FILED ALONGSIDE HER inaugural budget on Wednesday, Gov. Maura Healey’s proposed cabinet reconfiguration legislation offers the first concrete look at the responsibilities of a new standalone housing secretariat. 

Housing programs currently operate under the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. Within the governor’s $55.5 billion budget blueprint, some $992 million is recommended under a proposed new Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, which will largely absorb the housing programs currently operating under the housing and economic development cabinet post. 

According to Healey’s housing bill, the new office’s mission will include administering programs focused on fairness and equity in housing opportunity; emergency and transitional housing; and housing production, rehabilitation, preservation, affordability, and stability and security. The current combined office of Housing and Economic Development would be renamed as the Executive Office of Economic Development and retain non-housing responsibilities.

The new cabinet post requires legislative approval, something that could take several months to work its way through. In the meantime, the main housing policy voices in the new administration – besides the governor – will be Healey’s housing and economic development secretary, Yvonne Hao, and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll. 

“We’re not waiting for the housing secretariat to begin the work,” Driscoll said in an interview, adding that the housing secretary should be thought of more as a captain than someone with access to a magic housing production wand. “This isn’t a housing hero,” Driscoll said.

A steep task awaits the yet-unnamed secretary. The state is shy some 200,000 housing units, according to housing experts, and the bulk of new housing has been concentrated in the Boston region. About 150,000 applicants sit on the public housing waitlist and there are cripplingly low vacancy rates across housing sectors. 

Though Driscoll told the Local Government Advisory Commission in February that the new secretariat would be “a chief reason” they could close that housing gap, Driscoll said in an interview Friday that it won’t come down to a singular person’s vision.

As with most of the Healey administration’s early proposals, housing was framed through the lens of state competitiveness. 

“This consistently high cost of housing also places Massachusetts at a significant disadvantage as we compete with peer states to attract and retain businesses,” the legislation’s introductory letter reads. “In short, we must create an adequate supply of housing for our young families, workers, and an aging population if we want to remain one of the best states in the nation to live and work.”

Homelessness and emergency assistance are some of the largest ticket items under the new housing office. The governor’s budget proposes $110.8 million for “homeless individual shelters,” which would preserve a more than 2,600 shelter bed expansion, and $324 million to fund the state’s emergency assistance family shelters and services. 

Driscoll last month led a working group of municipal and housing leaders to help shape some of the new secretariat’s goals. The new secretary should “implement a dynamic housing campaign that tells the story of what is at stake and how a successful housing strategy can transform the Commonwealth,” the group wrote in its report.

A unified vision is critical from the state level to the individual, Driscoll said. “You feel pretty lonely when you’re in a housing battle,” she said, as a developer trying to get something permitted, a local mayor struggling with inadequate homelessness support, and people being forced to leave their homes or shelters because of expense or capacity. The secretary will have to engage in a decent amount of “myth busting,” she said, because the loudest voices in housing discussions are not necessarily representative of their communities, and “we have to have them understand who they’re impacting.”

It’s the job of the administration to “remind people what’s at stake if we do nothing or stay on the current path,” she said. “Even if we’re building about 20,000 units a year, we can’t take 10 years to meet our housing needs.”

JENNIFER SMITH

FROM COMMONWEALTH

Unicorn budget: Gov. Maura Healey files a “unicorn” of a state budget that cuts taxes, sets aside money in the rainy day fund, and increases funding dramatically for education, energy and environmental affairs, transportation, child care, and many other areas. Read more.

Millionaire tax fund: The Healey budget sets up a system for handling the tax revenue coming in from the millionaire tax. The money is set aside in a separate fund that will have a minimum balance to provide a cushion against revenue volatility. In fiscal 2024, Healey is proposing to spend a total of $1 billion from the fund – $510 million on education and $490 million on transportation. Read more.

OPINION

Student mental health: Ian Lang of the Brookline Center for Community Mental Health calls for challenging the status quo approach to student mental health. Read more.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

Michael Murphy, a Lanesborough Select Board member, gives a frosty reception to the suggestion by the owner of the largely empty Berkshire Mall that the town locate its police station there. Murphy called the mall a “death trap.” (Berkshire Eagle)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

The state’s 2.3 million Medicaid recipients must undergo recertification for the health care benefits, and Gov. Maura Healey said officials expect that process will lead to 300,000 current MassHealth beneficiaries being dropped from the rolls. (Boston Globe) 

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Republicans have been going after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg over the Ohio train derailment – and some of the attacks are getting personal. (Washington Post) 

ELECTIONS

Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld wonders whether Tuesday’s defeat of Chicago’s liberal mayor, Lori Lightfoot, is a warning sign to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. 

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Rick Dimino is stepping down as CEO of the Boston business group A Better City, which has focused on regional infrastructure needs. His longtime deputy, Kate Dineen, will take the reins. (Boston Globe) 

Charlie Baker starts his job as president of the NCAA. (Associated Press)

Rousselot, one of the largest employers in Peabody, says it intends to shut down its facility for producing gelatin and collagen-based solutions. (Daily Item)

EDUCATION

Gov. Maura Healey’s budget proposal includes $20 million to launch the free community college initiative she has pitched to cover costs for those 25 and older who are looking to obtain a two-year degree. (Boston Globe) 

State Auditor Diana DiZoglio says she will evaluate a request from the Worcester School Committee to audit the financial arrangement between Old Sturbridge Village, Old Sturbridge Academy, and the proposed Worcester Cultural Academy charter school. (Worcester Telegram) As CommonWealth reported, the state board of education approved the new charter school earlier this week. 

TRANSPORTATION

The family of Robinson Lalin, who was dragged to his death last April by a Red Line train, is suing the MBTA. (Boston Herald) 

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Nahant officials extend their contract with USDA Wildlife Services to kill “problem or habituated” coyotes. Only one coyote has been killed so far. Officials emphasized the contract is not to eliminate all coyotes or for population control. (Daily Item)

Winthrop Center, a new 21-story office building in downtown Boston, wins certification for its “passive house” design. (WBUR)

PFAS from firefighting foam and other products is polluting Cape Cod water supplies and posing a challenge to local towns. (Cape Cod Times)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

New Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux has tapped a national expert on inmate suicide to offer recommendations on prevention efforts that can be implemented. (New Bedford Light) 

Members of a New Hampshire White supremacist group are struggling to find an attorney that will represent them as they face charges of violating the state’s Civil Rights Act. (WBUR)

MEDIA

Joshua Macht, a former editor and general manager of Time magazine, has been named the new president of MassLive Media. The Newton resident said MassLive has the potential for eastward expansion into Boston and the suburbs. 

PASSINGS A Berkshire Eagle editorial praises the legacy of John Olver, a Democrat who served western Massachusetts at the State House and in Congress who died at age 86. “He forwent the spotlight, opting to direct it toward the issues that mattered most to everyday people in his district and around the world,” the editorial said.