This data, maintained by the Mayor’s Office of Housing (MOH), is an inventory of all income-restricted units in the city. This data includes public housing owned by the Boston Housing Authority (BHA), privately- owned housing built with funding from DND and/or on land that was formerly City-owned, and privately-owned housing built without any City subsidy, e.g., created using Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) or as part of the Inclusionary Development Policy (IDP). Information is gathered from a variety of sources, including the City's IDP list, permitting and completion data from the Inspectional Services Department (ISD), newspaper advertisements for affordable units, Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation’s (CEDAC) Expiring Use list, and project lists from the BHA, the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), MassHousing, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), among others. The data is meant to be as exhaustive and up-to-date as possible, but since many units are not required to report data to the City of Boston, MOH is constantly working to verify and update it. See the data dictionary for more information on the structure of the data and important notes. The database only includes units that have a deed-restriction. It does not include tenant-based (also known as mobile) vouchers, which subsidize rent, but move with the tenant and are not attached to a particular unit. There are over 22,000 tenant-based vouchers in the city of Boston which provide additional affordability to low- and moderate-income households not accounted for here. The Income-Restricted Housing report can be directly accessed here:
https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/file/2023/04/Income%20Restricted%20Housing%202022_0.pdf

Learn more about income-restricted housing (as well as other types of affordable housing) here: https://www.boston.gov/affordable-housing-boston#income-restricted

Click here to check Short-Term Rental Eligibility

Boston's ordinance on short-term rentals is designed to incorporate the growth of the home-share industry into the City's work to create affordable housing for all residents. We want to preserve housing for residents while allowing Bostonians to benefit from this new industry. Starting on on January 1, 2019, short-term rentals in Boston will need to register with the City of Boston.

Eligibility for every unit in the City of Boston is dependant on the following six criteria:

• No affordability covenant restrictions
• Compliance with housing laws and codes
• No violations of laws regarding short-term rental use
• Owner occupied
• Two- or three-family dwelling
• Residential use classification

The Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset leverages information, wherever possible, about these criteria. For additional details and information about these criteria, please visit https://www.boston.gov/short-term-rentals.

ABOUT THIS DATASET

In June 2018, a citywide ordinance established new guidelines and regulations for short-term rentals in Boston. Registration opened January 1, 2019. The Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset was created to help residents, landlords, and City officials determine whether a property is eligible to be registered as a short-term rental.

The Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset currently joins data from the following datasets and is refreshed nightly:

• Live Street Address Management (SAM) Addresses.
• Assessing Online.
• Building and Property Violations
• Problem Properties
• Income-Restricted Properties
• STR Registration Data

HOW TO DETERMINE ELIGIBILITY FOR SHORT-TERM RENTAL REGISTRATION

1. ** Open** the Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset. In the dataset's search bar, enter the address of the property you are seeking to register.

2. Find the row containing the correct address and unit of the property you are seeking. This is the information we have for your unit.

3. Look at the columns marked as “Home-Share Eligible,” “Limited-Share Eligible,” and “Owner-Adjacent Eligible.”

   • A “yes” under any of these columns means your unit IS eligible for registration under that short-term rental type. Click here for a description of short-term rental types.
   • A “no” under any of these columns means your unit is NOT eligible for registration under that short-term rental type. Click here for a description of short-term rental types.

4. If your unit has a “yes” under “Home-Share Eligible,” “Limited-Share Eligible,” or “Owner-Adjacent Eligible,” you can register your unit here.

WHY IS MY UNIT LISTED AS “NOT ELIGIBLE”?

If you find that your unit is listed as NOT eligible, and you would like to understand more about why, you can use the Short-Term Rental Eligibility Dataset to learn more. The following columns measure each of the six eligibility criteria in the following ways:

1. No affordability covenant restrictions

   • A “yes” in the “Income Restricted” column tells you that the unit is marked as income restricted and is NOT eligible.
     
     
   • The “Income Restricted” column measures whether the unit is subject to an affordability covenant, as reported by the Department of Neighborhood Development and/or the Boston Planning and Development Agency.
     
     
   • For questions about affordability covenants, contact the Department of Neighborhood Development.
     
     

2. Compliance with housing laws and codes

   • A “yes” in the “Problem Properties” column tells you that this unit is considered a “Problem Property” by the Problem Properties Task Force and is NOT eligible.
     
