Latest news with #EdAugustus
Yahoo
2 days ago
- 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.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Coalition for Homeless Individuals calls for budget funding
BOSTON (WWLP) – Lawmakers are working on their drafts of the next state budget and the Coalition for Homeless Individuals held a State House Lobby Day to request funding. The Coalition focuses on the individual homeless shelter system, which functions separately from the family system. Individuals experiencing homelessness are not protected by Massachusetts' right to shelter law. Area correctional officers learn how to better their facilities at annual conference Advocates say the system is an effective functional safety net, and consists of emergency shelters, transitional services to rebuild health and work skills, and supportive housing for people who are unable to live independently long-term. Housing Secretary Ed Augustus said that despite the state's effort, homelessness in the Bay State is on the rise. 'I'm very worried given what we're hearing out of Washington, we're going to see more headwinds as we combat homelessness,' Augustus said. One western Massachusetts provider said resources are stretched especially thin in more rural parts of the state. 'This year, the numbers are out of control. said Jane Banks, Assistant Secretary of Housing and Community Development. 'In Greenfield, we have 45 beds, and we served 74 people for 2,441 bed nights.' The coalition is requesting $121 million to fund provider programs, and $10 million to help providers with workforce development. This funding would need to be established in a compromise version of House and Senate budget drafts and approved by Governor Healey to go into effect for next fiscal year. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
February in the Massachusetts shelter system by the numbers
BOSTON, Mass. (WWLP)–According to a February 10 Emergency Housing Assistance Program (EA) report, 6,141 families are currently being housed in shelters, hotels, or motels in Massachusetts. This most recent estimate comes after the House and Senate approved separate versions of a $425 million budget infusion for the system. Included in the supplemental budget is a set of reforms that looks to lower shelter capacity, increase background checks, and increase eligibility requirements. Senate loads reform bill with shelter reporting requirements Families are sorted into two tracks within the shelter system based on their level of need: Bridge and Rapid track. Bridge track families are considered to have higher or more complex needs, and permitted to stay in traditional shelters for up to six months. 5,894 families are currently in the Bridge track. Rapid track families are determined to have lower support needs, and are permitted to stay in temporary shelter sites for up to 30 days. 247 Rapid track families are currently in the system. Both tracks have the overarching goal of making shelter stays rare, brief, and non-recurring, and aim to give families the resources they need to acquire stable housing and employment. In western Massachusetts, the following towns and cities have families in the Bridge track: Amherst: 5 Chicopee: 59 Greenfield: 18 Holyoke: 168 Northampton: 19 Pittsfield: 26 South Hadley: 5 Springfield: 248 West Springfield: 53 There are currently no Rapid track families at temporary respite centers in western Massachusetts. One report also tracked how much additional funding was needed in school districts to support EA students from September to November of 2024. In western Massachusetts, the following additional funding was required for the September-November 2024 time period: Chicopee: $260,757 Franklin: $405,190 Greenfield: $191,319 Hadley: $28,530 Holyoke: Noted on report, but this time period did not have an estimate. Northampton: $68,598 Pittsfield: Noted on report, but this time period did not have an estimate. West Springfield: $331,767 In total since October 2022, Massachusetts has spent over $57.5 million in supplemental funding for school districts across the state. In fiscal year 2024, the state spent $856.8 million on the system. According to the report, fiscal year 2025's project costs will be around $1.064 billion. These reports are published every two weeks by the Executive Office for Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus and Executive Office for Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
