NORTHAMPTON — As many renters in Northampton continue to struggle with keeping up with the costs of housing, echoing trends across the commonwealth, local organizations hope to join forces to try and tackle the issue of affordable housing in the city.

Plans to form a local coalition to support affordable housing advanced at a Tuesday meeting hosted by the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA), an organization based in Boston that advocates for affordable housing across the commonwealth.

The meeting came about after the city applied for a Municipal Engagement Initiative, or MEI, which is run by the housing association. The purpose of the MEI is to assist in bringing together local organizations and individuals to support affordable housing initiatives within their communities.

Attendees at the meeting included representatives from the Northampton Housing Partnership, Valley Community Development, the Downtown Northampton Association, and the Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness. City Council members Stanley Moulton, Alex Jarrett and Jamila Gore were also present, as were various representatives from local real estate firms in the region.

“Community support can make or break these sorts of options,” said Whitney Demetrius, the director of fair housing at CHAPA. “So many communities don’t necessarily have a viable coalition or group of residents who are in support of [housing], so we get to go out into communities and foster that work.”

Census data shared by CHAPA during the meeting laid out the status of housing in Northampton in comparison to Massachusetts as a whole. According to the data, more than 40% of the city’s housing stock was built in 1939 or earlier, above average compared to the rest of the state.

“We really want more development now,” said Monica Keel, a program associate with CHAPA. “Because of some of that aging housing stock, we can redevelop it, we can rehab it.”

The data also showed that 75% of renters in Northampton had annual incomes of $75,000 or less, and that about half of all renters were “cost-burdened,” meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing and utility costs. About a quarter of renters were considered “severely cost-burdened,” meaning they spent more than 50% of income on housing costs.

Northampton is hardly unique among Massachusetts municipalities in having housing issues. A recent annual report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit, showed that Massachusetts was the third most expensive state for renters, behind only California and Hawaii. The statewide average income needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment, without becoming cost-burdened, exceeded $40 an hour, the report said.

In Northampton, the income needed is slightly lower — central Northampton requires $30-an-hour income to afford a two-bedroom place, while the villages of Florence and Leeds require $25 and $35 an hour respectively, according to the housing coalition’s report.

Demetrius noted during Tuesday’s meeting that other issues not reflected in housing data can affect housing affordability overall.

“The story gets told about the number of people in Northampton who have higher level education and degrees, and that’s all great,” she said. “But that also means they have some student debt, and that doesn’t always get reflected in the numbers.”

Previous MEI-related coalitions in the Pioneer Valley include the Amherst Affordable Housing Coalition, which helped bring about the East Gables housing project in Amherst, which broke ground last year. Other housing projects across the state brought about through MEIs have occurred in Acton, Arlington and Lynn.

The meeting concluded with those in attendance agreeing to a second meeting to further the coalition to support affordable housing, with a second hybrid meeting planned for the fall. Although the terms of Northampton’s MEI has CHAPA winding down its direct involvement with the coalition for future meetings, Keel said the organization could still be contacted to help facilitate future meetings.

“We like to launch our coalitions in the fall because more people are home from vacation, kids are back in school,” Keel said. “We’re going to try to think how regularly we want to meet — we may not be able to commit to [every] month now, so we’ll keep that in our heads.”

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