The State House's golden dome is pictured against Boston Common in this undated photo. State House News Service photo / File
A new poll suggests being pro-housing will be a winning strategy for Massachusetts state legislators this fall, but they’ll still face pressure from constituents to do more.
International polling firm YouGov surveyed 800 registered Massachusetts voters between Feb. 13 and Feb. 24, and found that housing is by far the most important issue for voters statewide.
Forty-five percent of respondents named it as among their top concerns, followed by healthcare costs and inflation tied at 30 percent of respondents and taxes at 23 percent. Immigration clocked in at 18 percent of voters saying it was one of their top concerns, followed by homelessness at 11 percent and climate change at 10 percent.
Urban, suburban and rural voters all cited it as a very important concern, and the share of voters saying it was a top concern were nearly equal – and nearly 50 percent – in Greater Boston, Central Massachusetts and Western Massachusetts.
Voters under 34 were the most concerned about housing costs and availability, with 58 percent citing it as a top concern, followed by 42 percent of voters between 35 and 49, 46 percent of voters 50 to 64, and 35 percent of voters 65 and older.
Mass. ‘Desperate for Change’
Important for the November elections, 58 percent of votes statewide – and 64 percent of Greater Boston residents – said they’d prefer a candidate for the Legislature who “votes to allow more reasonably priced homes to be built across the state—such as starter homes, apartments, and accessory dwelling units—even if that means city governments have less authority to decide what homes are legal to build” over one who “votes to leave decisions about new housing entirely to local towns and cities, even if that means fewer reasonably priced homes are built.”
Only 31 percent of voters statewide and 27 percent in Greater Boston said they’d prefer the latter option, with the remainder being unsure.
“Residents in Massachusetts are desperate for change,” said Jesse Kanson-Benanav, executive director of Abundant Housing MA, the advocacy group that sponsored the poll. “They’re willing to make their choices about how to vote for the Legislature based on who’s stepping up and doing the big things that need to be done to address the extreme housing shortage and affordability crisis here in Massachusetts.”
The poll also surveyed voters on a range of policy ideas that could be in the mix as the state Senate prepares a package of housing reforms that Senate President Karen Spilka has said will be “bold.”
YouGov found that 59 percent of Massachusetts voters backed the idea of “allowing duplexes, three-deckers, and townhomes to be built anywhere that single family homes are allowed.” That broke down as 73 percent of urban voters, 53 percent of suburban voters and 47 percent of rural voters backing the notion.
The poll also found overwhelming support statewide – 67 percent strongly or somewhat in favor, 21 percent somewhat or strongly against – for allowing homeowners with large lots to divide up their property into smaller lots for the purpose of building and then selling a home on the new lot.
And support for state action to roll back local laws mandating set numbers of parking spaces per home in new developments found a narrow majority in favor: 52 percent of respondents either strongly or somewhat supported the idea, and 32 percent somewhat or strongly against.
Where Is the Middle Ground on Housing?
In an interview with Banker & Tradesman, Kanson-Benanav characterized the poll results as showing all three policy ideas were “reasonable” in voters’ eyes, and said they’d all help drive down the cost of new housing by eliminating or shrinking significant line-items in project budgets.
Significant numbers of voters, though, said they only “somewhat supported” the three ideas, which Kanson-Benanav blamed on the complicated and “wonky” nature of housing policy, requiring more work by advocates to educate the public on the ideas’ finer points.
“High levels of ‘somewhat support’ are really heartening for me. Even with a little bit of education to date, voters are beginning to understand it, and are at least open to the solutions that advocates are putting forward, and that the Legislature is considering right now,” he said.
With only four and a half months left until the formal legislative session is scheduled to end on July 31, Kanson-Benanav argued that the results show Legislators will get rewarded in the November elections by backing major reforms.
“I think the poll shows that there is incredibly strong support for these types of policies in Massachusetts that voters want the Legislature to act. And in fact, they’re more likely to vote for candidates that act to address the extreme housing shortage in Massachusetts and address the housing affordability crisis we are facing,” he said. “So it certainly would, from my perspective, behoove the Legislature to take that to heart.”
