In Worcester, Polito advocates for more housing growth
Photo | Grant Welker
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, left, urged communities to do more to accommodate new housing on Thursday. She was joined by, from left, Timothy Murray, the president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce; Elana Margolis, the senior director of government and regulatory affairs for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts; and Dennis Murphy, the president of Ventry Associates.
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito called for communities to accommodate more housing growth Thursday, as the Baker Administration has sought to incentivize cities and towns to help match growth in the state's workforce.
Polito, in an event at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, said communities should do more to add to the region's housing stock and keep prices affordable.
Baker filed legislation in February calling for 135,000 new housing units by 2025, which would require a sharp turnaround from a relatively low rate of new housing starts in Massachusetts — and nationally — since before the Great Recession. His proposed changes to the Housing Choice Initiative aims to push cities and towns to lower barriers for changing zoning to allow for new construction, to grant denser development or permit in-law housing units, among other measures.
Massachusetts is one of few states to require two-thirds approval to change local zoning, a hindrance for many new construction projects.
The state has lagged far behind the rate it used to build new homes. Massachusetts communities permitted just 17,728 housing starts in 2017, according to U.S. Census data. In 2005, 24,549 units were permitted.
In the Worcester metropolitan area, housing starts are down more than half in that time, with just 1,768 homes approved in 2017.
"The problem is, that's not enough," Polito said of statewide figures.
Since the recession, much of the state's growth has taken place in and close to Boston. Suffolk and Middlesex County, which includes Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and other northern and western suburbs, have accounted for 56% of the state's population growth since 2010.
Polito said Thursday that cities and towns could work to balance preserving their character with accommodating growth that can keep the state's economy growing. With congestion worse and housing prices higher in and directly around Boston, more growth could take place farther away, like in Worcester, Lowell or New Bedford, she said.
"It's voluntary," she said of proposed changes to the Housing Choice Initiative. "You can adopt a set of best practices."
As incentives, the bill would give cities and towns technical assistance and capital grant funding to help cover costs of new growth. The Housing Choice Initiative, which went into effect in 2017, has already given $5 million in capital funding to 31 communities.
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