The state will have to take “more muscular action” to facilitate construction of hundreds of thousands of new housing units in the next decade to meet demand, according to Newton Congressman Jake Auchincloss.
An online dashboard that tracks up-to-date totals of income-restricted units in each community would provide a more accurate picture of Massachusetts’ housing market
While officials in the deep-blue town in the shadow of Cambridge are adept at spouting platitudes about the need for affordable housing, their actions show otherwise as their battle against a Chapter 40B proposal approaches its seventh year.
The town of Brookline will drastically reduce its local preference lottery applicant percentage from 70 percent to 25 in an effort to reach a more diverse roster of applicants.
A 60-unit apartment complex in Raynham is moving forward thanks to an $8.7 million permanent loan from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership.
The real outrage is this: In the midst of a regional and national housing crisis, NIMBY jerks in upscale communities like Weston are hell bent on demonizing multifamily housing and the people who live in it.
According to DCHD records, 42 cities and towns have now adopted smart growth zoning, covering over 2,300 acres which can accommodate 22,213 dwelling units. But so far only about 3,750 dwelling units have been built or permitted, an increase of about 1,250 units since 2014.
Multifamily developer Mill Creek Residential is seeking to redevelop a Mystic Valley Parkway property with a 400-unit apartment complex.
Some affluent suburbs like Weston are trying to use age-restricted Chapter 40B affordable housing developments to gain “safe harbor” from the law without helping change the dynamics of the regional real estate market.
While engaging in the most rapacious forms of profit mongering are apparently fine off-island, Nantucket apparently has a very different code for what’s allowable on this playpen for the fabulously rich.
An unlikely coalition of housing activists and business leaders fought tooth and nail to save the state’s controversial affordable housing law when it was challenged in a referendum a few years back.
