Candidate Survey Response: Housing
I received and responded to a candidate survey from Progressive Mass. In the spirit of transparency, I’m happy to answer candidate surveys from any legitimate organization in Massachusetts as long as they don’t require me to refrain from sharing the questions and my responses.
It was an extremely long survey covering a variety of topics, and it also asked questions related to many topics (see other topics on the platform details page). Below is an excerpt of questions/responses. For brevity, I’ve omitted responses to questions that are already covered elsewhere on this website.
In addition to the survey responses below, please also see my Affordable Housing platform.
Questions as worded on the survey, my “yes/no” required response on the form, and my additional commentary to provide clarity:
Right to Shelter. Massachusetts is the only state with a right to shelter-that is, all families experiencing homelessness are guaranteed shelter. Would you oppose any effort to roll back the right to shelter?
NO — I cannot say that I would oppose "any effort" because it would depend largely on the specifics of the proposal. Ultimately, as a society, we should be working to make shelter affordable and available to everyone who needs it as a basic necessity for human dignity. We also need to recognize that maintaining shelters and housing more generally is not without significant financial cost, which needs to be borne by someone (whenever the individuals seeking shelter are unable to pay for it themselves).
Welcoming New Neighbors. Would you support efforts to locate both long-term housing and short-term shelter in your district?
YES — This would need to be incorporated into Waltham's master plan (which currently doesn't exist), and there would need to be clear funding sources and defined outcomes for scalability, sustainability, and a pathway for enabling folks to live with respect and dignity.
Affordable Housing Funding (part 1). Would you support enabling all cities and towns the flexibility to design and pass real estate transfer fees that will be effective in their municipalities to raise money for affordable housing production?
NO — I would like to see further evidence of the effectiveness of these programs in the municipalities where they have already been enacted. Are they actual delivering the desired outcomes and what shortcomings do they encounter?
Affordable Housing Funding (part 2). Would you support doubling the current Deeds Excise Tax (from $4.56 per $1,000 to $9.12 per $1,000), upon the sale of real property in Massachusetts, to create a new funding stream to be split evenly between affordable housing and climate resiliency?
NO — I am not familiar enough with this specific proposal at this time to declare my support. If a similar bill were presented once I took office, I would consider and balance the amount of funding obtained, the scale of the issue being addressed, and increased friction added to the real estate market in Massachusetts that might unintentionally decrease housing affordability even further.
Rent Control. Would you support lifting the statewide ban on rent control and enabling cities and towns to craft and pass laws to stabilize rents in ways best attuned to the local housing situation?
NO — Rent control has too many unintended side effects. For a summary on why rent control doesn't work, I'll refer you to this podcast episode: Why Rent Control Doesn’t Work.
Tenant Opportunity to Purchase. Would you support providing tenants of small, medium, and large multifamily properties with right of first refusal when the owner plans to put a building on the market, provided that they can make a bona fide offer to match the asking price in a reasonable period of time?
YES — This seems reasonable, but I'm not clear on how much practical impact it will have for families in Massachusetts, Also, I believe there would be a minimum number of units (e.g. 4 or more) in a property, it shouldn't apply to properties that include any owner-occupied units, and there would need to be a minimum length of tenancy before the right of first refusal applies (e.g. at least 3 years). However, I want to be clear that any proposal like this would almost certainly have a variety of unintended consequences that might induce landlords and corporate property owners to guard against losing their own property rights. Therefore, I would not intend to propose legislation like this if elected, but I would support such legislation if well written and clearly defined.
Eviction Sealing: Every case in eviction court creates a record that stays with a renter forever, making it difficult to obtain future housing. Would you support legislation to automatically seal records for dismissals, cases in which tenants win, and no-fault evictions and to create a process for sealing all other records after a set amount of time with minimal administrative burden?
YES
Eviction Sealing: Every case in eviction court creates a record that stays with a renter forever, making it difficult to obtain future housing. Would you support legislation to automatically seal records for dismissals, cases in which tenants win, and no-fault evictions and to create a process for sealing all other records after a set amount of time with minimal administrative burden?
YES
HDIP Reform. The Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP) is a multimillion-dollar annual state tax credit program subsidizing market-rate housing in Gateway Cities. The administration could award more than $100 million in HDIP developer tax credits over the next two years. Would you support reforming this program to support both market-rate and affordable housing development?
YES — Depending on the details. I would want to see more comprehensive information about how this proposal would interact with all the other affordable housing legislation and funding sources available.
Social Housing. Social housing is state financed, mixed-income housing, owned by a local or regional housing authority. Typical projects may set aside 1/3rd of the new units for low-income residents, 1/3rd for middle-income residents, and 1/3rd for higher-income residents. Would you support the establishment of a mixed-income social housing production program?
NO — I support mixed housing development, but I would need an explanation of why it is beneficial for such development to be state financed and owned by a housing authority.
Zoning Reform. Would you support zoning reforms to increase housing production and create more affordable and environmentally sustainable communities such as.
Overall zoning laws should err on the side of permissiveness. However, each community and neighborhood has unique environmental, historical, and cultural attributes that should be taken into consideration. The environment should be protected, history should be acknowledged, and culture should be allowed to evolve. That said, we need to balance the competing needs for economic certainty and economic opportunity in order to enable human dignity when it comes to housing, livability, and environmental sustainability.
a. Requiring multi-family zoning and removing costly parking mandates around public transportation and city/town centers statewide?
YES — This proposal seems to provide obvious opportunities to increase flexibility with few drawbacks.
b. Legalizing accessory dwelling units (ADUs) as of right statewide?
YES — This proposal seems to provide obvious opportunities to increase flexibility with few drawbacks.
c. Creating a streamlined process for turning vacant land and commercial properties into multi-family housing?
YES — This proposal seems to provide obvious opportunities to increase flexibility with few drawbacks.
d. Prioritizing the disposition of state-owned land for affordable housing?
NO — I would need to understand "prioritizing" compared to what other alternatives.
e. Enabling communities to adopt inclusionary zoning ordinances (i.e., requirements that a certain percentage of new units in a development be affordable) by simple majority vote?
NO — I'm in favor of adopting inclusionary zoning ordinances, but I'm concerned that a simple majority vote could lead to unpredictable changes to zoning ordinances from year to year as competing interests propose zoning changes that may or may not be considered inclusionary for different perspectives.
MBTA Communities Law Enforcement. Towns like Milton, Holden, and Wretham (and possibly others to come) have sought to maintain that compliance with the MBTA Communities Law is "optional." Would you support measures to strengthen the law with stricter consequences for municipalities that refuse to comply, including voiding non-compliant zoning?
NO — This law has not yet been fully implemented or sufficiently worked its way thru the courts yet. It would be premature for the legislature to start implementing more severe consequences when it isn't even clear that this legislation will achieve the desired outcomes even in the communities that are following the law.