Gov. Charlie Baker announced a big chunk of state cash to build 143 new income-restricted housing units in Boston and hundreds more elsewhere — and he took the opportunity to tout again his stalled housing bill.
Baker, plus Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh and assorted other pols and bureaucrats, packed the hallways of the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center on Tuesday to announce $44 million in cash and tax credits for 11 affordable-housing projects across the state that will hold more than 580 new units.
Three of those are in Boston: 60 apartments mostly for households making under 60% of the median income along Bartlett Street in Roxbury; 41 low- and very-low-income apartments along Bowdoin Street in Dorchester; and 42 apartments for low-income seniors in East Boston.
Boston also is kicking in $8.1 million between these three projects.
Other similar projects that will receive the state funding are in Newton, Lawrence, Auburn, Fall River, Medway, New Bedford and Northampton. All of the projects combined will include 443 units for low- and very-low income households.
Baker’s “An Act to Promote Housing Choices” seeks to ease the zoning-approval process for construction of multifamily developments and other housing projects. It would allow communities to adopt certain zoning changes by a simple majority vote rather than the existing two-thirds requirement. Baker’s said that tweak — plus accompanying incentives to boost development — would result in 135,000 new housing units by 2025, as the theory goes, more projects would end up being approved with the lower threshold. The bill has languished on Beacon Hill as critics worry it will lead to dense new development dominating neighborhoods, but proponents say things won’t get out of control, and that the cities around Boston can’t just let the big city be the only one where significant amounts of new housing is being allowed.
“Boston is producing more housing at every level than the rest of the communities in eastern Massachusetts,” Baker said. “We’ve got to do more with production.”
The governor added, “I’m sorry if I sound frustrated — because I am.”
Walsh backed him up, saying, “The market is not producing enough affordable housing.”
Source: Boston Herald
