THE MASSACHUSETTS HOUSING world is under strain from every angle, and every housing gambit is a long game.
Healey administration housing officials are facing a bleak to-deal-with list, hampered by the lowest rental vacancy rate in the country – just 2.8 percent – and a 200,000-unit shortage. The emergency shelter system is crushed by waves of new migrant families needing housing. Plus, the Commonwealth is struggling to get a picture of the new reality of hybrid and remote work, prompting fears of an “urban doom loop,” in which a shift in work patterns leads to a hollowing out of downtown commercial space and undermines a city’s tax structure.
“I don’t think there’s any silver bullets,” Ed Augustus, who heads up the new Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, said on The Codcast. “There’s not one obvious thing that, geez, if you just did this, this would unlock housing production. But I think it’s a series of smaller policy changes, additional funding, and new partnerships and strategies that hopefully collectively help move the needle and get us closer to that 200,000 number.”
The state housing secretary didn’t offer details on the administration’s first housing bond bill – expected to be released within the month – but characterized their approach to the bill as trying to be “good listeners” to advice from former Baker officials and experts, meeting with stakeholders, reading a flurry of white papers from advocacy organizations, and “looking for common ground.” They are also, he said, being “shameless” about looking at other states’ approaches to similar crises.
Boosting support for accessory dwelling units, which are small additional units built on existing properties, is an oft-touted policy change and one example of a California approach that may work in Massachusetts, Augustus said. “The benefit of that is it doesn’t necessarily cost the state any money to do that,” he said, with “people incented to do that for their own family reasons or personal reasons.”
Augustus said the interest rate environment is a particular challenge. After years of a post-recession and low-inflation reality, rates are on the rise and squeezing the housing market economy for renters, homebuyers, landlords, and developers alike.
Spiking interest rates and inflation “combined have made it more expensive to create the same number of units,” Augustus said. “And so even though you’re putting more money in, you’re not necessarily creating more units because it’s costing more to create the same number of units. And who knows what the interest rate environment might be like in 2024, or whenever the bond bill is passed.”
The hope, Augustus said, is some decline and leveling out of both factors, stabilizing the construction market. “Hopefully that helps us kind of start to get traction again,” he said. “So I wouldn’t say that we need to just scrap the whole system and start from scratch. I don’t think that’s the case, but I do think that there are some new levers that we can move.”
Augustus points to the MBTA Communities Act, a Baker-era law given some flexibility and some new teeth during the Healey administration that requires cities and towns near transit to zone for more multi-family housing. This is still the first year of its implementation, he notes, and “we have not seen the fruit of that yet.”
In time, as communities approve rezoning to allow by-right multi-family housing, Augustus expects the density in those areas will meet demand. He was diplomatic about the shaky state of transportation, a key component to the MBTA law even though the quality of the service does not factor into communities’ rezoning obligations.
“I think everybody knows the challenges that the T has faced and knows the effort that the new general manager and team are putting into trying to deal with those,” Augustus said. Regulatory changes from the housing office and service improvements on the MBTA side would ideally “feed off each other,” he said.
Augustus was scheduled to speak with lawmakers last Thursday – after the Codcast recording – about a different crisis: the shelter system. Families needing emergency shelter are up some 80 percent over last year, sparking formal requests for assistance from the federal government.
The secretary doesn’t see an end in sight.
“Unfortunately, right now it doesn’t look like the demand is abating,” he said. “The goal of emergency shelter is for it to be infrequent, rare, and brief, and unfortunately it’s none of those right now.” People are staying longer in shelters because of the tight vacancy rates, and a difficult work permit process makes it harder to support a family even if a bit more housing were to become available, he said.
“All of those kind of challenges combined, as well as just the volume that we’re seeing day after day, is really taxing the system, taking a lot of the time of our team as well as other aspects of state government just to meet this humanitarian crisis and make sure people have the basic kind of human needs met, like a roof over their head and basic health care for these women and and children. So, it is something that we’re gonna be dealing with, I think, for the foreseeable future.”
