THE MASSACHUSETTS housing world is under strain from every angle, and every housing gambit is a long game. Healey administration housing officials are facing a bleak to-deal-with list, hampered by the lowest rental vacancy rate in the country – just 2.8 percent – and a 200,000-unit shortage. The emergency shelter system is crushed by waves […]
Housing
Posted inPolitics
Is Massachusetts becoming the state of emergency?
IN GOVERNMENT, as in life, what gets the most attention is often a matter of priorities. It’s hard to focus on too much at once, so the most important things get pushed to the top of the to-do list. Sometimes, though, even setting out an agenda of top priorities doesn’t seem to be enough. Lately, […]
Posted inHousing, State Government, State House News Service
Housing activists look to bond bill for funding, possible transfer fee
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE IT’S NOW eight months into Gov. Maura Healey’s administration and the wait continues for major proposals from the Corner Office to address perhaps the governor’s signature issue: housing affordability and production. Some people in the advocacy world feel that’s going to change soon, and want the governor to “go big” to […]
Posted inEducation
Arriving students victims – and villains – in Massachusetts housing crunch
IT’S AS REGULAR as clockwork – and as orderly as a hurricane. Each fall, hundreds of thousands of college and university students descend on the state’s roughly 150 institutions of higher education. For first year undergraduates at most of these schools, they can usually expect to haul their bags into a dormitory on campus, wave […]
Posted inHousing, Immigration, State House News Service
Healey calls in National Guard to aid shelter effort
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE FACING A STEADY influx of migrants from other countries, Gov. Maura Healey on Thursday activated up to 250 National Guard members to provide basic services at emergency shelter hotels. Healey’s office announced the move Thursday afternoon, saying that her new executive order applies to locations that do not have a contracted […]
Posted inHousing, State Government, State House News Service
State tweaks MBTA Communities housing law
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE STATE ON Thursday gave more flexibility to cities and towns required to have at least one zone in which denser, multi-family housing is permitted, but also expanded the list of state grant opportunities that can be denied to any town that does not comply with the law meant to spur […]
Posted inGovernment, Housing, Immigration
The migrant shelter crisis is also a housing crisis
THE MASSACHUSETTS state shelter system, now serving around 20,000 people across 5,600 families, is strained almost to capacity – a “humanitarian crisis” of migrant families drawing renewed attention to the ongoing Bay State housing crisis. The governor made an emergency declaration asking for federal aid to deal with the impact of the migrant influx on […]
Posted inGovernment, Housing, Immigration
Healey declares state of emergency for ‘unsustainable’ migrant housing crisis
THE RATE OF MIGRANTS coming into Massachusetts, fleeing unsafe countries and looking for work and housing, is “unsustainable” without intervention from the federal government, Gov. Maura Healey said Tuesday. She declared a state of emergency, the state’s first since the 2020 start of the Covid-19 pandemic, to marshal state resources and issue an “urgent and […]
Posted inBallot Questions, Housing, State Government, State House News Service
Cambridge rep moves to put rent control on state ballot
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE EXACTLY 30 YEARS after Massachusetts voters narrowly prohibited rent control across the state, a long-running debate about whether to reverse or uphold the ban might once again be settled at the ballot box. A small group of local officials, tenant advocates and renters came together Wednesday in a last-minute push led […]
Posted inHousing, Politics
Historical geographer says local control has been enemy of efforts to preserve community character
IT’S A FAMILIAR REFRAIN in the push and pull over development in Massachusetts: When a project of some kind is proposed, local officials and residents who oppose it often say the development would harm the historic character of their community. Maintaining local control over what gets built and where it gets built is often viewed […]