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Instead of waiting for the Legislature to create a committee that would study how to legalize single-stair multifamily buildings, Gov. Maura Healey moved to create the commission, herself.
Healey’s office announced the new advisory group Thursday afternoon, checking off a major item on housing advocates’ to-do list for the current legislative session, which ends this spring.
The current second stairwell requirement, which has its origins in fire safety rules, adds substantial costs and building layout constraints that make some sites impossible to build on, developers and researchers say: They can’t fit enough apartments or condos to pay for the land and construction, as well as a second stairwell to service them.
A 2024 study by design firm Utile, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and the Boston Indicators think-tank suggested that legalizing small, single-stair apartment and condominium buildings could unlock around 130,000 new homes on underused building sites near the MBTA’s subway and light rail stations.
And legalizing small single-stair buildings was included in recommendations made by Healey’s Unlocking Housing Production Commission last year.
“We’re all about making it easier to build more housing across our state to drive down costs for everyone,” Healey said in a statement. “While the double stair requirement plays an important role in ensuring safety, it’s also holding us back from the type of housing construction we need to meet demand. This group will include the best subject matter experts and fire safety officials to explore how we can make it easier to build housing by allowing single stair construction, while continuing to protect our residents and first responders.”
Abundant Housing has been lobbying state legislators to pass a bill this session that would create a commission to study how these buildings, might be legalized. Seven other states legalized single-stair multifamily buildings in some form in 2025, and New York City and Seattle, Washington have permitted such buildings for decades.
“By bringing together technical expertise and stakeholder perspectives, this advisory group moves the Commonwealth one step closer to unlocking new, safe, and reasonably priced housing options at a time when our housing shortage continues to drive sky high housing costs across Massachusetts,” Abundant Housing MA Executive Director Jesse Kanson-Benanav said in a statement provided by Healey’s office.
The order signed by Healey Thursday creates a 17-member study group made up of Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus, Secretary of Public Safety and Security Gina Kwon, a representative of Abundant Housing, members of industry trade groups like NAIOP and the Home Builders and Remodelers Association, municipal fire officials, architects, fire safety experts and building code experts.
It’s charged with figuring out whether taller single-stair multifamily buildings are safely feasible, and then recommending “targeted” updates to the state’s building code, Healey’s office said, and has to report back within 12 months.
“Every safe, evidence-based strategy to build more homes is needed to meet the housing demands we’re facing, and single-stair multifamily residential buildings could offer us a new way to increase our housing supply,” Augustus said in a statement. “This executive order will bring together the right people – from fire safety officials to architects, accessibility experts and more – who will help us explore the possibilities and find the best path forward.”
The order doesn’t commit to any single height limit or building size limit, but the 2024 study examined the effects of upping the current 3-story limit on single-stair buildings to 6 stories, and capping the number of units per floor at four. The researchers said current fire ladders can easily serve buildings this tall, and said fire data shows today’s building technology, including sprinkler systems, largely obviate the need for multiple stairwells in smaller multifamily buildings to ensure fast evacuation in case of a fire.
“There is broad agreement that a shortage of new homes is a major driver of our housing affordability crisis, and most policy attention has focused on reforming zoning to allow higher-density development. Far less attention has been paid to the role of building codes, which often make it difficult to create more affordable and appealing housing options,” Harvard JHCS Managing Director Chris Herbert said in a statement provided by Healey’s office. Single-stair reform “could unlock not only more housing overall, but also a wider range of “missing middle” housing types that fit comfortably within existing neighborhoods.”
