HOUSING
Massachusetts is facing an historic housing crunch. Explore its root causes and implications for shelter systems, economic development planning, and the state’s competitiveness pitch with CommonWealth Beacon reporting.
Layered over ADU law, Senate duplex bill would allow three units on most residential lots
Lawmakers “could, say, take another 10, 20 years to ask cities and towns to legalize duplexes,” said Amy Dain. “We have learned that is not possible. You could spend 50 years on it and you would only see it at the margins.”
In the face of a state housing shortage, could single-family zoning be on the chopping block?
The Senate’s economic development bill, which lawmakers have teed up for a vote next week, includes a provision that would require municipalities to allow duplexes as-of-right on all residentially zoned lots.
Faced with crippling housing crisis, Beacon Hill nibbles at the edges
A rundown of recent actions, pending proposals, and actions at the Supreme Judicial Court influencing housing policy more aggressively than any single piece of legislation.
Homeowner satisfaction high in Gateway Cities despite a host of financial challenges, new poll finds
The poll highlights a clash between how people feel about homeownership and what it means for their finances. Gateway City homeowners were more likely to skip urgent home repairs due to cost, buy in neighborhoods that were not their first choice, and say that competition with other buyers was a barrier they faced.
Mass. high court strikes rent control question from ballot
The decision averts a months-long season of aggressive campaigning that seemed sure to generate tens of millions of dollars in spending on attack ads and dire warnings about economic upheaval.
New report urges state to think small on housing crisis
Massachusetts has become “a victim of our own affluence,” said Andrew Mikula, the report’s author. “It’s like we forgot how to build smaller homes that can be more affordable for folks.”
Powerful real estate group says it’s open to rent control compromise
With just two weeks until a controversial rent control ballot measure could be locked in, a flurry of negotiations — and pockets of sustained resistance — puts Beacon Hill in a tricky position.
Rent control backers scrambling to find legislative road away from the ballot
Organizers then went public Tuesday afternoon with what they touted as a compromise: limiting rent increases to no more than 10 percent per year, only in cities and towns that opt in.
Driscoll offers support for YIMBY legislation
Bay Staters “need to remember that zoning and zoning laws are provided to municipalities from the state,” said Rep. Andy Vargas. So, he said, “if we’re not building housing, it’s time for the state to relook at how we can take up that responsibility more aggressively.”
How a shuttered hospital site in Lynn is being transformed into affordable housing for seniors
Local leaders say the $85 million development — which will be reserved for residents age 62 and older with incomes up to 60 percent of the area median income — will help alleviate the city’s housing shortage and provide an affordable, accessible option to some of Lynn’s most vulnerable residents.
Local complexity stymies ADU push
The report argues the permitting gap doesn’t reflect a lack of homeowner interest, but rather a regulatory system that was never designed to handle an influx of development of the small housing units across 351 cities and towns with their own set of permitting rules.
One year in, backers of Massachusetts’s eviction sealing law say there is promise — and an awareness problem
The idea behind the law is to let tenants wipe the slate clean from certain evictions and not have those cases present obstacles to renting an apartment, securing a mortgage to buy a home, or finding employment.
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