A massive borrowing bill focused on spurring affordable housing development in Massachusetts and addressing soaring costs for prospective homeowners and renters attempts to “course correct” state housing policy, a top Democrat said as senators began debating the bill Thursday morning.
Senators argued a $5.1 billion proposal released earlier this week and were expected to pass later in the day includes a suite of policies to tackle the high cost of housing and lack of places for people to live.
Sen. Lydia Edwards, a Boston Democrat who co-chairs the Housing Committee, said the state has some of the most expensive housing stock in the country, a deficit of well over 200,000 units, and “the unfortunate vestiges of racial inequality and discrimination.”
“We know that we cannot solve the housing crisis with one bill, with one lump sum of money, with one body, but we can course correct, and I would argue that this bill is the most comprehensive course correction in Massachusetts history when it comes to housing policy,” Edwards at the outset of the debate.
Senate lawmakers packed in a wide range of policies into the legislation like requiring landlords to pay broker’s fees rather than tenants, allowing for accessory dwelling units by right in single-family residential zones, and giving tenants the opportunity to ask courts to seal old eviction records in certain cases.
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr said there is “widespread bipartisan agreement” that Massachusetts is in a housing crisis which needs to be addressed through action on Beacon Hill.
“(This bill) represents a pivot, a pivot to a stature and a posture of more pro-action than we have seen with regard to the production of housing in not only previous bond bills but also previous legislation,” the Gloucester Republican said.
Like a version of the bill filed by Gov. Maura Healey earlier this year, top Democrats in the Senate said their write-through is expected to create 40,000 new units, a fraction of what is needed to erase the state’s large shortage.
But unlike Healey, Senate leadership aligned with their counterparts in the House by excluding a fee on high-value property sales that advocates said would generate funding for affordable housing creation.
The idea, which Healey pitched as an up to 2% tax on the portion of property sales over $1 million or the county median home sale price, has drawn support from Mayor Michelle Wu and progressives in the Senate, some of whom represent seasonal communities.
Real estate groups like the Greater Boston Real Estate Board have lobbied hard against the policy, arguing it is a “flawed policy.” House Speaker Ron Mariano, who once was open to the idea, later soured on it, calling it a “patchwork attempt” to provide resources for housing.
Senators from across Massachusetts filed amendments to their housing bill that try to put in place transfer fees for various communities like Boston, Somerville, Cambridge, and seasonal communities like those down Cape Cod.
This is a developing story…
