It’s Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus now.
Gov. Maura Healey swore-in Augustus Thursday morning as the brand new secretariat charged with overseeing housing in Massachusetts, lowering associated costs, and dealing with the many different stakeholders in the industry.
Augustus most recently worked as the city manager for Worcester and at one point during his career, made his way to Boston to serve as a state senator. But in his new role, Augustus said he wants to move quickly to inventory surplus state land that can be used for housing production.
“There’s a lot of state land that isn’t necessarily being used right now. And that land belongs to the people of the commonwealth and that land should be put to use for the needs of the people of the commonwealth,” he told reporters at the State House. “And there can’t be a more severe and significant and pressing need than creating housing.”
The new cabinet-level position completes the split of the original Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development into two entities. The Department of Housing and Community Development will fall under Augustus’ purview.
Advocates have already started to pitch Augustus on early priorities they think he should focus on, including zoning reforms and creating an Office of Fair Housing.
Sen. Lydia Edwards, an East Boston Democrat who co-chairs the Legislature’s Housing Committee, said the audit of state land is a good move and should remain a priority during the first few months.
The lawmaker also pointed to a need to efficiently process applications for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program, which provides eligible low-income families and individuals with tenant and project-based rental subsidies.
“We learned that there’s about 1,300 applications for MRVP, that’s the state voucher, a month. And you can email it or mail it physically,” Edwards said. “And when it’s emailed, it’s then printed out, and then the data is entered into a system. That’s a real easy fix, right? Just make the damn thing electronic completely.”
The Healey administration said Augustus will work with everyone in the housing industry, including landlords.
Doug Quattrochi, the head of MassLandlords, said Augustus should push Massachusetts towards becoming a “multifamily as a right” state.”
“It just means the state recognizes it no longer has a compelling interest in telling landlords, property owners, homeowners, how many different groups of people can live in their building, as long as it’s safe,” he told the Herald. “I don’t think Augustus is really going to work on that at all. I mean, that’s not his track record in Worcester. Worcester, most of its single-family still in terms of land area.”