Major bond bills set the widest parameters for possible spending. But there’s little to no chance that $6 billion in bonding power actually gets pointed at the housing crisis.
Housing
Posted inHousing
House Democrats outline $6.2 billion housing plan
With sky-high sale prices and rents suffocating residents, the House will try to shift the tide by pumping more money into existing housing programs and rolling out a few new strategies.
Posted inHousing
Taking aim at barriers for underrepresented developers
Rather than waiting for underrepresented groups to become eligible for traditional housing funding sources, a new fund is “just doing away with this chicken and egg thing.”
Posted inOpinion
Here’s the biggest challenge facing Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard law enforcement
On Nantucket, the average price of a home is nearing $4 million. Visitors will spend $20,000 or more a week to rent a house – making a year-round rental for a police officer virtually impossible.
Posted inOpinion
How to move beyond local resistance to more housing
Currently, private development is tasked with assessing the impact of their proposals. If this became a state-driven cost benefit analysis, we could standardize impact and support towns that lack resources and help residents to understand pros and cons associated with development.
Posted inOpinion
As mayors, we need more tools to boost housing production
We urge the Legislature to act quickly to pass the Affordable Homes Act, in its entirety, this session, and to give local leaders the tools we need to support our current and future residents.
Posted inHousing
Mariano having doubts about local option transfer tax
The controversial policy idea may be what is holding up the House in taking up Gov. Maura Healey’s $4.1 billion housing bond bill, which she filed last October and has said is critical to addressing the shortage of affordable and available homes in Massachusetts.
Posted inOpinion
Housing challenge brings with it an energy challenge
Left unaddressed, the cost and availability of energy are poised to become deciding factors on when, where, and how fast new housing developments are built.
Posted inHousing
Milton asking state to restore its grant funding
The Milton Select Board voted 3-2 Tuesday night to send letters to Gov. Maura Healey and other officials asking them to reverse course and restore state grants that were cut off because of the municipality’s noncompliance.
Posted inOpinion
Unitarians turn empty office space into shelter
With all the public and private resources invested in office space and commercial development in the past generation, yet high vacancy rates forecasted for the foreseeable future, surely there can be more creative uses for spaces like ours to meet this moment.
Posted inBy The Numbers
Mass. residents conflicted on MBTA Communities Act
The poll seems to show a version of “NIMBY” thinking among residents, with most people supporting the broad goal of creating more housing, but a significant number of responders wary of having that housing forced on individual communities.
Posted inHousing
MBTA Communities panel splits over state vs. local control
“I think of the folks who were in the Mass. Legislature more than 100 years ago, who said we’re going to go out and we’re going to create the Quabbin Reservoir and flood four towns, and make sure that we had enough water for the Boston metro area,” he said. “That was a hard decision… They made a decision about what they thought was best for the Commonwealth. And so did we.”
Posted inOpinion
Housing legislation could save Cape Cod
The housing crisis ln the Cape is a threat not only to our families, but to our workforce, our seasonal economy, and our way of life.
Posted inHousing
Political Notebook: MBTA panel clash | A fare deal | Call him Charlie
Tension over the MBTA Communities Law was on display Wednesday night at a CommonWealth Beacon panel in Quincy as a state legislator who voted for the law – and feels it did not go far enough – clashed with a city council president who expressed reservations with the top-down nature of the state telling cities and towns what to do.
Posted inCourts
Full SJC to hear Milton rezoning case
Justice Serge Georges Jr. said the case against Milton, which centers around how to enforce the MBTA Communities Act, “raises novel questions of law which are of public importance and which are time sensitive and likely to recur.”
Posted inCourts
On zoning law, Campbell seeks legal shot across the bow
Campbell wants to skip a trial in Superior Court and go straight to the SJC in May in an effort to establish clearly that Milton and other communities in the state are subject to the law and her office has the authority to enforce compliance.
Posted inHousing
A divided Milton heads into court
Milton seems unprepared, partly because of the fast-moving pace of legal action and mostly because town officials are as divided as the town they represent.
Posted inOpinion
Both sides overselling MBTA Communities Act
Its real impact will be far less than the rhetoric from both sides of the debate. Proponents tout it as a transformative effort to tackle racial segregation and build affordable housing in our region’s most exclusionary suburbs. There is truth in these claims. But now that we’re shifting to implementation, I worry that overstating the law’s magnitude has contributed to the blowback.
Posted inHousing
Emergency shelter system morphing into something new
Gov. Maura Healey placed a cap on shelter families. Now the House is proposing time limits on stays in the shelter system.
Posted inHousing
Milton Select Board divided on next steps
Milton officials now find themselves in the awkward position of trying to comply with the law in an angry community that soundly rejected their earlier effort at compliance.
Posted inOpinion
Public flogging of Milton is unnecessary
Balance is struck when we pass laws that are punitive (or expensive) towards undesirable behavior. From laws restricting pollution, to taxes on tobacco, we guide society in the direction we desire. Society becomes off kilter when the restrictions become too onerous and begin to impede the rights we possess.
Posted inTransportation
Here is why state feels Milton is a rapid transit community
The Guidelines do not – and cannot – take into consideration the quality of the service or the type of equipment used on any given line.
Posted inOpinion
Is ‘paper compliance’ with the MBTA Communities law good enough?
It doesn’t add any new homes for young adults or new families, or add diversity. It doesn’t create new opportunities for downsizing seniors. It doesn’t add the homes our local employers need to attract and retain workers. But it passes the compliance test.
Posted inHousing
Analysis of Healey housing bill called ‘half-baked’
Evan Horowitz of the Center for State Policy Analysis Horowitz said the Donahue Institute analysis would be more suitable if the state was in a recession because it assumes there is a shortfall of jobs and economic activity. He questioned whether it would be possible to create 30,000 jobs in what is basically a full employment economy. Indeed, he indicated the bond bill could accelerate the scramble for scarce employees right now.