In Somerville, a years-long push to re-embrace the triple-decker dovetailed with a serious need for new housing units, and its city council voted in November to fully legalize new three-unit construction.
Housing
Posted inOpinion
A New Year’s resolution: Make Mass. affordable
The big $1 billion tax cut celebrated by Beacon Hill leaders this year was, for the most part, a regressive giveaway to the already well-off, costing the state millions of dollars that could otherwise be used to support low-income people and the middle class.
Posted inHousing
Cost of emergency shelter system nearly tripling this year
The report said the cost of the program has nearly tripled, growing from roughly $325 million at the start of this fiscal year to $932 million as Massachusetts has tried to find shelter for a growing wave of migrants from other countries.
Posted inHousing
Warren endorses Healey housing plan
Do you think that housing is in short supply in Massachusetts right now?” Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked. “Do you think that rents are already rising like a hot air balloon? Well buckle up for a rough ride.”
Posted inHousing
A first look at Wu’s housing production goal
Mayor Michelle Wu and her planning chief hedged on setting out long-term housing production goals during a press briefing earlier this week. Days later, the administration offered stakeholders a first look at shorter-term housing targets.
Posted inHousing
Unclear target for Boston’s housing goals
Mayor Michelle Wu and planning chief Arthur Jemison were leery about offering long-term housing production goals even as they referred to policies that would drive “a very large number” of units year over year.
Posted inHousing
Yes, building more housing does lower rents, study says
Does increasing the supply of housing, even if it’s mainly higher-cost, market-priced units, temper the runup in costs that has so many residents straining to make ends meet? The idea follows the basic economic principle of supply and demand – when more of something is made available, its price falls. But there are plenty of “supply skeptics” who aren’t convinced that simply opening the housing production spigot will lower costs, and argue instead that it often just drives up prices by promoting gentrification.
Posted inHousing
Newton councilors scale back housing plan in face of state deadline
NEWTON CITY COUNCILORS signed off on the wealthy Boston suburb’s first substantial zoning overhaul in more than 35 years, approving a plan on Monday night that aims to bring more housing to region in desperate need of new units, but they balked at going beyond the mandates of a new state law after proponents of […]
Posted inHousing
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.
Posted inHousing
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.