There are plenty of jobs, but restaurants and stores often can’t find enough staff because workers can’t afford to live there. Officials worry public safety is being compromised because they can’t retain or lure correctional officers or 911 dispatchers.
Boston’s housing market is failing. If policymakers can unlock development of student-specific housing, particularly in the city, they have an opportunity to make an outsized impact.
The Senate’s top Republican opted against seeking a vote Thursday on a roughly $750 million tax relief proposal, but set off a debate that revealed some fault lines as senators prepare for action on a standalone tax bill that Democrats have promised is around the corner.
Unless you think the law of supply and demand doesn’t have any bearing on the housing market, you know the sudden halt in new construction will make our shortage of homes even worse, driving prices even higher.
Marx and Engels would surely roll in their graves to know that their intellectual descendants in Massachusetts were embracing a politics that directly and substantially benefits the bourgeoisie and the rentier class while pummeling workers.
Boston’s housing supply shortage has reached a tipping point. Allowing landlords to add bedrooms to apartments without the slow, confusing and expensive variance process will rapidly address this vast need.
Returning to “normal” shouldn’t mean skyrocketing rents and home prices. Yet, that’s what we’re seeing happen across the state. It’s time we put the lessons learned over the last two years into practice to fix the housing crisis.
Cambridge’s new Affordable Housing Overlay has had a tremendous and immediate effect on parcels already in nonprofit hands, adding over 400 new units of affordable housing to the pipeline in a year and a half.
I’ve worked on public policy from a variety of standpoints: as a staffer on Capitol Hill, as an advocate and as a business leader. And far too often, I’ve seen well-intentioned efforts fail because of siloed thinking.
As they grapple with one of the worst housing shortages in the country, one of Cape Cod’s top housing advocates is looking for help from a seemingly unusual source.
Legislators have made valuable strides towards tackling our state’s housing crisis with federal pandemic relief money. But more needs to be done. A call to double the allocation for housing production is a good start.
Boston City Councilors Annissa Essaibi George and Michelle Wu drew sharp distinctions between their campaigns as they faced off Wednesday in the first head-to-head televised debate of the final stretch of Boston’s mayoral contest.
Boston mayoral candidate Andrea Campbell told an audience at an online forum Wednesday that she would remove fully-affordable multifamily developments from the city’s Article 80 approvals process if elected.
With 3,000 units proposed or under development in Everett’s commercial “triangle” district south of Revere Beach Parkway and more to come, readers should be cheering Mayor Carlo DeMaria and other city leaders for setting an example others in Greater Boston should follow.
It is disappointing that House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka aren’t jumping on board with Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposal to plow $1 billion into first-time homebuyer assistance and affordable housing construction.
Calling the state of the nation’s housing stock “dire” and the supply-demand gap “enormous,” the report calls for “a major national commitment to build more housing of all types.”
The kind of small-bore politics and insider political jockeying that have dominated the state political scene for decades – as we’ll see unfold as the gubernatorial race gets going – come at the expense of any real effort to tackle the ongoing housing crisis.
What in the world is going on out in deepest blue Amherst? Plans for two new mixed-used projects in place of tired downtown retail plazas are drawing the ire of long-time residents.
