SHANNON P. O’BRIEN
Wants ‘smart growth’ office

From their opinions on rent control to their strategies on ending homelessness, six candidates for governor last week pitched their plans for solving the state’s housing woes at a forum that drew more than 300 people.

“We will have to find a better way to fund housing,” said state Treasurer Shannon P. O’Brien, who squared off with gubernatorial opponents at Faneuil Hall on Tuesday.

In a debate that often elicited enthusiastic applause from audience members, several candidates criticized the current state leadership for neglecting affordable housing and cutting funding, and promised to do more.

But Senate President Thomas Birmingham, who said he has the “political scars” to prove the battles he’s endured for housing, questioned his opponents.

“It’s one thing to talk the talk. It’s another thing to walk the walk,” said Birmingham. “Talk is cheap. Unfortunately, good affordable housing is not.”

Besides Birmingham and O’Brien, the other participants were: Democratic candidates Steve Grossman, Robert Reich and Warren Tolman; and Libertarian candidate Carla Howell. Republican candidate Mitt Romney declined an invitation to participate in the forum, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein did not attend because of illness.

Birmingham answered several questions during the debate by noting housing-related spending and legislation that was approved under his leadership, including a housing bond bill passed in 1998. The bond bill provides money to renovate public housing units also funds new housing construction. In addition, Birmingham said he worked with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization to establish the $100 million Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which provides $20 million per year over five years for the creation and preservation of affordable housing.

However, former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, taking a stab at Birmingham and other Bay State lawmakers, fumed that the current $508 million bond bill has not been passed yet. The bill has been stalled in the Legislature for more than 10 months. Reich said if elected governor, he would make sure the bond bill gets passed immediately.

“It is absurd that that bond bill is sitting there and no one is screaming about it,” said Reich, who noted that the bill is being “held captive by suburban legislators.”

State lawmakers have put off passing the bond bill because of their concerns with the state’s Chapter 40B statue, or anti-snob zoning law. The law allows developers to skirt local zoning when proposing housing with an affordable component in communities where less than 10 percent of the housing stock is dedicated to low- and moderate-income people. Some community officials have urged lawmakers to change the law because they feel that developers are abusing Chapter 40B and because housing growth is taxing their services.

While most of the candidates said they understood the communities’ concerns about growth, they also said they support Chapter 40B and don’t want to see it destroyed.

Reich said he would offer communities that have created housing “a good-neighbor bonus” but didn’t offer details on what the bonus would be. He also said he supports mixed-use zoning measures and wants to streamline the permitting process in the Bay State.

‘Economic Imperative’

The debate, sponsored by seven organizations and cosponsored by 70 others, featured five panelists, including a representative of Banker & Tradesman, who directed prepared questions to the candidates. Pam Cross, WCVB Channel 5 television news anchor, served as the moderator.

Cross started the debate by asking the candidates two questions, one of which was about state funding for housing. Each candidate answered those questions, and then the panelists randomly selected a candidate to whom they also posed a question. Afterward, questions were taken from the audience, and the candidates were given a chance to provide closing statements.

Throughout the debate, several candidates noted their support of Chapter 40B. O’Brien, who has prepared her own housing plan, said she would resist all efforts to “gut 40B.” The state must do a better job of developing housing on surplus land and can take steps to leverage more federal funds, O’Brien said.

O’Brien wants to raise the current housing bond cap from $101 million to $165 million over two years, using money freed up as the Big Dig nears completion. And as governor, O’Brien said she would support the creation of a state office on smart-growth planning that would coordinate the efforts of housing, transportation and environmental agencies.

In response to a question from the audience, O’Brien also said she would be willing to extend Community Reinvestment Act obligations to mortgage companies, not just banks. A bill has been filed on Beacon Hill that would extend the CRA, which requires lenders to invest in the communities they serve by offering loans to low- and moderate-income homebuyers, to include mortgage companies.

Steve Grossman, a Newton businessman, said the state should provide incentives to companies that help employees purchase or rent a home. Grossman said the state could partner with the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, which earlier this year launched an employer-assisted housing initiative that is being implemented with the help of the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association.

In addition, Grossman said the state must make a commitment to replace public housing units that have been torn down, end predatory lending and encourage mixed-use zoning in already developed urban areas.

“This issue [housing] is both a moral and an economic imperative,” said Grossman.

Warren Tolman, a former state senator, was critical of the current leadership on Beacon Hill, including Birmingham, for spending cuts that have affected affordable housing.

“I don’t like what’s happened with affordable housing … under your watch,” he said to Birmingham.

Tolman said he would create a statewide registry of affordable housing units and praised community and housing partnerships. Noting that his own parents lived in a federal housing project, Tolman said he would never forget people who live in public housing.

“I am never going to turn my back on people who live there,” he said.

Meanwhile, Libertarian candidate Carla Howell, who spent most of the debate pushing a ballot initiative to end the state income tax, blamed excessive building regulations and “big government” restrictions on the housing crunch. Howell said strict environmental and building rules, including Title 5 septic system regulations, are driving up housing construction costs. She vowed to end “destructive big-government programs that push families on the street.”

One housing topic that has resurfaced recently is rent control. Birmingham, who said he was an “outspoken opponent” of the movement to abolish rent control several years ago, was asked whether he would support it today.

After discussing housing discrimination and funding for smart growth, Birmingham said, “We don’t have the political majorities to reinstate rent control.”

The debate was sponsored by the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, Homes for Families, Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, and the Massachusetts Nonprofit Housing Association.