If a campaign to instate rent control across the Commonwealth makes it to the ballot, voters will need to weigh whether every municipality should adopt a measure more stringent than earlier attempts by Boston, Brookline, and Somerville.
Jennifer Smith
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 native who also lived in Utah, Jennifer has covered Massachusetts since 2011 for a variety of publications. She worked breaking news in the Boston Globe’s metro section and provided courtroom coverage of the Boston Marathon bomber trial for the international wire service Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) while completing her undergraduate journalism degree at Northeastern University in Boston. For four years, Jennifer was a staff writer and later news editor for the Dorchester Reporter, covering her home neighborhood and the city of Boston with a particular focus on politics and development. Her work and commentary have appeared in WBUR, GBH News, Harvard Public Health Magazine, and Politico’s Massachusetts Playbook. She has co-hosted MassINC’s Massachusetts politics and policy podcast The Horse Race since 2018, interviewing newsmakers, journalists, and elected officials across the state.
Posted inCourts
Bar advocate work stoppage becomes an SJC separation-of-powers conundrum
Over the course of 70 minutes of arguments by the two sides, and pointed questioning from the justices, none of the Supreme Judicial Court’s seven judges appeared eager to snatch the power of the purse from Beacon Hill lawmakers.
Posted inCourts
SJC considers whether charter schools must obey public records laws
The Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, in rebuffing at least 10 public records requests for information on various aspects of its operations, insists that it is not covered by the sweeping statute guaranteeing public access to the records of government entities.
Posted inCourts
Four Supreme Judicial Court cases to watch in November
In November, the seven Supreme Judicial Court justices will wrestle with some disputes that are years or decades in the making. Others touch on current crises. And the Legislature’s action or inaction is often a factor.
Posted inHousing
Boston housing permitting lags as residents express support for zoning changes
Eighty-one percent of Boston residents, according to a new Abundant Housing Massachusetts poll, support a goal of building 30,000 new homes in Boston – signaling broad agreement on the scale of the crisis, even as questions persist about whether such targets are achievable or even useful.
Posted inEnvironment
Planning for wildfire risk a puzzle for homeowners, Mass. officials
Massachusetts summers are expected to experience more variable and severe dry spells due to rising temperatures and less frequent rainfall. Meanwhile, the state is juggling a goal of 220,000 new housing units to beat the crunch while trying to plan for a world with more extreme weather, be it floods or fire.
Posted inCourts
When the courthouse leads to the therapist’s office
The mental health courts make a compelling offer: If the participants agree to use it, the system will connect them with long-term and accessible mental health supports often out of reach for people in prison or just trying to navigate the crunched behavioral health landscape. But they are expensive, resource intensive, and serve just a fraction of the people in need of mental health services in and out of the criminal justice system.
Posted inHealth Care
Phoning it in – Mass. residents still lean toward in-person care as telehealth booms
While the rise of telehealth in the early 2020s “did improve access to care,” according to the Health Policy Commission, not everyone is able to use the new virtual hospital landscape. “Specific actions could be taken to further enhance access for more rural and vulnerable populations.”
Posted inState Government
‘It was too effing complicated:’ A pro-housing reckoning over MBTA Communities law
“We crafted this law in a way that we thought was responding to the unique aspect of local control, local decision making, Town Meeting form of government we have in Massachusetts,” said said Jesse Kanson-Benanav, of Abundant Housing Massachusetts, “but that made it incredibly difficult.”
Posted inHealth Care
New poll shows high satisfaction with health insurance in Mass., even as residents delay or skip care for cost reasons
New polling for CommonWealth Beacon conducted by the MassINC Polling Group paints a picture of Massachusetts residents mostly happy with their health care coverage, especially when compared with other states, even while large slices of the population report struggling with cost and access.
Posted inBy The Numbers
Healey holds her head above water in new poll
Asked how they thought Healey is doing as governor, 20 percent of residents said they strongly approve of her performance, 36 percent say they somewhat approve, 15 percent somewhat disapprove, 18 percent strongly disapprove, and 11 percent said they were unsure.
Posted inHealth Care
Red lights on the way to health care
When hospitals close, communities reel. Even in well-covered Massachusetts, some regions of the state still struggle to access its nation-leading health care. And after decades of hospital consolidation, the system is staring down federal changes likely to make the hard job of providing care for underserved communities even more challenging.
Posted inCourts
Flexible financing or illegal reverse mortgage? Court allows suit over home equity investments to move forward
Though states including Massachusetts are considering possible rules for this novel product, which exchanges a lump sum for a share in home equity, HEI companies operate largely without regulation.
Posted inEducation
70 percent of Mass. infants live in child care deserts, according to state data
Enrollment differences between regions, student age groups, and income levels paint a picture of a system struggling to meet potential demand and that is most available to those at the highest income brackets.
Posted inHousing
Trump policies offer mixed messages on affordable housing
“There is just no way to subsidize housing development processes enough” to be affordable to the lowest income residents, said Matt Noyes of CHAPA, “without affordable rental assistance.”
Posted inGovernment
The enigma of ‘Opportunity Zones’
“Opportunity Zones” – now a permanent policy – offered major breaks to investors who pursued projects in low-income communities. But in Massachusetts and across the country, whether the program delivered much on its promise is still up for debate.
Posted inCourts
Lawyer work stoppage crisis hits the juvenile justice system
As the bar advocate work stoppage crisis ramps up in the courts, public defenders argue say an already “untenable” problem securing counsel for young offenders is hitting a breaking point.
Posted inHousing
A stormy season for short-term rentals on Nantucket
The wealthy enclave of Nantucket is, like its neighbors on the Cape, trying to chart a path forward as a community torn between the rental economy and a housing crunch.
Posted inCourts
Superior Court tosses Milton taxpayer suit against MBTA Communities law
In a brisk nine-page ruling, the Superior Court judge concluded that the Milton lawsuit was very similar to a previous bundle of suits fighting the multi-family housing law and should be dismissed.
Posted inCourts
Flurry of lawsuits over Trump cuts hinges on nine words
A flurry of lawsuits is challenging the Trump administration’s “slash-and-burn” campaign, which axed hundreds of grant programs mid-stream. The White House is fundamentally misinterpreting a short phrase buried in recent regulation, the suits argue, to justify the sweeping cuts.
Posted inPolitics
In Washington, Campbell defends states’ efforts against Trump’s executive overreach
Andrea Campbell and three other blue state attorneys general took to Washington on Monday to describe their ongoing fight against Trump administration policies in court.
Posted inState Government
MBTA Communities fight lingers in courts, on Beacon Hill
Some municipalities who claim the law asks too much of them are still looking to the courts and the Legislature for relief.
Posted inHousing
Milton Town Meeting decides to comply with MBTA Communities law
By 69 percent to 31 percent, the 239 representative voters at Milton’s special Town Meeting passed zoning language that would lay the groundwork for potentially 2,461 new units in the town, complying with the controversial state multi-family housing law.
Posted inHousing
Town Meeting vote on MBTA Communities looms for a divided Milton
The clock is ticking on Milton’s chance for compliance with MBTA Communities. The planning board and residents are still divided heading into a special town meeting on Monday.