Massachusetts’ top housing official said more public assistance is coming for developers of multifamily projects, including $200 million of state transportation funding to jumpstart projects.
In remarks to commercial developers’ group CREDA Massachusetts, Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities Juana Matías acknowledged that more state financial resources are necessary to meet the Healey administration’s goal of creating 222,000 new housing units by 2035. According to a statewide database, approximately 35,000 homes were built in 2025.
“We looked inwardly and understood there is a lot more that needs to happen if we want to see the 222,000 units that we need by 2035,” Matías said.
This fall, the administration is expected to award $200 million for transportation projects such as roads, bridges and infrastructure that are tied to new housing development. The funding was approved by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation board of directors this month.
The funding would come from Chapter 90, the state fund for local transportation projects.
“It’s something that has never been done before to date, and we are continuing to think about other ways we can leverage state dollars to do more,” Matías said.
CREDA Massachusetts hosted the policy talk as commercial developers face even-higher hurdles to groundbreaking, including the latest Federal Reserve interest rate hike, tariffs and rising inflation.
The Healey administration has pushed through a series of reforms designed to remove regulatory barriers to housing development: an accelerated MEPA environmental permitting process for large housing developments, and statewide legalization of backyard ADU’s.
Its next priority, proposed in an economic development bill: standardization of site plan reviews across the state.
Site plan reviews are a basic element of local Planning Boards’ review of developments, but vary widely in scope and length from community to community.
“In some communities, site plan review has been used to stall or stop housing, even in districts zoned for it by right,” Matías said. “Clear rules help everyone. Developers know what to expect. Local leaders know what to expect, we save time and money on every single project, and none of this is easy politics. There’s rarely a crowd at a town meeting demanding faster site plan review.”
CREDA Massachusetts CEO Tamara Small said the development industry is strongly in favor of the changes.
“It’s something that CREDA has been talking about for such a very long time. Now everywhere I go, people are talking about site plan review,” Small said. “This is like nerdy zoning stuff that is the hottest, sexiest topic.”
