Latest news with #EdAugustus
Boston Globe
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Mass. Governor: All shelters are closed, state of emergency for shelter system is over
Advertisement 'We're saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and putting families on a path to self-sustainability,' she said. In addition to the closure of hotel shelters, shelters located at the former Bay State Correctional Center and the Chelsea Rapid Shelter site have also closed. Three families were using the hotel shelter system, a Massachusetts experienced a surge of immigrants arriving here beginning in the At the same time, the Advertisement After Healey took office in January 2023, officials drastically expanded the emergency shelter system to house thousands of homeless and migrant families For decades, homeless families have been guaranteed a roof over their heads under to help families at hotels access medical care, find transportation, and enroll their children in school. With costs skyrocketing, Healey and legislators repeatedly sought to tighten eligibility, including by requiring homeless families to prove lawful immigration status, show they have lived in Massachusetts for at least six months, and undergo The number of families in emergency shelter has fallen to Just last month, however, state officials had the cap set by the Legislature, the state still was not able to keep up with the demand. Healey officials say they issued the declaration specifically so they can continue to impose restrictions on shelters, such as limiting who gets priority for beds and how long they can stay. Advertisement Massachusetts Housing Secretary Ed Augustus wrote in The extended declaration is supposed to last until Nov. 9, which is required under rules set out by the Legislature in a 2023 spending bill. It can be extended again if Augustus determines it's necessary. Former MBTA executive Brian Shortsleeve, who is running in the GOP primary for governor, criticized Healey's comments Friday. He slammed the use of public dollars to fund the state's HomeBase program, which provides rental assistance for families transitioning into permanent housing and is credited with helping reduce the emergency shelter population. Shortsleeve said Healey's claim of saving taxpayer dollars has 'got to go done [sic] in the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest lie ever told by a politician,' 'As the next governor, I will stop the flow of our tax dollars to the migrants,' he said. Samantha J. Gross can be reached at
Daily Mail
11-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Greedy Nantucket liberals refuse to ban Airbnbs despite essential workers being priced off billionaire island
Nantucket, famous for its luxury homes and affluent summer residents, is quietly facing a humanitarian crisis - seasonal wealth has overtaken the housing market, leaving year-round essential workers with nowhere to live. Every summer, seasonal residents arrive on yachts and private jets, taking over an astonishing 65 percent of the island's housing - only to leave much of it empty once they return to their lives elsewhere as the weather cools. As a result, Nantucket's full-time workforce - police officers, teachers, healthcare workers, firefighters and landscapers - are struggling to both find and afford a place to live among the elites, according to a report by The New York Times. ' Massachusetts as a whole, the country as a whole, is facing a housing crisis. There is no question about it,' Ed Augustus, the state's secretary of Housing and Livable Communities, told the outlet. 'But the way it manifests itself is unique on the island.' Now, town leaders are pushing for change, but the well-heeled summer crowd stand in the way - choosing renting out their lavish homes for profit over converting them into year-round housing for those who keep the island running. They argue that short-term rentals of 31 days or less help them afford their mortgages while also benefiting Nantucket's economy. 'It is a fundamental property ownership right to rent your home responsibly, and it's reckless not to safeguard that right for future generations,' Penny Dey, a real estate broker and a year-round resident for 49 years, said at a May town meeting, according to the NYT. Every summer, seasonal residents arrive on yachts and private jets, taking over an astonishing 65 percent of the island's housing - only to leave much of it empty once they return to their lives elsewhere as the weather cools Dey emphasized that Nantucket's economy thrives on tourism, and with no big hotels on the island, vacationers rely heavily on seasonal rentals for their stay. 'Short-term rentals have been blamed for everything on Nantucket except erosion,' she added. Year after year, the charming island lures in big spenders, who stroll its cobblestone streets, browse upscale boutiques and dine on freshly caught seafood at pristine restaurants. With the cost of living soaring - and the median home price now at $2.5 million -between 1,200 and 1,500 year-round residents are left searching for a place to live amid a severe shortage of affordable housing, according to the NYT. Many essential workers who commute by ferry have been forced into overcrowded or inadequate housing - living in vans, shipping containers, or even on office couches - with some facing homelessness. The year-round population ranges from about 14,000 to 20,500 - but in summer, it swells to as many as 100,000. 