Andrew Mikula

It’s a five-month sprint to the end of the Massachusetts legislative session, and housing advocates’ signature bill recently got some extra padding.

Known as the “Yes in My Backyard Act” or “YIMBY Act,” it was first filed in January 2025 before subsuming several smaller bills in December. Depending on who you ask, the resulting omnibus package is either a watershed effort to address the housing crisis that is worth passing all at once, or a dire threat to local control, fiscal sustainability and the environment.

If passed, the bill would allow up to five homes per lot in residential areas served by adequate sewer and water infrastructure and three per lot in other residential areas. It would also eliminate minimum lot size requirements in new residential developments and, within half a mile of transit stops, allow multifamily housing of up to 15 units per acre (i.e., MBTA Communities Act density) with no minimum parking requirements.

What a Big Reform Package Really Does

Those provisions, also present in the original bill, all acknowledge the crucial role of additional supply in controlling costs and facilitating housing market turnover in the long run. But that theme became a bit watered-down once the YIMBY Act started integrating provisions from other bills.

For example, the December 2025 version added a section that would make it easier for municipalities to adopt new inclusionary zoning bylaws, which serve as exactions on new development to put towards affordable housing.

In an economic environment where it’s already hard enough to make residential development financially viable, the inclusionary zoning provision might give the YIMBY Act’s supply-focused supporters a reason to be less enthusiastic.

But this kind of “omnibus alienation effect” isn’t really how Beacon Hill works. Instead, advocates seem to be using this high-profile legislation to bring zoning reform to the fore, giving themselves a platform to lobby for aspects of the bill as a priority.

A broader coalition may make it more likely that the Legislature takes up some sort of housing package. In its current form, the bill serves more as a basis for negotiations than a rallying point for everyone concerned with housing affordability and availability.

House Unlikely to OK Big Reforms

Other states, including Maine, have adopted similar supply-focused housing reforms as an omnibus package. But the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives is an unabashed housing advocate with a long history of legislative success on the matter, despite being just 33 years old. In Massachusetts, the lower branch of the Legislature seems a little more gun-shy on further zoning reform.

Let me be more explicit: The Massachusetts House of Representatives is unlikely to pass a housing bill as far-reaching as the current YIMBY Act anytime soon. Speaker Ron Mariano has been wary of additional zoning reform after the MBTA Communities Act proved to be controversial.

And with Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s pending lawsuit against nine noncompliant towns, the “wait for full MBTA Communities implementation” argument is unfortunately as salient as ever.

The Senate is a different story. Sen. Julian Cyr of Provincetown, chair of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing, has been described as having housing as “the cornerstone of his politics.” He has also said that whatever the Legislature does on housing in the next few months “has to include zoning reform.” In November, Senate President Karen Spilka expressed interest in “bold” action on housing and tasked Sen. Cyr with setting the agenda.

There’s Another Way Forward

All things considered, it’s likely that some sort of housing-focused legislation will continue to move forward in the Senate in 2026, but it’s unlikely to pass the House without substantial modifications.

Thankfully, there’s another way for Beacon Hill to spur housing production in Massachusetts, and it’s the same way the MBTA Communities Act did: sneak policy reform items into a bond bill. Gov. Maura Healey will reportedly consider filing another economic development bond package in 2026, a prime opportunity for additional housing reforms that wouldn’t pass the Legislature as a standalone item.

That said, earlier in February, when the State House News Service asked Gov. Healey about further action on housing this session, she said her administration will “focus on implementing what’s already out there.”

Of course, there are many other housing-related bills not included in the YIMBY Act, including another large package of mostly process-based reforms known as “An Act to Accelerate Housing Production.”

But when it comes to zoning reform, the YIMBY Act is the center of gravity and, for better or worse, it’s probably best thought of as a menu of options for inclusion in a future bond bill. Its next stop is the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which could help narrow those options substantially.

Andrew Mikula is a senior housing fellow at the Pioneer Institute in Boston.