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Experts agree: Massachusetts needs to build more housing in a hurry, but the mechanisms for doing so aren’t in place. Developable land close to the city is scarce. Proposed projects of any significant size in the suburbs are often met with fierce opposition by residents who fear their schools and other services will be overwhelmed. Efforts at the state level to force cities and towns to zone for multifamily housing have also met with strong opposition.

At least two large Chambers of Commerce outside of Boston think they might be able to convince the communities they serve to capitalize on the state’s need for more housing to benefit their regions and the state economy.

A recent Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) study found that since 2010 Massachusetts had added about 246,000 residents, 353,000 jobs and permitted just 81,000 new housing units. The state would have to add another 44,000 units to balance the housing market and stabilize rents.

The area will need 91,000 units of new housing to accommodate expected growth and balance supply and demand by 2030. Large, high-density rental apartments would go a long way toward supplying that need. However, according to the MHP, 210 of the 351 municipalities in the commonwealth have gone a decade or longer without permitting any multifamily housing with five or more units.

Victim Of Its Own Success

The state economy is the envy of much of the nation and that makes people and businesses want to move here, said Clark Ziegler, executive director of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership. Ziegler said the state economy would be doing even better if it brought the housing supply into balance.

“We have been enormously successful despite having one hand tied behind our back,” he said. “It’s extraordinary how well we’re doing in spite of our housing problem. That makes it hard to convince people/legislators that housing supply is a problem.”

And if nothing changes?

“Employers will have to pay higher wages and it would seem logical that people who have choices, particularly younger people who are more mobile, will go to other parts of the country,” Ziegler said. “The three biggest competitors are Portland (Oregon), Seattle and Denver. They all build twice as much housing as we do and have lower costs.”

Ziegler points out that the state revenues are not keeping up with projections and we’re already facing a deficit for next year. Increasing housing should lower the cost to buy and rent and generate more revenue for the state.

“Cost of housing in high performing regions like ours reduced overall national overall economic output,” Ziegler said. “It’s measurable. Metro Boston is strikingly diverse. There are all kinds of knowledge-based companies. That helps us, but we should be poised for even greater success. But for adequate housing supply we’d be doing even better.”

Half of the multifamily housing created since 2010 has been built in Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett and Watertown – communities that are largely built up. If there’s going to be large-scale creation of housing, much of it is going to have to happen a little further outside of the city.

South Shore Positioned For Growth

The South Shore Chamber of Commerce sees the housing shortage as an opportunity for it to share in Boston’s growth. Chamber President and CEO Peter Forman said his group is working on a housing strategy for economic development that will be released in the fall.

“While there has been a lot of growth north and west of Boston, the South Shore hasn’t come close to capturing its opportunities to share in the economic growth Boston has had,” Forman said. “Increasing workforce housing is key to that. The housing has got to be more compact, very nice, with smaller lots and denser developments.”

The South Shore Chamber of Commerce thinks it can add tens of thousands of new housing units to its communities, but he acknowledges it isn’t going to be easy. Winning over the hearts and minds of taxpayers in those communities has been historically difficult. Forman also acknowledged this is an nontraditional role for a chamber of commerce.

“Some municipalities are looking for new projects; others are afraid of what new projects will do to their infrastructure,” he said. “We’re in a good position to make a solid argument that most towns would benefit from more development. If you don’t grow, taxes will go up and service will go down. This is not going to be easy. The biggest problem is attitudes – and we hope to change those attitudes.”

The state could help communities and itself by reconsidering the tax implications of new housing, he said.

“When new housing is built, 70 percent of the tax benefit goes to the state, not the town,” Forman said. “There is a disconnect where we ask cities and towns to be reasonable, but they aren’t the most direct beneficiaries of doing that. More housing makes the economy stronger and adds to tax revenue. If we can find a way to share that more equitably there might be a solution.”

Go West, Young Man

“It starts with a lesson in geography,” said former Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, who is the president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. “Boston can’t grow east.”

Murray would like to see it grow to the west. The chamber has been trying to position Worcester as a high-quality, low-cost alternative to Boston. The fundamentals that drive the Worcester economy are similar to what drives Boston’s; the area’s biggest employers are health care, higher education and financial services.

“We complement the greater Boston economy,” Murray said. “We embrace our proximity to Boston. You know, the distance between Worcester and Boston is shorter than one end of Silicon Valley to the other. We’d rather have growth in Massachusetts than relocation to somewhere else.”

Murray acknowledges that many residents fear growth and change, even though it could be beneficial, especially to gateway communities like Worcester. Convincing them will be difficult, but worth the effort.

“There’s lots of opportunities that exist in Central Massachusetts and the good news is that developers see that and the word is getting out,” Murray said. “It’s a target-rich environment.”