'Nantucket has 10 years of less before the entire island is owned by island conservation entities or seasonal homeowners,' Brian Sullivan, principal broker at Fisher Real Estate and 28-year resident, told the NYT. The crisis has even reached six-figure-earning families on the island, who are battling to afford even the basics. Marjani Williams, a 47-year-old full-time employee for the island's Public Works Department, moved to the island from Mississippi in 2023 seeking 'a better living,' as reported by the NYT. For the past few years, she's earned $67,000 a year collecting trash, maintaining immaculate lawns and cleaning up the roads - a big improvement from the $7.25 an hour she made back in her Southern home state. But even with the higher salary, Williams couldn't afford a basic quality of life on the island and, ultimately, became homeless. 'I had nowhere to go,' Williams told the outlet. 'So I got all of my stuff, put it in my vehicle, and went to the beach.' While sleeping in her car on the beach, a police officer told her it was prohibited - so she moved to another beach, where, to her shock, she discovered a coworker living there too. The two decided the Public Works Department was their best bet for a place to rest, and she ended up spending her nights on a loveseat in a storage unit - just a few hundred feet from the town dump. Full-time workers on the island call it the 'Nantucket Shuffle' - the exhausting cycle of moving month to month from one temporary housing solution to the next. Jody Kasper, 50, the island's police chief, earns over $200,000 a year - yet she's already lived in three different rental units in under two years, simply because stable housing is nearly impossible to find, the NYT reported. 'The newest 20 police officers, myself included, don't own a home here on the island, and the probability of them ever acquiring a home is almost zero,' she told the outlet. Michael Cranson, 53, the island's fire chief, said about 10 percent of his department is forced to live off-island because they can't afford to live in the very community they serve, according to the NYT. With just 41 firefighters on staff, the department often falls short - forcing them to call in backup from Cape Cod towns, most of which must arrive by ferry, a trip that can take hours. To combat the crisis, one solution has been the 'Lease to Locals' program, aimed at creating housing that lower-income workers can actually afford. The program offers stipends to seasonal homeowners who agree to convert their short-term rentals into year-round homes - but it faces resistance from the summer millionaires. 'The most frustrating phrase that I hear a lot is, 'I'm not opposed to affordable housing, but,'' Brooke Mohr, a member of Nantucket's Select Board, told the NYT. 'Generally, the but is not here near me. Not there. Not more in this location,' she explained. According to Mohr, another reason for the opposition is that the coastal one-percenters prefer to maintain the appearance of a perfect, comfortable lifestyle - and don't feel they need a stipend to do so. To combat the crisis, one solution has been the 'Lease to Locals' program, which offers stipends to seasonal homeowners who agree to convert their short-term rentals into year-round homes 'Having your friends know that you are struggling can add a layer of stress on top of an already-challenging personal situation,' she added. Another proposed solution - curbing short-term rentals - has also sparked lengthy legal battles and town votes. Since 1969, a state law has required that at least 10 percent of Nantucket's year-round housing be affordable for residents earning 80 percent or less of the area's median income, according to the NYT. Yet, despite the law, only 405 affordable units have been built - while a staggering 213 more remain unfinished, leaving a critical shortage unresolved. Despite residents approving $90 million for affordable housing since 2019, many other crucial efforts have been quickly stalled or blocked. One tossed solution was a transfer tax on luxury homes to fund affordable housing, alongside a plan to build 156 condos - 39 of which would be reserved for lower-income families. However, residents raised concerns about increased traffic, fire risks and potential environmental damage. Eillen Taveras, 46, moved to Nantucket in 2006 and wears many hats: she's a Spanish translator for the public schools, an interpreter at the hospital, co-owns a cleaning business, serves as a justice of the peace and holds a real estate license, according to the NYT. 'Living here on a single salary would be very difficult,' she told the outlet. In 2021, she purchased a four-bedroom home for $880,515 through Nantucket's Covenant Program, which helps provide stable housing for year-round residents with lower incomes. 'The housing authorities on Nantucket have been doing a great job and good things are happening,' Taveras said.
