Healey was elected to tackle housing. With big $4 billion bond bill, she confronts the challenge head on.
Ask business owners, families, or young professionals about the biggest challenges facing Massachusetts today and, inevitably, the need for housing will come up. We need more housing and more affordable housing.
In last year’s election, Governor Maura Healey made it clear that addressing the state’s enormous housing crunch would be a top priority. And on Wednesday, her administration took some of its boldest steps yet, announcing a set of ambitious proposals on housing through her new bond bill.
Healey introduced a housing bond bill that includes a proposed $4 billion in capital spending. Crucially, it also includes numerous significant policy changes. Her administration says that if the proposal is passed and combined with the recently signed tax relief package, the two initiatives together will create more than 40,000 new homes, including 22,000 set aside for low-income households and 12,000 for middle-income households. In addition to focusing on housing production, the bill would also fund the repair and rehabilitation of thousands of housing units, particularly public housing. It would create a new tax credit for developers of housing units sold to lower-income buyers.
Healey said it would be the largest housing investment in Massachusetts history. Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus said in a statement that the bill “will create powerful ripples for decades to come” and will help those across a range of incomes who feel they have been priced out of Massachusetts.
While the Legislature should scrutinize each provision and hold public hearings to ensure all interest groups are heard, many of her proposals are broadly deserving of support.
Zoning is always a fraught issue in Massachusetts, with the need to build more housing bumping up against municipal desires to maintain neighborhood character. Allowing accessory dwelling units — small homes built either in a basement or attic or in a backyard — to be built “by right,” or without a special zoning variance, statewide would be a big step toward permitting far more of these units in a way that does not overload communities. ADUs are a tool both for multigenerational housing and to allow homeowners to reap rental income. While Healey’s proposal would still allow some local control in the details of what can be built, it would eliminate some of the more restrictive ordinances that now limit the number of ADUs even in communities that allow them — like requiring owner occupancy or requiring off-site parking even when a house is near public transit.
While some municipalities may chafe at a new statewide zoning mandate, Healey included another provision that some communities have long been asking for: allowing them to impose a transfer tax on high-value properties with the money going to subsidized housing. Boston, communities on Cape Cod, and Boston-area cities like Cambridge and Somerville have all sought to impose transfer taxes but, facing opposition from the real estate industry, these proposals have failed to gain legislative traction. While there is always concern about further raising housing prices, carefully crafted tax proposals approved by cities and towns themselves would provide another tool to build much-needed subsidized housing in some of the most expensive communities.
Multiple governors have proposed using surplus property owned by state government to build new housing, and any of Healey’s proposals that could streamline and simplify the process of selling and developing unused public property would be helpful.
The unsafe tent encampment at Mass. and Cass has spotlighted the long-standing lack of sufficient housing and services for people with substance use disorder. Healey’s proposal to pilot new models for supportive housing — where people who are homeless or have substance use disorders can live and obtain wraparound services — is worth a shot.
Other parts of the bill are greater investments in existing programs that can help spur the creation and preservation of both affordable and middle-income housing. There would be a pilot program created for social housing, a type of publicly subsidized mixed-income housing, along with money for other types of housing innovations.
Big picture, there is no doubt that more housing is sorely needed. Housing advocacy groups have estimated that Massachusetts needs to add up to
200,000 more housing units by 2030 to meet demand. Boston has the secondhighest median rent in the country, after New York City, according to Redfin data cited by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. Housing prices are at record highs, and sales are down because there is so little inventory on the market. If workers and families cannot find homes, they will look for other cities to live in that are more affordable. Healey made an unprecedented announcement earlier this week that the state’s emergency shelter system for homeless families is at capacity, exacerbated by an influx of migrants, again highlighting the need for more places for people to live.
The MBTA Communities Act signed into law under former governor Charlie Baker took a big step by requiring communities near public transit to zone for more housing. Massachusetts’ Housing Choice law made it easier for communities to pass pro-housing zoning reforms with a simple majority vote. But given the magnitude of the housing crisis, one step will not be enough. Lawmakers should continue to search for ways to build more housing in Massachusetts. Healey’s proposals give them a good road map.
While the Legislature should scrutinize each provision and hold public hearings to ensure all interest groups are heard, many of her proposals are broadly deserving of support.