Healey forms two new housing advisory panels

Gov. Maura Healey, standing alongside Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus, swears in members of the Commission on Unlocking Housing Production on Monday, Jan. 29.

Gov. Maura Healey, standing alongside Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus, swears in members of the Commission on Unlocking Housing Production on Monday, Jan. 29. SAM DORAN/STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

By SAM DORAN

State House News Service

Published: 02-01-2024 2:15 PM

As part of her push to boost housing supply, Gov. Maura Healey swore in around 30 members of two panels this week, bringing together groups like developers and builders, advocates for the homeless and people with disabilities, and local officials.

A new Commission on Unlocking Housing Production will recommend changes to state and local laws to boost affordable housing stock. A Housing Advisory Council, also created under a Healey executive order, will “develop a comprehensive housing plan for Massachusetts,” according to her office.

“We don’t expect agreement on everything,” Healey said. “But that’s the value of the commission and the council, right? Is that we’re going to have the best minds with, I think it’s fair to say, the best intentions.”

The governor used Monday’s ceremony to plug her housing bill, the subject of an hours-long hearing on Jan. 18. Aiming her efforts at “new starts” along with preservation, rehabilitation and renovation of existing housing, the governor said “we need to act with urgency that we haven’t brought to bear before as a state.”

Healey, who made housing a central platform of her 2022 campaign, filed her housing bill in October and it remains in committee.

“We’re down a couple hundred thousand units. It’s holding families back every single day. It’s holding our economy back every single day. The Affordable Homes Act that Secretary [Ed] Augustus and his team put together ... offers a panoply, a menu, of any number of options to select from, including a number of recommended policy changes that are all about incenting housing production,” she said.

“If we do not deal with this now, we are setting ourselves up for more people leaving, and for not the kind of economic growth and opportunity growth for residents of this state. It’s as simple as that. I’m telling you, I’m preaching to the choir here,” Healey added.

Commission on Unlocking Housing Production members: Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus (chair); Administration and Finance Secretary Matt Gorzkowicz; Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao or designee; Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper or designee; Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción; Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle; Richard Marlin, Massachusetts Building Trades Council; Levi Reilly, Marcus Partners; Jesse Kanson-Benanav, Abundant Housing Massachusetts; Jeffrey Brem, Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Massachusetts; David Linhart, Goulston & Storrs; Tamara Small, NAIOP Massachusetts; Jennifer Raitt, Northern Middlesex Council of Governments; Peter Ostroskey, former state fire marshal; and Clark Ziegler, Massachusetts Housing Partnership.

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Housing Advisory Council members: Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll (chair); Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus (vice chair); Administration and Finance Secretary Matt Gorzkowicz; Chrystal Kornegay, MassHousing; Joseph Byrne, North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters; Symone Crawford, Mass Affordable Housing; Stephen Davis, The Davis Companies; Keith Fairey, Way Finders; Rachel Heller, Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association; Amy Schectman, 2Life Communities; Angie Liou, Asian Community Development Corporation; Kenan Bigby, Trinity Financial; Worcester City Manager Eric Batista; Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson; Adam Chapdelaine, Massachusetts Municipal Association; Brad Gordon, Berkshire County Regional Housing Authority; Colin Killick, Disability Policy Consortium; Nicole Obi, BECMA; Justin Davidson, Massachusetts Association of REALTORS; and John Yazwinski, Father Bill’s & MainSpring.