Boston Globe
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
‘I'm really worried.' With the state's hotel shelter system closing, families struggle to find places to live
'I'm really worried,' Amparo, 37, said in Spanish in an interview on Monday. The change, she says, 'is a big burden.' She doesn't have a full-time job, so for the time being, she can't afford rent, even though a state program could subsidize some of the costs, she said. Her children are ages 15, 10, and 9, one of whom has special needs. 'At the hotel, we knew the system, and life was a little easier,' she said. Now, one question runs through her mind often as her family is shuffled from one place to another. 'Will we keep being able to be in a shelter or have to go to the street?' On Monday, as the state moved another step closer to fully shuttering its hotel shelter system — which at its peak last year saw more than 128 hotels open — a number of these facilities across Greater Boston appeared largely desolate. The number of families requesting housing in the state's shelter system has dropped dramatically from a year ago. The Emergency Assistance shelter system was sheltering about 7,500 homeless families at its height last year, but as of last week, 3,740 families were housed in the system, according to state data. Advertisement Ed Augustus, secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, said in a statement last week that, 'Now, costs are going down, we are closing all hotels, and the number of families in EA shelter is below the level when we first took office.' Advertisement He acknowledged the Healey administration 'inherited a surge in families and an Emergency Shelter System that was not equipped to handle it.' In Danvers, the parking lot of a Motel 6, once bustling with residents, was nearly empty, with just a few workers moving boxes and mattresses. In Chelsea, at the former soldiers' home, which was converted to a temporary shelter more than a year ago, barely a handful of families were coming out of the building. In Peabody, a former Holiday Inn which previously housed dozens of families, including Amparo and her children, showed no signs of the families who had lived there just a few days earlier. The closure of these hotel shelters has raised questions about where exactly families will be living — and if the available housing options provide a sustainable future for their families. On Monday, 11 hotel shelters closed, a spokesperson for the housing office said, and in total, 24 hotel shelter programs have closed this month. As of July 1, only four hotel shelters will remain, and all hotel shelters will be closed by July 31, according to the state. 'Providers and on-site case managers have been working closely with all impacted families to help them identify secure housing before the closing date,' the spokesperson said. Governor Maura Healey had planned to phase out the use of hotel shelters by the end of the year, but she Advertisement Advocates and the state have been looking to relocate many of the families through Andrea Park, an advocacy director at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, said that some housing providers were 'really caught off guard' by how quickly the timing was changing. 'For providers, it's extremely difficult to try to provide a meaningful opportunity to set families up for success, under an artificial time deadline,' Park said. 'We are concerned about families who are being set up to fail.' In Revere, rumors about shelters closing were swirling at the former Quality Inn, which appeared to still be in use as a family shelter on Monday. Some residents said they were concerned about what the other hotel closures could mean for them. 'It's scary, not knowing,' said Alandra Abreu as she pushed her 1-year-old in a stroller in the parking lot. She has been at the Quality Inn for about a week, but said she hasn't heard from the staff about what's next for the facility. 'They haven't said anything to us,' Abreu, 25, said. Some shelter residents and public officials have reported concerns about the safety inside state shelters, where more than 1,000 serious incidents, including more than a dozen alleged sex offenses, Advertisement Still, these facilities became a lifeline for thousands of families with children who had arrived in Massachusetts from countries across the Caribbean and Latin America — especially from Haiti —who fled violence, poverty, and extreme economic instability. Pastor Dieufort Fleurissaint, who goes by his nickname Pastor Keke, said that the nonprofit he founded, True Alliance Center, has been working to help connect hotel shelter residents with housing through the HomeBASE program. Many of the families True Alliance works with are Haitian and formed part of the tens of thousands of recent arrivals who sought housing in the shelter system in recent years. Though Pastor Keke said he had not received any calls on Monday from residents unable to find housing as the hotels closed, he is particularly anxious about what will happen to the immigrant families placed into HomeBASE, who may have their legal status and work permits revoked under recent Trump administration directives. The administration recently announced that Temporary Protected Status for Haitians WelcomeNST, a volunteer organization that helps resettle immigrants and refugees, has interviewed around 20 families living in hotel shelters for resettlement in towns across New England, said Elizabeth Davis-Edwards, the founder and CEO. Davis-Edwards has spoken to people who held full-time jobs while living in the shelters, only to lose their employment after being transferred to another facility out of commuting distance. 