CREW Boston kicked off 2016 at the Hyatt Regency with a panel focused on the housing and growth policies that Massachusetts needs to implement in order to remain competitive as a state. Here are a few key takeaways from this panel, moderated by CREW Boston member Judy Jacobson, deputy director and general counsel at Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP).
Tim Reardon, director of data services at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, said we need to create 435,000 housing units in Metro Boston to support long-term growth. He also stressed that housing production does not necessarily equate to household growth (Millennials, for example, are delaying starting families) and sometimes, boosting housing supply is necessary to prevent population decline. Furthermore, having a strong housing production is a pre-requisite to attracting young workers and creating long-term economic growth in Massachusetts.
Click here for Tim Reardon's presentation.
Clark Ziegler, executive director at MHP, said the state is doing great things with smart growth and local development policy, but our zoning rules and local approval process can at times distort the market’s response to our housing needs. Some decisions that have been made in past decades are having enormous environmental ramifications and have resulted in inefficient sprawl. Many attendees were surprised to learn that we are actually allowing less housing production now than at almost any other point in recent history. As a result, our home prices (and rents) are now among the highest in the U.S., leading to vast competitive implications for us as it becomes increasingly difficult to attract young people to stay, move or take jobs here.
So what’s keeping us from building smart and producing the housing that we need? For starters, our 351 cities and towns are regulating land use with minimal accountability. It doesn’t have to be this way. And we have legislative proposals in play that will be game changing if passed, as they will bring greater regional collaboration and state-level planning among many, many other benefits.
Click here for Clark's presentation.
Chryse Gibson, executive vice president of Oaktree Development, said her firm’s secret sauce to permitting mixed-use and mixed-income developments in the Greater Boston area is public-private partnerships, and a green modular building type that reduces building costs and time. Chryse shared insights into three of the firm’s local developments, including 30 Haven in Reading, which has all of the same finishes, regardless of the income or status of the occupant. Or as she put it, “There’s no poor doors in any of our buildings.” Each of the three projects that she presented is permitted in different ways with their own pros and cons; however, all three represent ways to successfully address housing that accommodates a range of incomes. Chryse stressed that it is up to everyone to take on this housing challenge. No single sector can take it on alone, and community approval is fundamental to any substantial implemented change. Strong partnerships are necessary to support all of the above.
Closing out the panel was Chrystal Kornegay, the state’s undersecretary for housing and community development.
Click here for her presentation. According to Chrystal, our core issue is that the market does not produce housing that is affordable to the average, middle-income family. There are two paths that can get us to the needed rent level:
- Market to higher-income tenants (which explains the high-end development that we are seeing in the City of Boston)
- Provide a subsidy, either from public funds (such as Low-Income Housing Tax Credits) or the developer (inclusionary development)
Bottom line: we need to help communities in Massachusetts develop housing that meets their needs. This can be done through a number of ways, including pursuing additional resources for key policy goals and by leveraging external resources through public private partnerships for greater impact. We are in this together; the state can’t do it alone.