, but ‘a lot of social work’
Forman at MassINC says it costs anywhere from $50,000 to $250,000 to restore a vacant housing unit. To build a new apartment from scratch? Closer to $500,000.
Research shows remediating blighted properties also helps reduce fire risk and crime in neighborhoods and boost nearby property values, helping local tax bases.
Officials in communities across the state say they’re trying to bring more empty housing units back online. New Bedford, which has 156 languishing residential properties, has been especially active. Since 2023, Jordan Latham has served as the city’s first-ever vacant property development manager, a position New Bedford officials don’t believe exists anywhere else in the state.
Latham’s part detective, part caseworker. She drives to homes she’s heard may be vacant and looks for key signs: Is the trash taken out? If it’s summer, are there window air conditioner units running? She’ll even check water usage.
Once Latham identifies the empty complexes, she’ll look into why they’re uninhabited. If the owner can’t afford repairs, she’ll connect them with local and state financial assistance. If they’ve died, she’ll contact lawyers and help the heirs navigate the probate process. For one abandoned property, she tracked down the late owner’s relatives who live in Portugal.
“There’s a lot of social work to this,” Latham said. “There has to be that personalized touch because each property is different for complex reasons. If these were easy cases, they’d be on the market.”
Audley Bodden is among the property owners who’ve benefited from the city’s efforts. In 2017, he purchased a run-down building that was being used for storage by its former owner. Bodden planned to redevelop it into nine apartments, but money dried up. New Bedford has since helped him secure over $120,000 in state grants, and now he plans to finish the $1.5 million project next year.
“I’m focused on creating true affordable housing for the community,” Bodden said. “The city was here to help me and assist me.”
Other communities like Springfield have referred some long-term blighted complexes for receivership, a controversial process that can lead to new ownership of properties. And Worcester used about $9 million in federal pandemic relief money to subsidize renovation work on the condition that landlords keep rents affordable. Worcester — which has the highest number of empty housing units among the state’s Gateway Cities, according to MassINC — also holds monthly meetings with blighted property owners to discuss how to restore them.
Still, housing experts question whether ongoing government responses are enough to keep pace with homes falling off the market.
In Worcester, there are more than 5,000 triple-deckers, so it can take time for officials to identify units that go offline. And the city’s housing development director James Brooks said it could be harder to support property owners now that pandemic relief money has dried up.
Funding streams through the state’s Affordable Homes Act could help, although housing advocates say they mainly prioritize new homes and apartments. Forman said the answer’s clear: There needs to be more focus statewide on rehabbing languishing properties, and preventing them from falling off the market in the first place.
“Are we being proactive?” Forman said. “When you have such a tight housing market, every additional unit makes a difference.”