'There has to be a clear path to that family being able to stand on their own feet,' Davis-Edwards said. Advertisement So far, the volunteer teams in three towns have signed up to help families leaving the hotel shelters to access housing there, but Davis-Edwards is eager to recruit more volunteers. 'It doesn't mean it's easy, but every time, a team will find housing for a family,' Davis-Edwards said. Samantha J. Gross and Stephanie Ebbert of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Judge throws out ‘unfunded mandate' lawsuits over MBTA Communities Act
Multiple lawsuits against the state filed by towns trying to avoid following the MBTA Communities Act were dismissed by a judge Friday. Nine towns — Duxbury, Hamilton, Hanson, Holden, Marshfield, Middleton, Wenham, Weston and Wrentham — filed lawsuits earlier this year after the state Division of Local Mandates determined the law was an 'unfunded mandate.' The cases were the latest in a history of challenges to the 2021 law, which requires towns and cities served by the MBTA to update their zoning to allow more multifamily housing. 'We are pleased the courts have again affirmed the intent of the MBTA Communities Law, and we look forward to working with the remaining communities to complete their zoning changes,' Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus said in a statement. 'Massachusetts' housing shortage has led to unaffordable prices and rising rents, but the MBTA Communities Law is working to deliver new housing where it's needed most and to bring down the cost of housing for all residents.' The MBTA Communities Act requires 177 cities and towns served by the MBTA to create at least one zoning district where multifamily housing is allowed by right. The goal of the law was to reduce barriers to new housing development and relieve pressure on the expensive local housing market, though no housing is guaranteed or required to be built. In a January ruling, the Supreme Judicial Court upheld the law as constitutional and mandatory, though the court said the compliance guidelines had not gone through the correct legal process and were, therefore, unenforceable. Since then, the state has released new, emergency guidelines, giving noncompliant towns until July 14 to comply. Under the Local Mandate Law, since 1980, any state law or regulation that would impose more than 'incidental administration expenses' on local governments must either be fully funded by the state or be conditional on local acceptance of the rule. In October, the Wrentham Select Board requested the Division of Local Mandates determine whether the MBTA Communities Act violated this law. In February, DLM Director Jana DiNatale confirmed that she believed it did. She wrote in a letter to the town's Select Board that grants the state has offered towns to help them develop new zoning and accommodate new housing development showed that the law did impose additional costs, but did not fully fund its local implementation. However, the DLM determination, unlike the January Supreme Judicial Court ruling, did not immediately make the law unenforceable. In his Friday decision, Super Court Judge Mark Gildea wrote that he disagreed that any of the towns had demonstrated any direct costs associated with following the law. The nine towns had listed anticipated impacts to infrastructure, public safety and other municipal services related to new housing development, but Gildea said these were speculative and indirectly, not directly, related. 'The Municipalities have neither pled specific costs for anticipated infrastructure costs, nor provided any specific timeline for anticipated construction projects,' he wrote. 'Instead, the only allegations and averments before the court are generalized comments about large-scale issues they foresee.' Last week, the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities announced that 133 cities and towns, or about 75% of those affected by the MBTA Communities Act, had passed new zoning meant to comply with the regulations. Zoning changes under MBTA Communities Act spurs 3K new houses - so far Middleborough sues state over MBTA Communities: 'One size does not fit all' Mass. AG Campbell says 'unfunded mandate' determination won't stop MBTA Communities Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Massachusetts Housing Secretary says uncertainty may scare away investors