     
   • Learn more about how “Problem Properties” are defined here.
     
     
   • A “yes” in the “Problem Property Owner” column tells you that the owner of this unit also owns a “Problem Property,” as reported by the Problem Properties Task Force.
     
     
   • Owners with any properties designated as a Problem Property are NOT eligible.
     
     
   • No unit owned by the owner of a “Problem Property” may register a short-term rental.
     
     
   • Learn more about how “Problem Properties” are defined here.
     
     
   • The “Open Violation Count” column tells you how many open violations the unit has. Units with any open violations are NOT eligible. Violations counted include: violations of the sanitary, building, zoning, and fire code; stop work orders; and abatement orders.
     
     
   • NOTE: Violations written before 1/1/19 that are still open will make a unit NOT eligible until these violations are resolved.
     
     
   • If your unit has an open violation, visit these links to appeal your violation(s) or pay your code violation fine(s).
     
     
   • The “Violations in the Last 6 Months” column tells you how many violations the unit has received in the last six months. Units with three or more violations, whether open or closed, are NOT eligible.
     
     
   • NOTE: Only violations written on or after 1/1/19 will count against this criteria.
     
     
   • If your unit has an open violation, visit these links to appeal your violation(s) or pay your code violation fine(s).
     
     
   • How to comply with housing laws and codes:
     
     
   • Have an open violation? Visit these links to appeal your violation(s) or pay your code violation fine(s).
     
     
   • Have questions about problem properties? Visit Neighborhood Service’s Problem Properties site.
     
     

3. No violations of laws regarding short-term rental use

   • A “yes” in the “Legally Restricted” column tells you that there is a complaint against the unit that finds

     • A legal restriction that prohibits the use of the unit as a Short-Term Rental under local, state, or federal law, OR

     • legal restriction that prohibits the use of the unit as a Short-Term Rental under condominium bylaws.

     • Units with legal restrictions found upon investigation are NOT eligible.
       
       

     • If the investigation of a complaint against the unit yields restrictions of the nature detailed above, we will mark the unit with a “yes” in this column. Until such complaint-based investigations begin, all units are marked with “no.”
       
       

     • NOTE: Currently no units have a “legally restricted” designation.
       
       

4. Owner-occupied

   • A “no” in the “Unit Owner-Occupied” column tells you that there is NO Residential Tax Exemption filed for that unit via the Assessing Department, and that unit is automatically categorized as NOT eligible for the following Short-Term Rental types:

     • Home-Share
     • Limited-Share
       
       
     • Residential Tax Exemption indicates that a unit is owner-occupied and generates a “yes” in the “Unit Owner-Occupied” column.
       
       

     • Owners are not required to file a Residential Tax Exemption in order to be eligible to register a unit as a Short-Term Rental.
       
       

     • If you would like to apply for Residential Tax Exemption, you can apply here.
       
       

     • If you are the owner-occupant of a unit and you have not filed for Residential Tax Exemption, you can still register your unit by proving owner-occupancy.
       

     • It is recommended that you submit proof of residency in your short-term rental registration application to expedite the process of proving owner-occupancy (see

In April 2013, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors approved an allocation, through a "Notice of Funding Availability" (NOFA) process, of approximately $13.4 million of unrestricted General Funds for affordable housing purposes. These funds were derived from a one-time distribution of Housing Trust Funds held by former redevelopment agencies in San Mateo County. These unrestricted general funds - which initiated the County's Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) - were set aside to provide financial assistance for the development of multifamily affordable rental housing and provision of emergency and transitional shelter in the County. The Board directed the County's Department of Housing to develop allocation guidelines and recommend projects for funding. As of May 2014, approximately $13.2 million of AHF funds have been allocated, collectively, to six multifamily affordable rental housing developments and four emergency and transitional housing projects ("AHF 1.0").

On August 5, 2014, the County Board of Supervisors authorized the Housing Authority of the County of San Mateo to publish another NOFA, using funds from the Housing Authority's Housing Assistance Program (HAP) Reserves to create affordable housing options for low-, very low-, and extremely low-income households. A total of $5 million was awarded to five projects, including three multifamily affordable housing rental developments, a homeownership project, and a farmworker housing program. This became the second funding round of the AHF ("AHF 2.0").

