Scott Van Voorhis
There only thing that Massachusetts voters are more fed up about than soaring home prices and rents is the rising cost of health care – and not by much.
A solid majority, 61 percent, are dissatisfied with the high cost of housing in the Bay State, compared to 66 percent who aren’t happy about all the money they are spending to stay insured, a new WBUR poll found.
But you won’t find much evidence of those concerns at the State House, with top legislative leaders and Gov. Charlie Baker having made scarce mention of any proposal – or frankly any interest – in trying to rein in runaway housing costs.
Baker’s state of the state address provides the starkest example, with the word “housing” mentioned just three times, twice in reference to a plan to help the homeless and once as an add-on at the end of a sentence about state spending on infrastructure and economic development.
No mention by our Republican governor of the difficulties middle- and working-class families face finding a half decent home or apartment they can afford – or, for that matter, the challenges companies face recruiting new talent in one of the most expensive places to live on the planet.
No matter that the cost of housing was listed as a higher concern by citizens across the state than even state tax levels (48 percent), our broken-down rail and highway system (47 percent), or the state of our schools (40 percent), according to that WBUR poll.
However, State Sen. Stan Rosenberg (D-Amherst) actually managed to one-up Baker, showing that cluelessness about our state’s housing crisis is a bipartisan phenomenon. Rosenberg recently laid out his own legislative priorities. He’s pushing for the so-called “millionaire’s tax,” more money for schools and criminal justice reform.
But reforming the housing market so families can afford a roof over their heads didn’t make the Senate president’s list.
In a comment to his hometown paper, Rosenberg revealed that his knowledge of the real estate market in Massachusetts – and the challenges those very same middle-class families now face – is sorely deficient.
“It’s the middle class family whose income and home value have never fully recovered from the Great Recession, who struggle mightily just to send their children to college,” Rosenberg told the Amherst Bulletin.
Stan, have you checked out home prices in Greater Boston lately? Most cities, towns and suburbs within 128 are well past the peaks set a decade ago, with this wave of unaffordability now starting to reach towns along 495 as well.
As for House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D-Revere), he’s not big on fancy speeches, but he recently told reporters that pot regs and the state budget are his big priorities, according to Commonwealth Magazine.
It’s worth asking why are elected leaders on Beacon Hill would rather debate rules for new pot shops than ways to bring down the cost of housing. After all, you won’t find a more bread-and-butter issue affecting families of all backgrounds and most income levels than housing.
Whether you are a conservative, a liberal or in between, it’s pretty clear that the way to bring down high home prices and rents is build more housing of all types, not just luxury condos and McMansions. And there’s also broad consensus among housing experts that local zoning restrictions – and entrenched NIMBY attitudes – are the biggest culprit in stifling construction of new homes and apartments.
So what gives?
Well, maybe our governor and legislative leaders are simply scared of angering local officials and stirring up opposition among voters who see new housing development, rather than high prices and rents, as the big problem.
The NIMBY voices have been by far the loudest ones in the room for years in Massachusetts communities large and small, hollering and screaming about any and every new apartment proposal or subdivision. Too often driving it all are unfounded fears of rising school costs or ludicrous and racially-tinged suspicions about affordable housing being some sort of cover for urban-style public housing projects.
“It’s which voices are the loudest and generally up to now the loudest have been municipalities saying ‘Leave us alone,’” said Clark Ziegler, executive director of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership.
But my guess is they don’t make up the majority. The NIMBY-driven referendum a couple years back that would have gutted the state’s affordable housing law was a flop at the ballot box. Far more numerous are the silent majority of buyers, sellers and renters who face constant frustration over the lack of choices on the market and our state’s ever more unaffordable prices, above all in Greater Boston.
It’s time for our elected leaders on Beacon Hill, from the governor and House and Senate leaders on down, to grow a spine and stand up to the NIMBY blowhards and the local officials who cave and at times even cater to them.
That means comprehensive reform of zoning laws that have effectively blocked most new housing construction in a growing number of Boston suburbs, where teardowns followed by grossly overpriced McMansions are the only game in town.
Who knows, maybe if they do, they’ll even strike political gold.
At the very least, though, it’s the right thing to do, and that still counts for something in my book.
