Lydia Edwards
State Senator, Third Suffolk District
Industry experience: 13
With a new legislative session has come new leadership to the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing: Sen. Lydia Edwards. She’s just starting her first full term representing East Boston, Revere and Winthrop, but she’s already established herself as a leader among her colleagues on Beacon Hill as both a committee chair and the co-chair of a new, bipartisan Housing Caucus intended to offer a forum to explore solutions to the state’s housing crisis.
Edwards’ interest in housing policy was first sparked seeing how high rents destabilized the lives of her clients as a newly minted lawyer at the Brazilian Immigrant Center and later at Greater Boston Legal Services, where she was part of a team that successfully pushed a domestic worker’s bill of rights through Beacon Hill. Her career continued as the deputy director of the Office of Housing Stability under former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and later as the chair of the Boston City Council’s Housing and Community Development committee until leaving her seat for the state Senate last year.
Q: What are your goals with the committee this session?
A: Beyond building more housing, which everyone knows we need to do, it’s equitable building. It’s making sure that the regulations that we have promote community. I think that there’s a lot of great ideas and bills pending that are part of that. But also, just straight conversations I cannot wait to have with the with whoever is going to be the secretary of housing. There’s a lot of regulatory reform that I think is really important that the governor consider. To get access to RAFT [rental assistance], you need to be in eviction proceedings, for example, we should talk about meeting people a little further upstream, so that they’re not in that position.
I’ve been a huge proponent and author of the Holmes Act, which is eviction sealing. I have written my own version of a real estate transfer fee. And now Mayor Michelle Wu has another one from the city of Boston. If we really want to have affordable housing, you need to you we need money. And it’s not all going to come from the general fund. I see that in the governor’s recent budget, housing was flat-funded, basically. And that’s not enough.
Q: With only a few months in office, Gov. Maura Healey still has a while to turn her full housing agenda into legislation. Is there a direction you’re hoping she’ll lean?
A: Well, I mean, I think she’s demonstrated she’s heavily leaning into building more housing, which is great, and enforcing the laws that we have on the books. I’m also hoping she leans into fair housing. It’s an ugly history we have here in Massachusetts, with redlining and racial segregation that’s resulted in 100 cities and towns out of 351 having no Black homeowners. I really do think in building more, we can also help to heal more.
Q: You’re also working on a bill that would establish an Office of Fair Housing. What would that add to the state’s housing tool belt?
A: You know, we had no problem talking about the wealth gap – net worth of $8 for a Black family and $265,000 for white family in Greater Boston. And then the conversation stops there. For me, an Office of Fair Housing would ask, “What’s the bridge? How do we deal with this?” Are we going to target first-time homeowner programs in traditionally redlined neighborhoods? Are tenants going to be assumed to have right of first refusal [on their apartment building]? Are we going to target some loans, or development? How are we going to invest where we have divested as a government? That’s what I think the Office of Fair Housing would be doing. It’s a constant watchful eye, and stewardship of racial equity and housing. This is not to knock the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. But their job is, once the injuries happened, to respond. An Office of Housing would not be waiting for any more injury to happen.
Q: That almost sounds like it could be a powerful muscle in any future Executive Office of Housing.
A: I’m not sure if [Healey] wants a separate Office of Fair Housing, or if it’s going to be under the umbrella of the new Department of Housing. I’m not sure where she puts it, I just know that I want it to exist, I want it to be an entity that’s taken very seriously and funded seriously.
Q: You’ve said you think municipalities need to be in the driver’s seat to find ways to address the housing crisis. Why?
A: I mean, let them be incubators, you know? Tiny homes may work in one community, houseboats may work in another. There are so many different ways in which you can house people. And some municipalities are ready from day one for more housing, and some aren’t. Not every city in town wants, or needs, rent control. Some would love nothing more than to have half of the development problems that Boston has, because of the divestment is so horrible, and they can’t give away some of their houses. What works in Boston does not work everywhere, and vice versa.
We really need to trust the municipalities when they say, for example, “we need a transfer fee to pay for some of these things” like more affordable housing. The home rule petition process is not democratic, because a city and town has voted for these different acts to be done. Number two, even if it gets all the way all the way through local government, lobbyists know that if they can’t stop it in Boston, they can try at the State House.
Q: And you feel that’s playing out with Boston’s rent control and transfer tax proposals?
A: The Greater Boston Real Estate Board’s been explicit about that.
Listen, we regulate banks and protect people from overcharges on overdraft fees. We protect them from when there’s a bank run. And somehow, when it comes to housing, we’re like “Hands off! Let the market be free!” I say this is a landlord. This is my investment. This is my retirement. I’m talking in it right now. But I’m also very conscious that I’m still providing housing. There’s a certain level of profits you can expect, but we have lost a sense of housing as a human right. We focus on too much in society on the ability to make maximize profits.
Q: How do you rate the chance for some kind of grand bargain, as other states like Oregon have seen, where rent control passes but the real estate industry gets things it wants?
A: I don’t I don’t think we’re at the point where we’re bargaining about stuff quite yet. I think we are waiting for cities and towns to kind of continue to push forward what they want and need. We have one rent stabilization home rule petition in front of us, but we have about 14 or 15 transfer fees.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s put to the ballot, though. If that happens, the real estate industry will shower us with tons of mailers. But I am telling you, that mailer saying rent control will make rents go up, versus the “rent is due” notice when you rent is $3,000? No one believes them. They have lost a lot of credibility.
Q: Already, some say the MBTA Communities legislation hasn’t gone far enough. Do you agree?
A: I think I want to build a lot by transit. That makes absolute sense. For me, it didn’t go far enough in that it didn’t require affordability minimums. It basically looked to the local city or town to set that. But Revere, for example, a city I represent, just rejected affordability, any form of it. I think we should have required that if the city or town doesn’t have an affordability policy, a state-mandated one kicks in.
Q: How would that have interacted with your belief cities and towns should lead the way towards more housing?
A: Well, ironically, a lot of the cities and towns trying to drive the change are the ones who want housing, but find it too expensive to build in. And so, they need to generate some funds with a transfer fee. Or they’re trying to preserve the housing because it’s so desirable. There are some NIMBY towns that you might argue, if they’re empowered to say yes, are they also empowered to say no, too? That’s where home rule stops: at people’s civil rights and at federal laws.
Edwards’ Five Favorite Adventures
- Skydiving in Massachusetts
- Visiting an active volcano in Iceland
- Coasting in Wales
- Scuba diving in Colombia
- Running three marathons
