Alongside regional housing stakeholders, Healey detailed her Affordable Homes Act at a Pittsfield press conference Wednesday.
"It's a $4 billion plan to create tens of thousands of new homes," said the governor. "40,000 new housing starts, the preservation, renovation of an additional 30,000 affordable homes. The goal with this legislation is to make housing more affordable, more available for everyone across the state. It's also going to help us meet our climate goals and empower communities to meet the residents’ needs.”
Pittsfield Director of Community Development Justine Dodds says the cost of construction has limited the city’s ability to produce housing.
“Costs here in Pittsfield are on par with the eastern end of the state," she said. "However, our local rents are much lower. Limited inventory, rents that have skyrocketed over the past few years and that have not kept pace with the increased costs have pushed many of our residents into housing instability. Here in Pittsfield, 43% of our housing stock was built prior to 1939. 83% was built prior to 1978, in contrast to the state average of 71%. This makes the preservation of the housing we have one of our most important strategies for creating more affordable housing opportunities.”
“From the perspective of both the business community and also speaking as the regional economic development organization for the Berkshires, we can confidently say that the housing crisis is our number one current economic challenge," said Jonathan Butler, the president and CEO of 1Berkshire. “Homelessness and housing insecurity continues to jeopardize people's ability to enter the workforce and take back control in their lives. A shortage of desirable, affordable housing continues to plague all subregions of the Berkshires, from North Adams to Pittsfield to Great Barrington, and with the average sale price of a home in the Berkshires having increased by nearly 80% over the past three years, we are now also faced with a significant shortage of market rate housing inventory that is pricing out our existing population, limiting our ability to attract new residents and professionals to the region, and creating even more downward market pressure on our most economically distressed populations.”
Butler hailed both the $4 billion spending proposal and the $1 billion tax relief package Healey signed earlier this month. The plan will increase the commonwealth’s Housing Development Incentive Program cap from $10 million to $57 million in 2023 before settling down to $30 million annually moving forward. Butler alluded to the fact that the Gateway City designation for the HDIP program only includes communities with a population of at least 35,000, excluding North Adams — which has a designation as a city despite a population of around 13,000.
“These two major policy initiatives from the Healey-Driscoll Administration represent new opportunities, and will provide key resources to rehab existing housing stock, increase our quality affordable housing inventory, and also potentially move more market-rate developments forward through the increased cap to the HDIP program, though we would love to see a program similar to that made available for other municipalities throughout the commonwealth and the Berkshires that face similar housing challenges," he said. "No pressure! We’re encouraged by the new tools established in this housing bond bill. Specifically, we're optimistic that the soon to be created commission on unlocking housing production will identify additional barriers to development that have plagued the Berkshires and rural regions for decades, such as the 30% threshold, or 523 CMR - 3, which has unintentionally created both regional and socio-economic inequity in housing development.”
Ellen Peltier is the President of Berkshire Housing, the county’s nonprofit housing developer and services provider.
“With the tough economic times of today, and so few homes available to many of our neighbors here and across the Commonwealth are struggling to maintain basic needs, like food and shelter," she said. "As a housing provider, I know all too well that too many deserving families are waiting for their name to come up to the top of the list for an apartment or waiting for a voucher. Those fortunate enough to receive a voucher are faced with an effectively 0% vacancy rate. Last night I found five vacant apartments listed across the Berkshires. I also know that Berkshire Housing has provided more than $2 million in emergency rental assistance in the past 12 months to families that are making choices between food and shelter.”
Peltier described Healey’s legislation – which the governor says amounts to the largest investment in housing in commonwealth history – as unprecedented and comprehensive.
“Here in the Berkshires, we are facing not only a dearth of available housing, but we are seeing aging public housing portfolio, aging housing stock in general, the loss of naturally occurring affordable housing," she said. "Yes, we need to develop new housing, but we must also preserve the quality and the affordability of the housing we do have here in the Berkshires. The proposals in the housing bond bill are just what is needed. As I listened to the governor this morning announcing the $4 billion Affordable Homes Act, I was first hopeful. And as the list was unveiled, including investments in new production, millions for preservation of existing units, tools for affordable housing, homeownership development, green building funding, ADU zoning an Office of Fair Housing- On and on it went. I moved from hopeful to inspired and excited. And to be honest, I really needed that.”
The Affordable Homes Act now goes to the legislature.
