As other states take on housing crunch, Mass. still stands pat (Boston: rental, credit)

[BostonBornMassMade]

As other states take on housing crunch, Mass. still stands pat

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business...O9N/story.html

Commentators on boston GLobe are saying well if we build more housing well just get more people and more traffic. No, this just isn't true. People are coming here regardless-because people only move to Mass./Boston FOR WORK.



All more housing does is increase people quality of life as more people will be able to live in modern housing, there will be less overcrowding a)nd the wear and tear that goes along with that) in older units.



Because MAss. is snobby it wont even consider rent control like in other states and people are worried about overcrowding our under-populated schools. Our schools are under crowded because Massachusetts has the lowest birth rate in the country because people can't afford to raise and house kids here. All of this is a chain and is underreported by the Globe.

What is really needed is a mix of 50 percent plus 1. Strict enforcement of 40B and rent control for certain types of housing. Plus of course electrification of the MBTA and general MBTA improvements as well. Thatsmuscomefrom gas tax and new tolls.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Commentators on boston GLobe are saying well if we build more housing well just get more people and more traffic. No, this just isn't true. People are coming here regardless-because people only move to Mass./Boston FOR WORK.

All more housing does is increase people quality of life as more people will be able to live in modern housing, there will be less overcrowding a)nd the wear and tear that goes along with that) in older units.

I think your view on housing is incredibly over simplified. Yes if there were more housing units in the area then likely housing costs would go down and there would be fewer people who choose to jam 100 people into a single unit or into a smaller home than they would like.

However, the Boston Globe is absolutely right that increasing the population will stress local resources that are already over burdened. More people means more cars, more people riding the T, more kids in the school system, more people shopping in the grocery store, etc., etc., etc. The one positive of our housing crunch is that it forces the population to spread out a bit and that allows the resources of a larger area to take on the burden of providing resources for the population.

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Because MAss. is snobby it wont even consider rent control like in other states and people are worried about overcrowding our under-populated schools. Our schools are under crowded because Massachusetts has the lowest birth rate in the country because people can't afford to raise and house kids here. All of this is a chain and is underreported by the Globe.

I don't know that this is a "snobby" issue. Landlords have rights as well and they would prefer to rent at market rates and make more money. I think it's a lot to ask someone who's invested 100's of thousands of dollars into a rental property to make only a thin margin on that investment. As in all things, we need to figure out a way to balance the interests/rights of the two parties involved in a rent control situation.

I'd love to see the stats behind your statement that schools in this state are undercrowded. I know here in Needham we had to build a giant new elementary school in order to create enough class rooms so that we could institute full day kindergarten. Needham was literally the last community in the state to offer it because we didn't have the space as our schools were already crowded. Wellesley next door has closed admission in some grades in several elementary schools because they are at capacity. I'm not saying there aren't communities with empty classrooms. I'm just saying you're painting with an awfully broad brush.

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

What is really needed is a mix of 50 percent plus 1. Strict enforcement of 40B and rent control for certain types of housing. Plus of course electrification of the MBTA and general MBTA improvements as well. Thatsmuscomefrom gas tax and new tolls.

How do you feel that 40B is not enforced? I can tell you there are several projects happening in Wellesley right now that abutters really are not happy about. However, they're 40B projects so they were able to get approvals that would not have been granted if not for 40B and Wellesley's neglect of creating "affordable" housing units.

I wholeheartedly agree with you that the state needs to modernize. We've got a long way to go in that regard and it's definitely not going to happen overnight.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

I think your view on housing is incredibly over simplified. Yes if there were more housing units in the area then likely housing costs would go down and there would be fewer people who choose to jam 100 people into a single unit or into a smaller home than they would like.

However, the Boston Globe is absolutely right that increasing the population will stress local resources that are already over burdened. More people means more cars, more people riding the T, more kids in the school system, more people shopping in the grocery store, etc., etc., etc. The one positive of our housing crunch is that it forces the population to spread out a bit and that allows the resources of a larger area to take on the burden of providing resources for the population.

.

The burdon on our aging water and sewer system is not to be understated as well.

[Bridge781]

Totally agree with MikePRu on all points. We don’t need more housing. There are enough people. The transportation issues need to be fixed first. Quality of life is already poor due to how difficult it is to get around.

[BostonBornMassMade]

People are coming Regardless folks. It's expensive as all hell and they're still coming You cant just turn a blind eye.

