Photo by Leslie Jones | Courtesy of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership
Clark Ziegler
Executive Director, Massachusetts Housing Partnership
Age: 70
Industry experience: 40 years
Under Clark Ziegler’s leadership, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership has become an important financial partner both for housing developers and low- and moderate-income first-time homebuyers. During his 40-year tenure at the agency, including 35 years as executive director, the quasi-public housing finance agency has lent money for construction of more than 33,500 affordable rental units and helped finance nearly 26,000 home purchases. In MHP’s advocacy role, Ziegler has been an outspoken proponent for policy changes designed to rein in Bay State housing costs and encourage production, including the 2024 Affordable Homes Act and the MBTA Communities law, whose genesis lies in research by the MHP Center for Housing Data.
Q: What do you think are some of the most important recommendations from the Healey administration’s Unlocking Housing Production report?
A: There are 50 or so recommendations, and they are all pretty substantive. One of the issues that’s really going to demand attention and will be controversial is around local septic and wetland bylaws that go beyond state requirements. Well over 100 cities and towns have stricter requirements, and the idea that every single community can estimate its own scientific requirements for wastewater disposal just makes no policy sense. There’s so much temptation there for cities and towns, in the interest of slowing down development, to make the thresholds higher. It’s not good policy. The idea that we have 351 different environmental codes in Massachusetts is ridiculous, and the state Department of Environmental Protection is science-based. It makes it hard to build housing in general, but just as bad, it encourages larger and larger house lots to comply with these local regulations that consume land and sprawls housing further and further out, rather than allowing density where it makes sense. We are hoping to lean in on that issue at MHP.
Q: How would you rate the MBTA Communities law’s effectiveness in accomplishing its goals?
A: As a whole, it has been a huge success. There have been a few holdouts, but the Milton decision by the Supreme Judicial Court was spot-on. The law makes a lot of sense. For sure, some communities have embraced the spirit of the law more than others that have tried to adopt zoning with the least possible chance of resulting in new housing. But as a whole, it’s been a game-changer. The notion that every community in metro Boston is part of the solution and has to allow housing in more places: most voters realize that’s completely sensible.
Q: Does the Chapter 40B zoning law need to be updated?
A: It’s a law that still serves a purpose. The more we do to change zoning writ large to produce multifamily in every community makes 40B less and less necessary.
Q: What zoning reforms enacted elsewhere appear to have potential to be effective in Massachusetts?
A: One of the things I’ve been struck by is townhomes and starter homes. There have been a lot of efforts in the Legislature in recent years to spur the production of starter homes. I’ve seen great examples where you can produce housing that is lower-cost to build, doesn’t use a lot of land and still gives you a yard. A townhouse design with a common wall is much cheaper than single-family construction, and can give you the same feeling. That just hasn’t been a big part of the market here. There aren’t a lot of towns in Massachusetts that allow attached single-family homes with a common wall.
Q: How much potential can publicly owned real estate play in housing production?
A: It’s got huge potential. We played a big role there with surplus municipal land in 50 to 60 communities. When towns are providing land at low cost, it’s possible to have deeper housing affordability. Communities, when the initiative projects on their own, there’s a sense of ownership that’s really positive. There’s more potential at the state level. There’s another political dimension with the process at the state level. Historically, the Legislature has had an awful lot of say in what can’t get developed.
Q: What effects do you expect from “YIMBY” housing groups’ activism in local politics?
A: I hope it’s a big factor. One of the silver linings of the MBTA Communities law is we saw people come out of the woodwork volunteering to be on committees to put together their local districts – people who were not typical housing advocates. So, I do feel like there’s a new generation of housing leadership that’s emerged locally, at least in some places. It cuts both ways. There could be backlash in other communities. In general, it’s been positive in pulling out the reasonable people to show up and speak.
Q: Why was this the right time to step away at MHP?
A: I turned 70 this year, and it felt like a good time to shift gears. Forty years in any one thing is a pretty good run. It’s good for me personally and the organization to make a change, and I definitely hope to keep my finger in policy issues going forward.
Q: How has MHP’s role changed over the decades?
A: It’s changed in a million ways. For the first five years, we were part of state government. We were a cabinet-level agency, and it wasn’t until 1990 that we became a quasi-public agency. Part of it is the ability to borrow, and act as a financial intermediary and lender to support housing development.
In 1990, there was a change in state banking law, and that was the first time interstate banking was allowed in the commonwealth. And part of that legislation was a requirement that anytime a bank is acquired, a certain amount of credit has to be made available for MHP to finance affordable housing. Every time there’s a bank acquisition, the state banking law is triggered and there’s an obligation to MHP. We, in turn, lend that money back out.
Of the two fundamental areas where we’re the most active, one is a program where we lend ourselves: multifamily financing. We’re the permanent mortgage lender for affordable housing development. We’re still doing more than anyone else in Massachusetts. The other major program is one we do in collaboration with banks, the ONE Mortgage program. We designed with the banking industry in 1990. It’s a mortgage product offered by banks and, in particular, credit unions. We provide a subsidy and loan loss reserve to encourage the banks to participate.
There’s a huge need for new housing production and the constraints are not as much around cost, as around financing. What’s really changed in recent years with the interest rates going up, tariffs and construction costs going up, it’s harder and harder to make any housing feasible, let alone affordable housing on the home ownership side. The window to get people of modest means to buy a home in Massachusetts is getting narrower and narrower. We have banks that are eager to lend, but we’re in a market environment where it’s very difficult to make the numbers work.
Ziegler’s Five Favorite Beers:
- The Substance (Bissell Brothers Brewing Company)
- Lunch (Maine Beer Company)
- Thirsty Botanist (Boothbay Craft Brewery)
- Cloud Candy (Mighty Squirrel Brewing Company)
- Gigantic Dad Pants (Cushnoc Brewing Company)
