Many who grew up in Northampton can't afford to stay. Same goes for older residents and people who those in housing call "workforce renters" - teachers, firefighters and shop owners who don't make to much to qualify for housing assistance but not enough to pay the rent.
NORTHAMPTON -- Maggie Klimczyk has lived her entire life in Northampton, but that almost wasn't the case.
The 27-year-old grew up on Bridge Road and graduated from Smith Vocational High School in 2005. But her stable environment shifted when she had her son about five years ago. She scoured Northampton for a place to live, and after a lengthy search realized she couldn't afford to make rent there with her $12-an-hour job as a healthcare aid.
She and her son live in a one-bedroom apartment at Hampshire Heights, a low-income subsidized housing community off Jackson Street - one of the only places that materialized as an affordable option.
"I'm here because it was the only thing I could afford on my own," she said as she stood outside her apartment on a recent winter morning. "If I had a boyfriend, I'm sure between us we could make something else work. But that's not my situation."
Real estate experts and town officials say Klimczyk is one of many in Northampton who grew up in the town but can't afford to stay. Same goes for older residents and people who those in housing call "workforce renters" -- teachers, firefighters and shop owners who make too much to qualify for housing assistance but not enough to pay the rent.
And those who qualify for subsidized housing face a long waiting list. A family applying this February would have to wait an estimated five years before being offered a place, according to Jon Hite, executive director of the Northampton Housing Authority.
As a partial response to this growing struggle, two Pleasant Street developments that would add more than 100 affordable units to downtown Northampton are in the works.
There's the four-story, 55-unit apartment building proposed for the property at the corner of Pleasant and Holyoke streets, tentatively known as The Lumberyard. The 70,000 square-foot apartment building would aim to house people making up to 60 percent of the area median income -- or $34,440 for a single person and $49,140 for a family of four.
Not even two blocks down the road, developers are planning to tear down Northampton Lodging -- a longtime low-income housing complex built in 1967 for the now-defunct Northampton Commercial College -- and construct a five-story building with 28 studio and 50 one-bedroom apartments. An estimated 58 of those units would be available to families earning at or below the area's median income, and 20 units would not be income restricted.
High rent, low availability
Those in favor of the two affordable housing projects say the proof of their importance is in the numbers.
According to real estate website Zillow.com, the overall median rent price in Northampton is $1,400, considerably higher than the Springfield metropolitan median of $1,000.
Sharon Hefton, owner and broker of RentNoho.com, said based on her inventory, a one-bedroom Northampton residence in 2014 cost an average of $1,200 a month not including utilities, while a two-bedroom cost around $1,300.
My ApartmentMap.com, a national online rental database, has similar estimates. Based on 78 verified rental listings, a one-bedroom place costs on average $1,169 a month. A two bedroom comes in at $1,297.
Hefton said she's worked in Northampton real estate since 2006, and that rental costs have spiked considerably since then, even through the housing bust of 2008.
"Normally you see between a 1 and 1.5 percent increase in rent over 2-3 years," she said. "Last year, for a three bedroom places I saw numbers jump from $1,250 to 1,350 in one year."
However, Hefton said she believes rental prices have reached their peak; But that peak is too high for many, according to national standards.
Hefton and other brokers use the federal benchmark for rent affordability when they review apartment applications. For rent and utilities to be considered affordable, they are supposed to take up no more than 30 percent of a household's income, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
That means an apartment with two residents who make the average gross household income for Northampton - $54,953, according to the 2012 US Census - barely meet that benchmark, as an "affordable" two-bedroom home by federal standards would cost the residents a combined $1,373 a month.
By ApartmentMap.com's estimates, the average two-bedroom apartment that costs $1,297 would take up 28.5 percent of that household's income, just under the federal threshold for affordability.
About 40 percent of Northampton's population is below 80 percent of the area median income, and the number of renters are higher in county and state as a whole, according to numbers from Valley Community Development Corporation, the agency spearheading the Lumberyard project.
An opportunity to live where you work
Affordable housing advocates say there's a general misconception when it comes to affordable housing and who is eligible for it.
Much of it is intended for those working in lower-grossing, but essential, careers.
"People are surprised at who this housing really is for," said Lynn Wallace, executive vice president of HAP Housing, the nonprofit developer undertaking the Northampton Lodging project. "It's people working in downtown establishments, teachers, firefighters, plumbers who comes to work on your house, the daycare teacher. These are people who are vitally important to the city."
According to state statute Chapter 40-B, any person or family making 80 percent of the town's median income meets requirements for affordable housing subsidies.
Hite said the bulk of those applying for subsidized housing in the city are baby boomers - or those born between 1946 and 1964- as they begin to retire. Many have lived their entire lives in Northampton but can't afford to say, he explained.
"These two projects will certainly help to provide additional housing opportunities for people old and young," Hite said.
The other Hampton
From city center to city center, Northampton and Easthampton are only 5 miles apart. But on average, the rental rate for a one-bedroom apartment in Northampton is about $300 more expensive than in Easthampton, myapartmentmap.com numbers show.
Easthampton has become an increasingly popular option for those looking to move to the area and benefit from its vibrant food and arts scene, but can't afford to live in Northampton -- or simply don't want to pay the high rent in the city.
A recent Reddit post in the Northampton sub-Reddit reads, "My gf, 5 year old son, and I are moving to Northampton in a couple weeks, and have been having some issues finding a place to rent." The poster said he wanted to spend $1,200 in rent a month, max.
Redditors had a recommendation: Rent in Easthampton instead.
Keeping Northampton diverse
Those in favor of bringing more affordable housing to Northampton say doing so will make the city more economically diverse, which, in turn, will boost racial, ethnic and age diversity as well.
Robert Nakosteen, economics and statistics professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst and executive director of MassBenchmarks, said communities with notoriously high rent tend to shut out minorities and young adults.
"What you don't want happening in a city is the population to become vulcanized, where different groups separate themselves from other groups," he said.
Campbell noted that as a city becomes increasingly more desirable to live in, such as the case of Northampton, those who are more financially secure have an easier opportunity to take advantage of that.
"Rents go up and push out lower income people who have been here historically, or people who find they want to live in Northampton because of schools, culture, art, transportation," she said.
Hite said people who live in surrounding communities with a lower cost of living, such as Holyoke, Springfield or Hadley, have a right to move to Northampton if they wish.
"People who live in Northampton, they shouldn't be seen as an elite group of people," he said. "It's a free country, and you get to vote with your feet."