Important Note:The metadata description below mentions the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (or RHNA). Part of meeting RHNA Eligibility is satisfying a list of criteria set by the State of California that needs to be met in order to qualify. This dataset contains both RHNA Eligible and non-RHNA Eligible sites. Non-RHNA Eligible sites are those that didn't quite meet the eligibility criteria set by the state, but will be still eligible for Rezoning per Department of Regional Planning guidelines, and thus represents a full picture of ALL sites that are eligible for Rezoning. The official Housing Element Rezoning layer that was certified by the State of California is located here, but it should be noted that this layer only contains sites that are RHNA Eligible.IntroductionThis metadata is broken up into different sections that provide both a high-level summary of the Housing Element and more detailed information about the data itself with links to other resources. The following is an excerpt from the Executive Summary from the Housing Element 2021 – 2029 document:The County of Los Angeles is required to ensure the availability of residential sites, at adequate densities and appropriate development standards, in the unincorporated Los Angeles County to accommodate its share of the regional housing need--also known as the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). Unincorporated Los Angeles County has been assigned a RHNA of 90,052 units for the 2021-2029 Housing Element planning period, which is subdivided by level of affordability as follows:Extremely Low / Very Low (<50% AMI) - 25,648Lower (50 - 80% AMI) - 13,691Moderate (80 - 120% AMI) - 14,180Above Moderate (>120% AMI) - 36,533Total - 90,052NOTES - Pursuant to State law, the projected need of extremely low income households can be estimated at 50% of the very low income RHNA. Therefore, the County’s projected extremely low income can be estimated at 12,824 units. However, for the purpose of identifying adequate sites for RHNA, no separate accounting of sites for extremely low income households is required. AMI = Area Median IncomeDescriptionThe Sites Inventory (Appendix A) is comprised of vacant and underutilized sites within unincorporated Los Angeles County that are zoned at appropriate densities and development standards to facilitate housing development. The Sites Inventory was developed specifically for the County of Los Angeles, and has built-in features that filter sites based on specific criteria, including access to transit, protection from environmental hazards, and other criteria unique to unincorporated Los Angeles County. Other strategies used within the Sites Inventory analysis to accommodate the County’s assigned RHNA of 90,052 units include projected growth of ADUs, specific plan capacity, selected entitled projects, and capacity or planned development on County-owned sites within cities. This accounts for approximately 38 percent of the RHNA. The remaining 62 percent of the RHNA is accommodated by sites to be rezoned to accommodate higher density housing development (Appendix B).Caveats:This data is a snapshot in time, generally from the year 2021. It contains information about parcels, zoning and land use policy that may be outdated. The Department of Regional Planning will be keeping an internal tally of sites that get developed or rezoned to meet our RHNA goals, and we may, in the future, develop some public facing web applications or dashboards to show the progress. There may even be periodic updates to this GIS dataset as well, throughout this 8-year planning cycle.Update History:12/18/24 - Following the completion of the annexation to the City of Whittier on 11/12/24, 27 parcels were removed along Whittier Blvd which contained 315 Very Low Income units and 590 Above Moderate units. Following a joint County-City resolution of the RHNA transfer to the city, 247 Very Low Income units and 503 Above Moderate units were taken on by Whittier. 10/23/24 - Modifications were made to this layer during the updates to the South Bay and Westside Area Plans following outreach in these communities. In the Westside Planning area, 29 parcels were removed and no change in zoning / land use policy was proposed; 9 Mixed Use sites were added. In the South Bay, 23 sites were removed as they no longer count towards the RHNA, but still partially changing to Mixed Use.5/31/22 – Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors adopted the Housing Element on 5/17/22, and it received final certification from the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) on 5/27/22. Data layer published on 5/31/22.Links to other resources:Department of Regional Planning Housing Page - Contains Housing Element and it's AppendicesHousing Element Update - Rezoning Program Story Map (English, and Spanish)Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) - Regional Housing Needs AssessmentCalifornia Department of Housing