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Campaigning for governor, Mass. AG Maura Healey swings through Berkshire County to talk housing

Maura Healey.
Josh Landes
/
WAMC
Maura Healey.

Democratic Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey was in Berkshire County today as she campaigns to be the next governor. With Democratic rival State Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz suspending her campaign and Republican candidates polling far below her, Healey is the frontrunner to replace departing Republican Charlie Baker, who did not seek a third term. At a roundtable meeting in Pittsfield, Healey listened to local leaders detail the challenges the region faces with providing adequate housing to residents. After picking up two dozen endorsements from local leaders, Healey spoke with WAMC about what she absorbed from the meeting, and promised that if elected, she won’t forget Western Massachusetts.

HEALEY: One of the reasons I'm out here is because I want people to understand that I believe deeply in Berkshire County. It is an incredible place, and one of the things that makes it incredible is the collaboration, the collaboration that I heard today. And it's also the case that this is a region with its own challenges. And I think as governor, what I would bring as an understanding that the way things are here in Berkshire County are not the same as the way they are in the eastern part of the state. And just on the issue of housing, some of the challenges that are here are not as present in the eastern part of the state. And so today, I was here, looking forward to having this discussion about housing, because it is so foundational. It is a crisis across the state, and I know it's a crisis here in Berkshire County with escalating home prices, escalating rents. There are a lot of reasons for that. But we need to make the investments in housing so that people have the security that they need, so that their families are able to thrive, and right now, here as in elsewhere throughout the state, that really is a challenge.

WAMC: So can you give us a taste of your housing plan? How would you address these concerns statewide in here in the Berkshires?

Well, I think we've got to look at both what's happening with the rental market and rents. And then we have to look at what's happening with home ownership, and we have to support both. I know here, we need to continue to support rent stabilization programs, we need to support programs like RAFT that actually help tenants, we also need to provide support to our landlords. Some landlords are needing money to rehab properties to upgrade properties. We as a state have got to find a way to support both tenants and our landlords. We also need to increase housing stock generally. This is a region where there may be opportunities for new development. Importantly, there are opportunities to rehab blighted or dilapidated properties, there are opportunities to preserve housing stock. I know that this is housing stock that is old, in many respects, and requires extra support from a state in order to do some of the upgrades and to make really the math work here. And so this was a really, I thought, incredibly enriching and helpful conversation, where you have local officials, you have housing advocates, and you have members of our state legislature talking with me and my team about what needs to happen. And so I leave here having learned a great deal, and also ready to go and try to work on some of the things that we talked about. But what does it take in a nutshell? Support existing rent stabilization programs, find ways to support tenants and landlords, find ways to boost our housing stock, whether that's through preservation and rehabilitation of existing housing or new construction. And we have to find a way to keep to keep housing options open for people who were born here, who grew up here, who live here in a context where more people have come from outside of Berkshire County and [are] buying up properties. It's a problem, I know, with private equity coming in and buying up properties. And we've got to find a way to work with that, to deal with that.

Now, I know you're sitting at a table with some very profound advocates for regional equity in Western Massachusetts. What guarantees can you make voters in this portion of the state that it will receive the sort of attention to the kind of nuance you're identifying compared to the more populous eastern portion?

Well, when I started my campaign for attorney general, I started my campaign in Western Massachusetts, and I've had the privilege of spending time and working with colleagues in government from Western Massachusetts, from Berkshire County. My office has shown up here many times and we've worked on a lot of issues together, everything from supporting healthy summer youth jobs to going against some of our utilities, when it came to them wanting to raise our bills, our heating and electricity bills, and working on some economic and community development work too. Actually giving money to programs that help rehab abandoned properties, giving support to efforts to turn what had been contaminated sites into something else. And, you know, that is something that I've been able to do as attorney general. I'm familiar with the region, I know the region, and I want to be a governor who makes sure that Berkshire County gets the investment that it deserves. For far too long Berkshire County has not received the investment that it deserves. It is a place that is wonderful, is a place with incredible collaboration and partnership, and it's a place that, where there's a lot of opportunity for prosperity, but to get there, we need to have a governor who sees that, who understands that. And I'm here today to both learn and to promise to be back many times and to make sure that as governor, I'm doing everything I can through my agencies and through my action to support Berkshire County- In housing, in transportation, and in some of the other things that we've talked about today,

When it comes to regional equity and transportation- That's a hot topic around here. And obviously this week's news about the MBTA is not exactly a confidence builder in how money gets spent in the state. When you look at that issue of regional equity with transportation, do you have any thoughts on how you would adjust spending in how the money is dispersed from Western Mass residents to projects a little closer to home, like our regional transit authorities?

Yeah, absolutely. And I have strong opinions about that. We need an investment in our regional transit authorities, in the BRTA, in micro transit. We need to invest, of course, in west-east rail. We need to find ways to support transportation options throughout Berkshire County. And I know from experience and from the stories that I've heard from people who come to my office seeking help, there are real issues when it comes to the lack of transportation. People need to a way to get to work, to get to a doctor's appointment, to care for someone else in their family, and I know that is lacking here, and the state has to do more, and the governor, if I'm governor, will do more. I promise that.

Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
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