The vast majority of towns are not in compliance with 40B-this is fact.
https://www.chapa.org/sites/default/...1%20update.pdf

https://www.southcoasttoday.com/news...rdable-housing

"Chapter 40B is an affordable-housing program that allows developers to bypass some local planning and zoning regulations if at least 20 percent of the units in the development are deemed affordable. (Affordability differs based on location, but more on that later). Cities and towns have little power to deny 40B developments if fewer than 10 percent of homes in the community are not designated affordable. In Massachusetts, more than 80 percent of cities and towns do not exceed 10 percent."
" But most cities and towns are still a far cry away from the 10 percent threshold envisioned by lawmakers a half-century ago. More than eight of every 10 communities still fall short of 10 percent, and almost 50 percent have less than 5 percent affordable housing. Forty-two communities have zero affordable housing"

Landlords don't have a 'right' to profit just because they are landlords- in every business/money making venture there is an understood risk, why should landlord be immune to that?

Public School enrollment over Mass Has been declining for quite sometime leaving empty seats in most districts. Afew district like Wellesley just haven't updated a few school buildings to modern needs (flexibility).

https://www.mbae.org/k-12-public-sch...massachusetts/

We've lost 30k public school student since 2002. Urban districts like Cambridge, Fall River, Boston, Salem, New Bedford another are still seeing big losses, as well as the more rural/less densely populated towns. Minor declines are prevalent in middle of the road suburbs, just check the MASS DOE site.

https://www.salemnews.com/news/local...95f18d716.html

"Enrollment in the Salem Public Schools is expected to drop by 116 this fall, marking a loss of about 1,000 students in less than a decade. But Salem isn’t the only system facing decreased enrollment.

Peabody, Danvers, Marblehead, Hamilton-Wenham and Swampscott have also seen enrollments drop in the past five years. In fact, the only nearby district where the student population is continuing to grow is Beverly."

[BostonBornMassMade]

There's just so much misinformation, and so many anecdotes out there people refuse to use hard data and move form there. Infuriating.

[Bridge781]

It doesn’t matter if they’re still coming. Building housing is a bad idea if there’s no room in the T and roads.

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

People are coming Regardless folks. It's expensive as all hell and they're still coming You cant just turn a blind eye.

The vast majority of towns are not in compliance with 40B-this is fact.
https://www.chapa.org/sites/default/...1%20update.pdf

https://www.southcoasttoday.com/news...rdable-housing

"Chapter 40B is an affordable-housing program that allows developers to bypass some local planning and zoning regulations if at least 20 percent of the units in the development are deemed affordable. (Affordability differs based on location, but more on that later). Cities and towns have little power to deny 40B developments if fewer than 10 percent of homes in the community are not designated affordable. In Massachusetts, more than 80 percent of cities and towns do not exceed 10 percent."
" But most cities and towns are still a far cry away from the 10 percent threshold envisioned by lawmakers a half-century ago. More than eight of every 10 communities still fall short of 10 percent, and almost 50 percent have less than 5 percent affordable housing. Forty-two communities have zero affordable housing"

Landlords don't have a 'right' to profit just because they are landlords- in every business/money making venture there is an understood risk, why should landlord be immune to that?

Public School enrollment over Mass Has been declining for quite sometime leaving empty seats in most districts. Afew district like Wellesley just haven't updated a few school buildings to modern needs (flexibility).

https://www.mbae.org/k-12-public-sch...massachusetts/

We've lost 30k public school student since 2002. Urban districts like Cambridge, Fall River, Boston, Salem, New Bedford another are still seeing big losses, as well as the more rural/less densely populated towns. Minor declines are prevalent in middle of the road suburbs, just check the MASS DOE site.





https://www.salemnews.com/news/local...95f18d716.html

"Enrollment in the Salem Public Schools is expected to drop by 116 this fall, marking a loss of about 1,000 students in less than a decade. But Salem isn’t the only system facing decreased enrollment.

Peabody, Danvers, Marblehead, Hamilton-Wenham and Swampscott have also seen enrollments drop in the past five years. In fact, the only nearby district where the student population is continuing to grow is Beverly."

Your link is from 2011 and doesn't reflect all the developments that have been built since then.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

Your link is from 2011 and doesn't reflect all the developments that have been built since then.

my other link on 40B is from February 2019, you didn't miss that-you just chose not to mention it. You also ignored the whole slate of everything else, come on...lets have a real conversation. You're trying to discredit tons of data i posted with a one liner and it's just disingenuous.

[tamajane]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Landlords don't have a 'right' to profit just because they are landlords- in every business/money making venture there is an understood risk, why should landlord be immune to that?

What do you think happens if landlords stop making money?