BOSTON (SHNS) – State government leaders in Massachusetts are trying to instigate a building boom to address a housing shortage marked by high rents and sale prices, but a top housing official is now warning that headwinds from Washington could threaten their efforts. 'The equity that's often needed to facilitate a deal doesn't like uncertainty, and we are in the midst of lots of uncertainty,' Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus said in Lee on Wednesday during a policy talk with local experts hosted by the Berkshire Edge. He added, 'If you come in and want to fund a project, and you look at what the [financial estimate] says, but you're going to actually go in the ground 18 months from now, how could you guarantee that those are the prices that you're going to have, given this uncertainty?' It's an argument Augustus also made earlier in the week, testifying before lawmakers in Gloucester on Monday about Gov. Maura Healey's fiscal year 2026 budget proposal. 'What developers tell me is equity, which they are usually pursuing in order to get the financing to build a unit, equity doesn't like uncertainty. And the idea that this project may cost 10 or 15 or 20% more than they're projecting, it doesn't often attract that investment,' Augustus said on Monday. The administration has long pointed to a goal of increasing the statewide supply of year-round housing by 222,000 units over the next decade — a 7% increase in supply. As production slowed over the past few decades, the share of homes available for sale or rent in Massachusetts has shrunk to 1.6%, and costs have skyrocketed. Programs focused on keeping low-income residents housed are struggling to keep up with housing inflation. The Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program has seen large increases in spending, without making a significant bump in the 160,000-person waitlist of people who need help paying rent. 'We're putting significant additional dollars into the voucher program, but not necessarily getting more vouchers. We're just having to pay higher rents for the vouchers that have already been leased so that we don't lose any of those units and have people fall into homelessness. So again, some of it is just, you're paying a lot more, but you're not necessarily getting more. You're trying to keep what you've got,' Augustus said Wednesday. The governor and Legislature passed a law last year that authorizes $5.16 billion in long-term bonding, mostly focused on production of new units. State officials are trying to put some of that money, and new production-oriented policies, to work in a state where building remains mostly under the oversight of local zoning rules. The state housing secretariat estimates that the law will lead to the creation of over 45,000 new units and the preservation of 27,000. The law was signed in August, three months before the election, and Healey and Augustus have both warned recently that policies coming down from President Donald Trump could threaten the planned production boom. In addition to seeing a pullback of investors, the housing secretary warned Wednesday about Trump's tariffs on lumber making it more expensive to build housing. 'When you get most of your lumber from Canada, and that's subject to a 25% tariff, that is driving up the costs,' he said. Trump's promised tariffs on Canadian lumber are scheduled to start on April 2. The 25% tariff on softwood lumber used in most home building would be on top of the existing 14.5% lumber tariffs previously imposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, according to the National Association of Home Builders. At a National League of Cities Conference, Vice President JD Vance spoke Monday about the national housing crisis, calling it 'not acceptable or sustainable' that the average income it takes to buy a new house is nearly two times the average salary of a typical American family. 'We want Americans to be able to afford the American dream of homeownership because we know that when people own their homes, it makes them a stakeholder. It makes them a stakeholder in their neighborhoods, in their cities, and ultimately, of course, in this country that all of us love so much,' Vance said. He pointed at the Biden administration, saying the cost of a median-price home more than doubled under former President Joe Biden. He mentioned how lower energy costs could aid housing development, and lamented how immigrants living in the country illegally are increasing the demand for limited housing. In addition to urging people to be 'a little bit smarter about our local zoning rules,' Vance said the administration is working towards cutting red tape at the Office of Housing and Urban Development that 'hike costs and shift the decision-making from local governments to Washington, D.C.' 'I'm hard-pressed to think of a time in my 40 years of life where it's been so hard for normal American citizens to afford a home,' Vance said. 'Even renting a home has become a challenge or, worse yet, fallen completely out of reach for so many of our families.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