and Community Development Housing Element pageField Descriptions:OBJECTID - Internal GIS IDAIN - Assessor Identification Number*SitusAddress - Site Address (Street and Number) from Assessor Data*Use Code - Existing Land Use Code (corresponds to Use Type and Use Description) from Assessor Data*Use Type - Existing Land Use Type from Assessor Data*Use Description - Existing Land Use Description from Assessor Data*Vacant / Nonvacant – Parcels that are vacant or non-vacant per the Use Code from the Assessor Data*Units Total - Total Existing Units from Assessor Data*Max Year - Maximum Year Built from Assessor Data*Supervisorial District (2021) - LA County Board of Supervisor DistrictSubmarket Area - Inclusionary Housing Submarket AreaPlanning Area - Planning Areas from the LA County Department of Regional Planning General Plan 2035Community Name - Unincorporated Community NamePlan Name - Land Use Plan Name from the LA County Department of Regional Planning (General Plan and Area / Community Plans)LUP - 1 - Land Use Policy from Dept. of Regional Planning - Primary Land Use Policy (in cases where there are more than one Land Use Policy category present)*LUP - 1 (% area) - Land Use Policy from Dept. of Regional Planning - Primary Land Use Policy (% of parcel covered in cases where there are more than one Land Use Policy category present)*LUP - 2 - Land Use Policy from Dept. of Regional Planning - Secondary Land Use Policy (in cases where there are more than one Land Use Policy category present)*LUP - 2 (% area) - Land Use Policy from Dept. of Regional Planning - Secondary Land Use Policy (% of parcel covered in cases where there are more than one Land Use Policy category present)*LUP - 3 - Land Use Policy from Dept. of Regional Planning - Tertiary Land Use Policy (in cases where there are more than one Land Use Policy category present)*LUP - 3 (% area) - Land Use Policy from Dept. of Regional Planning - Tertiary Land Use Policy (% of parcel covered in cases where there are more than one Land Use Policy category present)*Current LUP (Description) – This is a brief description of the land use category. In the case of multiple land uses, this would be the land use category that covers the majority of the parcel*Current LUP (Min Density - net or gross) - Minimum density for this category (as net or gross) per the Land Use Plan for this areaCurrent LUP (Max Density - net or gross) - Maximum density for this category (as net or gross) per the Land Use Plan for this areaProposed LUP – Final – The proposed land use category to increase density.Proposed LUP (Description) – Brief description of the proposed land use policy.Prop. LUP – Final (Min Density) – Minimum density for the proposed land use category.Prop. LUP – Final (Max Density) – Maximum density for the proposed land use category.Zoning - 1 - Zoning from Dept. of Regional Planning - Primary Zone (in cases where there are more than one zone category present)*Zoning - 1 (% area) - Zoning from Dept. of Regional Planning - Primary Zone (% of parcel covered in cases where there are more than one zone category present)*Zoning - 2 - Zoning from Dept. of Regional Planning - Secondary Zone (in cases where there are more than one zone category present)*Zoning - 2 (% area) - Zoning from Dept. of Regional Planning - Secondary Zone (% of parcel covered in cases where there are more than one zone category present)*Zoning - 3 - Zoning from Dept. of Regional Planning - Tertiary Zone (in cases where there are more than one zone category present)*Zoning - 3 (% area) - Zoning from Dept. of Regional Planning - Tertiary Zone (% of parcel covered in cases where there are more than one zone category present)*Current Zoning (Description) - This is a brief description of the zoning category. In the case of multiple zoning categories, this would be the zoning that covers the majority of the parcel*Proposed Zoning – Final – The proposed zoning category to increase density.Proposed Zoning (Description) – Brief description of the proposed zoning.Acres - Acreage of parcelMax Units Allowed - Total Proposed Land Use Policy UnitsRHNA Eligible? – Indicates whether the site is RHNA Eligible or not. Very Low Income Capacity - Total capacity for the Very Low Income level as defined in the Housing ElementLow Income Capacity - Total capacity for the Low Income level as defined in the Housing ElementModerate Income Capacity - Total capacity for the Moderate Income level as defined in the Housing ElementAbove Moderate Income Capacity - Total capacity for the Above Moderate Income level as defined in the Housing ElementRealistic Capacity - Total Realistic Capacity of parcel (totaling all income levels). Several factors went into this final calculation. See the Housing Element (Links to Other Resources above) in the following locations - "Sites Inventory - Lower Income RHNA" (p. 223), and "Rezoning - Very Low / Low Income RHNA" (p231).Income Categories - Income Categories assigned to the parcel (relates