Ball Consulting Group, a strategic communications and public relations consultancy based in Newton, is staffing up a new practice area aimed at making a dent in the region’s housing shortage.
The company announced the launch of its HousingLab “hyperspecialization” Tuesday morning.
“We want to share ideas to advance about how we think about housing,” company founder and President David Ball said.
Ball Consulting is planning to hire new staff to fill out the HousingLab group, Ball said, which will serve for-profit and nonprofit developers and housing development trade groups – among the company’s traditional clients – while aiming to also attract advocacy groups and businesses looking to help fill a housing shortfall most recently estimated at around 103,000 units simply to meet today’s demand, and 200,000 or more homes to accommodate Massachusetts’ future needs.
Part of that work, Ball said, will also include helping put new ideas forward to create more housing production.
“We’re communications experts in an area where communications are sorely needed,” Ball said. “We want to advance well-designed and well-scaled projects for communities. Things still have to fit in their broader environment and we appreciate that but so many opportunities are being missed right now.”
Ball said the idea came to him and his staff after working on housing development projects for years, and seeing what he characterized as an increasing level of hostility to new development.
“It’s something I’ve thought about for many many years. I see the crisis worsening and see people being priced out of the market, and young people who can’t afford to rent – let alone buy. The competitiveness of the region is at stake,” he said.
Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and business leaders like Charles River Chamber President and CEO Greg Riebman have been urging business leaders to become more active in their communities in favor of housing production as towns and cities across Greater Boston vote on zoning plans designed to comply with the MBTA Communities zoning reform law.
Healey and Driscoll also recently launched a nonprofit political advocacy group called One Commonwealth Inc. that, according to the Boston Globe, plans to raise money for housing advocacy work that can’t be traced to individual donors thanks to its status as a 501(c)4 nonprofit, while also lobbying for the administration’s specific initiatives at the local level alongside the state’s leading grassroots pro-housing group, Abundant Housing MA.