Mike Kennealy, secretary of housing and economic development, said at a hearing Feb. 11, 2020 that the administration will prioritize rental vouchers and affordable housing investments but cannot spend its way of the housing crisis. State House News Service Photo | Chris Van Buskirk

A jobs bill the Baker administration is developing will likely include plans aimed at boosting housing production, but the state needs to fundamentally alter housing market dynamics to address an emergency shortage, Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy said Tuesday.

During an oversight hearing Tuesday, Kennealy renewed his calls for lawmakers to pass a Gov. Charlie Baker bill that would lower the vote threshold needed for local zoning changes and allow more developers to get projects off the ground.

But pressed by Rep. Mike Connolly of Cambridge on the idea of raising more revenue and directing it toward housing needs, Kennealy replied that the administration will continue to prioritize rental vouchers and other affordable housing investments but cannot spend its way out of the crisis.

“There’s simply not enough government subsidy available to create the housing numbers we need,” Kennealy said.

“We’ll continue to throw a lot of resources at this, but until we get out of a world where housing production is half of what it was 30 years ago, we’ve got a long way to go,” he added.

Housing is one of the priorities outlined in an economic development plan Gov. Charlie Baker unveiled in December, and the bill – which Kennealy said should be unveiled “later this month or early next month” – will map “pretty closely” to those priorities, Kennealy said in an interview.