Faced with crippling housing crisis, Beacon Hill nibbles at the edges

July 2, 2026

By Jennifer Smith

Policy watchers trying to figure how lawmakers have spent the current legislative session tackling the housing crisis could be forgiven for having a sense of déja vu.

The moves getting the most attention from Beacon Hill as it hurtles into its busiest month of the two-year session are a housing bond bill passed two years ago and lauding the zoning changes introduced by the controversial MBTA Communities multi-family zoning law, signed back in 2021.

“This isn’t the monumental session for housing, for a variety of reasons,” said Jesse Kanson-Benanav, executive director of the pro-housing group Abundant Housing Massachusetts.

Instead, much of the housing energy is being channeled piecemeal into various things moving through the State House: the state budget, a supplemental budget, an economic development bill, an environmental bond bill.

There is no disagreement over the stakes. Amid fears about stemming the tide of out-migration for cheaper pastures, polling finds that affordable housing remains a chief anxiety for young residents.

“Affordability is at the center of nearly every major conversation we’re having in the Senate today – and has been for quite some time,” Senate President Karen Spilka said at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce in June. “That’s because you cannot get the most out of Massachusetts if you cannot afford to live here, start a business here, or raise a family here.”

But Beacon Hill has so far steered clear of the type of ambitious proposal that would seem to meet the moment.

A new state housing tracker, launched last week, offers some bright spots and plenty of question marks. Massachusetts added 34,561 homes in 2025, just over 15 percent of the way toward Healey’s goal of 222,000 new units by 2035. But officials said that also reflects a surge of backlogged pandemic-era projects, and low permitting numbers plus national economic headwinds make it hard to predict the actual flow of new units in the next decade.

Here’s a rundown of recent actions, pending proposals, and rulings at the Supreme Judicial Court influencing housing policy more aggressively than any single piece of legislation.

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Jennifer Smith writes for CommonWealth Beacon and co-hosts its weekly podcast, The Codcast. Her areas of focus include housing, social issues, courts and the law, and politics and elections. A California...