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.
Newton voters oust backers of ambitious housing plan
A trio of Newton city councilors who backed a plan to allow even more housing than what is called for under a new state law were voted out of office, in what may be a cautionary tale for officials in other communities.
Sluggish housing production hammers Greater Boston
Three years after the start of the pandemic, rents are soaring and housing production is still nowhere near what it needs to be to meet demand, according to the new Greater Boston Housing Report Card from the Boston Foundation.
Healey’s shelter cap of 7,500 families is triggered
The number of families housed in the state’s emergency shelter system hit Gov. Maura Healey’s limit on Thursday afternoon, triggering a new regulation that will allow the shelter system to begin to turn people away.
Big 3 uncertainty over extra shelter funding
Speaker Ron Mariano said the House will vote to provide additional funding for the cash-strapped emergency shelter system on Wednesday, but neither he nor the governor nor the Senate president seemed to know how much money is needed
Mass. residents bullish on future — with some big asterisks
More than half of Massachusetts residents think the state’s best days are ahead, or already here, and more than two thirds say their family enjoys a good quality of life, according to a new CommonWealth Beacon poll.
Kenzie Bok says Boston housing shortage no accident
THE STATE’S public housing infrastructure is, to put it lightly, strained. And it didn’t get that way by accident. “The way I talk about it is that it’s not that you have a bowl that has some holes in it – it’s that our housing system in America is built to be a sieve,” Kenzie…
Ruling coming in emergency shelter suit
A SUPERIOR COURT judge is expected to rule by the end of the day Wednesday on whether to block Gov. Maura Healey from putting a cap on shelter placements and waitlist families looking for emergency shelter.
Don’t count on feds for shelter funding, Healey told
GOV. MAURA HEALEY’S call for a cap on the state’s emergency shelter program received tepid support on Monday from the Senate president and House speaker, who said the federal solution the governor is hoping for to address the influx of migrants is unlikely to materialize any time soon because of the leadership void in the…
Accessory dwelling units eyed as low-hanging housing win
A SMALL PART OF the solution to the state’s glaring housing shortage could be in everyone’s backyard. Gov. Maura Healey’s $4.1 billion housing bond bill, rolled out last week, includes zoning reform that would allow accessory dwelling units to be built as of right throughout the state. These units, sometimes known as “granny flats,” are…
Healey wades in on real estate transfer fee
GOV. MAURA HEALEY’S support for allowing municipalities to enact a real estate transfer tax could offer some cover to the cities and towns that have been agitating for the controversial policy change as yet another tool to shore up their affordable housing stock. Her $4 billion five-year housing bond bill, announced in Chelsea on Wednesday…
Healey to unveil $4.1 billion housing bond bill
EASING RULES ON building accessory dwelling units, or “granny flats.” Allowing cities and towns to impose real estate transfer fees. A new “momentum fund” aimed at attracting private capital. Those are some of the proposals packed into the $4.1 billion housing bond bill that Gov. Maura Healey is unveiling this morning, at a press conference…
Shelter system also key for survivors of domestic violence
THE SUDDEN SPOTLIGHT on Massachusetts’ painfully strained shelter system – creaking under growing demand driven by new migrant arrivals – has mostly glanced past a group that was already struggling to find safe haven before the crunch hit “unsustainable” levels. Survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse sit at the uneasy intersection of the system’s…
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