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A University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB poll released Monday morning found that housing was the most-mentioned issue when respondents were asked what is the most important issue facing the state.
Given the chance to name one issue they would like Gov. Maura Healey and the Legislature to tackle in the next year, 34 percent of those polled pointed to the state’s “housing shortage and affordability” problem. And residents seem open to any number of ways to address the problem – all six policy proposals polled won the support of a majority of respondents.
The five-year, $4.12 billion housing bond bill (H.4138) she filed in the fall seeking to kickstart production of new housing units has been redrafted by the House Ways and Means Committee and is being teed up for debate Wednesday.
Home sales across Massachusetts sank to a 12-year low in 2023 and housing here is inaccessible or unaffordable for many residents. Gov. Maura Healey last year identified housing as “the number-one issue facing this state” and said there is a shortage of 200,000 units across the state that must be closed to keep up with population growth and stem the loss of talented workers.
“With unified government now a reality in the Bay State and overwhelming support across demographic and political groups for the governor and Legislature to deal with this crisis, voters likely expect movement on this issue as soon as possible. While failure to address the housing conundrum may not have electoral consequences in the 2024 election, if the problem persists, expect the housing crisis to be used as the rationale to ‘throw the bums out’ in 2026 and beyond,” Tatishe Nteta, provost professor of political science at UMass Amherst and director of the poll, said. He added that the poll results reiterating the importance of housing were “no surprise.”
Tatishe Nteta, provost professor of political science at UMass Amherst and director of the poll, said “it is no surprise” that housing is seen by residents as both the most important problem facing the state and the one that residents most want Healey and the Legislature to tackle given that 44 percent of people who tried to buy a home here in the last year said they could not find a suitable one in their price range and 63 percent of those looking for a rental said they could not find an affordable place to live.
“With unified government now a reality in the Bay State and overwhelming support across demographic and political groups for the governor and Legislature to deal with this crisis, voters likely expect movement on this issue as soon as possible. While failure to address the housing conundrum may not have electoral consequences in the 2024 election, if the problem persists, expect the housing crisis to be used as the rationale to ‘throw the bums out’ in 2026 and beyond,” Nteta said.
The housing policy idea that got the greater support (73 percent strongly or somewhat support) was providing tax breaks to developers to convert empty office buildings into housing, something Healey included in her bill. The second-most supported policy was one that Healey did not propose: allowing local governments to limit annual rent increases (72 percent strongly or somewhat support).
Residents also support allowing accessory dwelling units by right in single-family zoning districts (66 percent strongly or somewhat), tax breaks for developers who will build more low-income housing (66 percent strongly or somewhat), and allowing cities and towns to tax real estate transactions valued at more than $1 million to raise money for local affordable housing (62 percent strongly or somewhat).
Though it still was supported by a majority of respondents (55 strongly or somewhat), the MBTA Communities Act that requires towns close to MBTA service to zone for multi-family housing near transit services was the least-supported housing policy polled by UMass and WCVB. That law has been met with some resistance at the local level, but state officials maintain it is essential to chipping away at the Bay State’s housing deficit.
