MITT ROMNEY
Encouraging production
A new report featuring recommendations on how to increase affordable housing production in Massachusetts highlights several suggestions already pitched by Gov. Mitt Romney.
Specifically, the report, written by two professors who specialize in urban planning and policy issues, recommends a speedier and streamlined disposition of state-owned land to build affordable housing on and providing financial incentives, including more local aid, to communities that increase their housing supply.
Those are some of the initiatives that the Romney administration has touted to increase affordable housing in the Bay State. But the report goes further, urging the state to require cities and towns to zone for multifamily housing and to revive a state rental assistance program and fund the development of new public housing.
The report, released at a housing symposium organized by the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, comes at a time when soaring housing costs are making it tough for the state to attract and keep doctors, college professors, researchers and other professionals, according to Romney and others who spoke at the conference.
“We have the most expensive housing in America,” said Romney, the keynote speaker at the forum last Wednesday at Northeastern University. “Think about that … I’m concerned that we’re losing jobs because of our housing costs.”
Romney has proposed funneling more state money to communities that issue more housing permits as a way of encouraging housing production while at the same time helping communities deal with the costs associated with growth. The governor would like to give $3,000 bonuses to communities for every occupancy permit they issue for any type of housing. Romney has also supported building housing on state-owned land, including the site of the former Boston State Hospital in Mattapan.
“How can it be that we let it sit and sit and sit?,” he asked, referring to the Boston State Hospital site. “It makes no sense at all.”
As part of his housing-related agenda, Romney also has appointed a 24-member task force to come up with recommendations on the state’s so-called anti-snob zoning law, or Chapter 40B. Dozens of bills, filed to weaken or eradicate the law, have been put on hold until the task force provides its suggestions.
‘Priority Issue’
Supporters of the law argue that it is the key vehicle to get affordable housing produced in suburban communities. Some 30,000 housing units have been created within the last three decades because of Chapter 40B, according to some estimates.
In his speech at the forum, Romney expressed support for the law, saying he would reject any attempts to change the law that would harm housing production. But Romney stopped short of saying that he would veto any Chapter 40B bill that would hurt housing production. Last year, Acting Gov. Jane Swift vetoed a compromise bill that would have altered the zoning law.
The debate over Chapter 40B has drawn too much attention away from other critical housing issues, said Joseph Kriesberg, president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corps.
“It’s killing us,” said Kriesberg, who participated in a roundtable discussion along with eight other housing leaders.
While state leaders have talked about housing as a priority, Kriesberg questioned why funding for housing has been consistently slashed and said the governor needs to say he’ll veto any bills that hurt housing production.
If there has been bipartisan support for housing, Kriesberg argued that there have been “bipartisan cuts” in housing funding as well. State spending on housing programs as a percentage of the total state budget has dropped from 2.9 percent in 1989 to 0.7 percent in 2001, according to a report by The Boston Foundation last year.
“If housing is the No. 1 priority issue … why are we spending one-half of 1 percent on it in the budget?” Kriesberg said.
The symposium was organized to honor the 1965 Special Commission on Low Income Housing, which came up with state housing initiatives that are currently in place today and led to the creation of the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, now known as MassHousing. The event featured former Gov. Michael Dukakis and Malcolm “Mike” Peabody, who both served on the commission.
Tufts University Professor Rachel Bratt and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Langley Keyes also discussed the report they wrote highlighting the accomplishments of the commission and recommending ways to address the state’s current housing challenges.
Bratt said there has been a shift in policy priorities from providing housing for low-income people to creating “affordable” housing for middle-income working households.
“Rarely do we hear about the housing needs of our poorest residents,” said Bratt, who noted that policymakers avoid the use of “low-income housing.”
“Low-income is not a fashionable phrase. But it needs to be … We can’t be afraid to say low-income housing,” said Bratt.
Langley said several of the land-use recommendations in the report are “borrowed” from the governor and other housing leaders. But the report also cites subsidy-related recommendations. The study notes, for example, that a state rental assistance program that has been drastically cut should be revived and that steps must be taken to prevent existing subsidized housing for low-income households from being converted to market-rate units.
Cuts to the state’s rental assistance program date back to the administration of former Gov. William Weld. No new households received tenant-based assistance between 1990 and 1999, according to the study. Between fiscal years 2002 and 2003, funding for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program was cut by 16 percent, from $32 million to $27 million. The rental assistance program now assists fewer than 5,900 households, whereas in 1990 closer to 20,000 people received some rental assistance, according to the study.
Aglaia Pikounis may be reached at apikounis@thewarrengroup.com.
