WBUR, July 23, 2018: Can’t find an affordable place to live? Your town’s zoning laws may be to blame
Zoning affects almost everything that happens in your community. It decides what gets built, where, and how fast. It determines if we create more jobs, who has a place to live and who doesn’t, and whether we protect our beautiful natural lands.
Yet, Massachusetts zoning laws are antiquated, a patchwork of policies that have been in place for 50 years, interpreted differently by every city and town. These laws exasperate builders and provide only limited tools to help cities and towns manage growth. Worst of all, these policies have fueled a housing crisis across the state, leaving people across income levels struggling to find homes they can afford.
Today, one of every 10 homeowners and one of every four renters in eastern Massachusetts pays more than half of their income for housing. That’s more than one in every two dollars, just to keep a roof over their heads.
In some ways, our housing shortage is a matter of math. Metro Boston needs to build 16,000 new homes per year to keep up with the growing number of households, but between 2010 and 2017, communities reported permitting just 10,500 homes per year. Every year we fall further behind, driving sales prices and rents higher at a much faster pace than wages. This impacts people across income levels and hits those with the lowest incomes the hardest, leaving people at increased risk of homelessness.
