Advertising Agency in Boston for Buildings Filling Income-Restricted Units by Lottery

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

In a new Boston building, the income-restricted units are advertised on the City’s terms: a standardized ad, a listing on Metrolist, a 14 day application window that opens on a Monday, and Fair Housing’s sign-off on any extra outreach. The market-rate apartments down the hall are leased the usual way. An advertising agency in Boston running that lease-up keeps the two campaigns apart, so neither one contradicts the lottery. Progression is based in New York, runs Boston lease-up campaigns from there, and offers on-site sessions on request.

“Congratulations” in a lottery email

A leasing team that has just opened a new building writes warmly, and the warmth is the problem when the email goes to the wrong list. The upbeat tone that works for a penthouse tour reads differently to a person waiting on a lottery.

The City’s handbook asks developers and their agents to avoid congratulating applicants for completing an application, ranking well or finishing another step, because that language often leads applicants to infer they will receive a unit. It asks for something plainer: explain the windows of affordability and the rent obligations, and send nobody away.

• Keep the lottery voice factual and patient.
• Keep the market-rate voice warm and persuasive, on its own list.
• Never reuse a market-rate subject line for a lottery message.
• Have one person read every applicant message for tone before it goes.

What an advertising agency in Boston answers to on an IDP building

Two things decide how the income-restricted units are advertised. The first is the City’s Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing program. The second is the Rental Version of the Fair Housing Marketing and Tenant Selection Handbook.

The program promotes equal access to income-restricted housing through rules on public outreach, unit advertising and the selection of tenants and buyers. It is required for developments with five or more units that receive government assistance, and for every income-restricted unit under the City’s Inclusionary Development Program. The process starts when the developer asks the Mayor’s Office of Housing for an Affirmative Marketing and Tenant Selection Plan template.

The Boston Fair Housing Commission enforces local, state and federal fair housing laws, and its guidelines reach every part of advertising and filling these units. The Plan itself is a short, public contract written in plain language for one project.

What changed on September 14, 2023?

The City split the plan into a five page document and a handbook with a rental and a homeownership version. It ended the requirement that developers advertise in local newspapers and file a compliance report afterward. The City now leads coordinated advertising for all active projects in print and digital media, runs information sessions that applicants can attend virtually, and posts lottery results online.

Where do applicants look?

Metrolist, the City’s consolidated search tool. An agency never needs to build a rival listing for the income-restricted units.

One building, two campaigns, piece by piece

Advertising agencies in Boston that take on a lease-up find that one building needs two campaigns running side by side. The table lists each piece, which units it serves, who writes it, who approves it and the handbook line behind it.

Pieces the City writes, lists or hosts

The standardized ad, the listings and the informational meetings follow the City’s forms. Fair Housing confirms the ad is listed correctly in both places and shares it with community partners and other lists.

• The ad uses the City’s Standardized Ad Template with the pre-marked fields filled in.
• Contact details, income minimums and location are confirmed before submission.
• Four 15 minute informational meetings run on dates Fair Housing coordinates, and all are hybrid.
• A staff member trained in fair housing practice attends each one.

Pieces an agency can add once Fair Housing approves

Postings on other websites, emails to distribution lists and newsletter postings are welcome, and each goes through Fair Housing first because all outreach must follow fair housing rules.

• Send optional material early, because early approval prevents delays.
• Submit it through IDP Compliance 1, the same step as the ad.
• Hold anything unapproved out of every list and calendar.
• Keep a copy of what was approved next to what ran.

Pieces that belong to the market-rate units alone

Ads for the market-rate apartments, tours and open houses are written freely and approved by the owner. The only rule is separation: they never describe the income-restricted units on terms of their own.

• Describe the building and the market-rate apartments as for any lease-up.
• Point to Metrolist whenever the income-restricted units come up.
• Keep dates for the lottery out of market-rate copy.
• Do not borrow the lottery list for any campaign.

Budgeting the market-rate side

The City leads advertising for the income-restricted units, so a budget covers the market-rate campaign and any approved extra outreach. Media is quoted by the seller, and the City’s pages state no cost to the developer for its own advertising.

A Boston advertising agency that works on a lease-up quotes the two campaigns separately, so the owner can see what the lottery side costs in approved extras and what the market-rate side costs in media and creative. Pricing depends on scope and is set in the written proposal. Published prices are subject to change.

Does the City charge developers for its own advertising?

The City’s pages state no cost to the developer for the advertising it leads. Ask the Mayor’s Office of Housing if a cost question comes up.

• Ask for media quoted by the seller, line by line.
• Ask which pieces need Fair Housing approval and plan time for it.
• Ask whether captions and translations are included or quoted apart.
• Ask for the two campaigns on separate lines of the proposal.