JENNIFER SMITH
FROM COMMONWEALTH
In-depth: The shutdown of the Southeast Expressway in Boston for the transfer of the body of a Randolph police officer who died in an off-duty crash prompts an investigation of State Police escorts. Most escorts turned out to be on the up and up, but political favoritism sometimes played a role, particularly with funeral escorts.
– Individuals with connections – a Supreme Judicial Court justice, state and federal lawmakers, and New England Patriots executives – appeared to receive funeral escorts for their loved ones at no charge, while members of the public had to pay.
– The investigation was hampered by a lack of cooperation from the State Police. Most information had to be pried loose using the state public records law. Read more.
Win-win: Gov. Maura Healey pleads for federal help in addressing the shelter crisis, saying letting migrants and refugees accept jobs quickly could be a win-win for them and the state. Read more.
He’s staying, for now: The executive director of the Cannabis Control Commission now says he is not leaving, contradicting statements by the chair of the agency’s board. “I remain executive director of the agency as of today,” he said. Read more.
OPINION
Carbon neutrality: Brian Davidson of Project Carbon Freedom says biodiesel fuel burners could unjam the heating oil industry road to carbon neutrality. Read more.
No sweeps: Madeline Lessing, a licensed clinical social worker, says sweeps at Mass and Cass would do irreparable harm. Read more.
FROM AROUND THE WEB
BEACON HILL
Sen. Lydia Edwards, the Senate chair of the Legislature’s Housing Committee, tours western Massachusetts to learn about the challenges of building affordable housing. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)
Essex County Sheriff Kevin Coppinger raises concerns about how the state is going to offer free telephone calls to inmates, as required by legislation approved earlier this year. He says the new policy will cause a $2.7 million shortfall for his operation. (Daily Item)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Is it time to rethink – and restructure – fire departments, turning them into more general emergency response departments? Medford writer Phil Primack thinks so, pointing out that just 3 percent of the calls his city’s fire department responded to in 2021 were for actual fires. (Boston Globe)
Neo-Nazi groups are now frequently rallying outside Massachusetts hotels housing migrants. (MassLive)
The Worcester City Council is once again considering ordinances targeted at anti-abortion clinics, after one councilor delayed discussion of two draft ordinances in August. (Worcester Telegram)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
The official death toll is nearing 2,500 from the devastating earthquake that struck Morocco on Friday night. (Washington Post)
A generation that grew up in the shadow of 9/11 is still dealing with the psychological toll – with anxiety and hypervigilance stemming from the terror attack. (Cape Cod Times)
ELECTIONS
The group Jamaica Plain Progressives voted to endorse embattled Boston City Councilor Kendra Lara for reelection. (Boston Globe) A leader of the group says it will review its internal policies after two members of its steering committee acknowledged they helped pay for an outside report Lara commissioned that says she was going only 2 miles per hour over the speed limit at the time of a June car crash, not more than double the speed limit, as alleged in a police report. (Boston Herald)
A Framingham City Council candidate says he is no longer running, but he has not formally withdrawn and did not announce his choice soon enough to call off the preliminary election. (MetroWest Daily News)
EDUCATION
Brockton Public Schools officials are worried about the amount of vaping inside Brockton High School. Data shows a substantial number of high schoolers and even some middle schoolers using electronic vapor products. (The Enterprise)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
Two weeks after the rollout of a new state database documenting disciplinary action against police officers, 49 names were removed because of errors in the database or actions against the officers had been reversed on further review. (Boston Globe)
Herald columnist Peter Lucas says if prosecutors can cut a break to Patriots cornerback Jack Jones on gun charges following his June arrest at Logan Airport, they should do the same for former Republican state senator Dean Tran. CommonWealth took stock of the Jones case here.
MEDIA
Dan Kennedy digs into Walter Isaacson’s new book about Elon Musk, and particularly Musk’s decision to sabotage a Ukrainian attack in Crimea. He raises questions about sitting on a scoop awaiting a book’s publication. (Media Nation)