Six months ahead of the certificate of occupancy

Marketing for the income-restricted units begins six months before the anticipated certificate of occupancy. When certificates arrive in stages, the six months run from the first one.

Starting sooner carries a cost. If the applicant pool is exhausted up to 80 percent of Area Median Income, the units must be marketed again. Fair Housing confirms the dates with Inspectional Services. The practical advice is to set the market-rate launch date after this date, never before it.

• Ask the owner for the expected certificate date in writing.
• Mark the six month point on the shared calendar.
• Agree who tells the agency when a date moves.
• Hold the market-rate launch until the lottery calendar is clear.

A 14 day window that opens on a Monday

The application period for the income-restricted units lasts 14 days. It starts on a Monday and ends 14 days later on a Sunday. If the Monday is a holiday, it starts on the Tuesday and ends on a Monday.

The dates appear in IDP Compliance 1, and any change goes through Fair Housing at affirmativemarketing@boston.gov. A market-rate ad or page that mentions the income-restricted units should point to Metrolist and the dates Fair Housing set, and never print dates of its own.

Why not print the dates on the building’s own page?

Dates move, and a stale date on a private page sends an applicant to a window that has closed or not yet opened. One link to the City’s listing keeps the building’s page correct.

How Boston advertising agencies keep copy from steering

Fair housing rules apply to every word used to advertise these units, and the handbook points to the nondiscrimination rule in federal, state and local law. The City’s own guidance covers the full list of protected categories, so this page links the rule instead of restating it: see the handbook.

Two points from the handbook shape copy. Discrimination based on limited English proficiency is prohibited, which means language help is part of equal access. Developers must also affirmatively market to minorities and to persons with disabilities. The handbook asks teams to keep project requirements separate from the program’s own requirements.

The plain advice is to describe the apartment, the building and the income limits, and never the kind of person who should apply. A photograph, a phrase or a neighborhood description that suggests who belongs is a risk the copy does not need.

• Describe features, locations and terms.
• Leave out words about who will fit in.
• Choose images that show the building, not a type of resident.
• Send every doubtful line to Fair Housing before it runs.

Does a market-rate ad need the same care?

Yes, in the sense that fair housing law covers all advertising of housing. The extra approval step belongs to the income-restricted units, but the copy standard is the same for both campaigns.

Captions, interpreters and plain words

Access is part of the handbook’s section on applicants, and an agency can plan for it before the first piece is drawn. Captioning, interpretation and translation are built into the schedule and the budget.

• Accurate captioning on all video sessions.
• A live interpreter for pre-scheduled events; a professional phone interpreter service is acceptable for ad hoc calls.
• Plain language for written pieces, with translations as needed.
• Help for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing in the form they request.

An agency that produces captioned video and translated materials can supply these on the same schedule as the ads. The budget line for access sits beside the creative, not behind it.

Lottery applicants never join the marketing list

The handbook forbids all parties from selling or exchanging applicant data with third parties for commercial or marketing purposes, and says personal information is shared only as needed.

The practical rule for an agency is a wall. The lottery list and the market-rate customer system stay in separate tools, and nobody builds an audience for retargeting, email or lookalike ads from the people who applied.

Can an applicant ever receive marketing email?

Not from the lottery list. A person who separately signs up for the building’s own updates is a different record in a different system.

• Keep applicant records out of the advertising platforms.
• Never upload an applicant email address to a media buying tool.
• Use separate accounts for the lottery correspondence and the market-rate list.
• Delete test files that contain real applicant details.

When built-out units are relisted for 15 days

Some units are built out for people with disabilities. If too few lottery applicants need those features, the units are relisted on Metrolist and Housing Navigator for 15 days, using the City’s standardized ad for relaunching built-out units.

After that period, if there are still no applicants who need the features, the lottery list is used. The agency keeps the relaunch ad ready, and sends nothing until Fair Housing says so.

• Contact Fair Housing before any relaunch.
• Use the City’s relaunch ad as issued.
• Do not run a market-rate ad for the same units during the 15 days.
• Record the dates the relisting ran.

The file Fair Housing can ask for

Every party involved in marketing, applications, the lottery or selection must be certified in fair housing practices before the process starts, and the certificates stay on file. The rest of the file is the work product itself.

Applicants get at least 5 business days to answer an email and 10 business days to answer a letter, inquiries are answered within 2 business days, and records of correspondence are kept for three years. Fair Housing needs 10 business days to review compliance submissions. For the market-rate side, our apartment marketing agency and property management marketing pages cover the usual lease-up work.

For Boston claim law and consumer protection rules, see our marketing agency in Boston page.

Frequently asked questions