Gov. Maura Healey released a “comprehensive housing plan” Thursday morning, outlining strategies to lower costs and build 220,000 new units over the next decade to mitigate the state’s ongoing housing crisis.
“This is the first time this kind of comprehensive statewide planning for housing has ever been done in Massachusetts history,” Healey said Thursday morning. “We’re very, very serious about building more housing, and this kind of plan and report is absolutely central to us being able to build.”
The plan, titled “A Home for Everyone: Massachusetts’ Statewide Housing Plan,” provides an analysis of the states housing needs — noting every region in Massachusetts requires more housing — and strategies to create more housing and keep families in homes.
The plan was developed with the Housing Advisory Council, which Healey formed by executive order in August. At the same time, the governor signed a $5.2 billion housing bond bill, the Affordable Homes Act, which invested in the construction and preservation of 65,000 housing units, updated zoning law and took other steps aimed to address affordability and the state’s shortage.
The plan released Thursday calls for a 7% increase in housing units statewide by 2035, or 220,000 homes.
“At the root of our challenge with the costs is a shortage of homes,” Healey said. “And it’s a shortage, as I say, that has built up over many years, as our state was not building the housing that we needed to keep pace with our economic growth.”
Massachusetts has built an average of “19,000 units per year from 2010 to 2020, but only 11,600
homes were issued building permits in 2023,” the released housing plan notes, citing barriers to construction to address. Across the state, the share of homes available for sale or rent is 1.6%, “a historically low vacancy rate,” the plan states.
Strategies outlined in the release include protecting, preserving and restoring affordable homes; providing direct subsidies and increasing access to homeownership for first-time homebuyers; preventing evictions and foreclosures; and working with employers on workforce housing needs.
State officials noted the plan included input from 3,000 people and 14 regional listening sessions over the last year.
Greater Boston Real Estate Board (GBREB) leadership called the plan a “necessary reminder that state and local leaders must prioritize reducing red tape to incentivize housing creation across all price points.”
“The most well-intentioned policies, like a sales tax on real estate designed to create housing, will inevitably drive up costs and become a barrier to affordability in the long run,” said GBREB CEO Greg Vasil.
Healey noted federal threats to housing Thursday, citing both potential increased supply costs resulting from increased tariffs and the recent threat of a federal funding freeze, and said she would “be prepared to take on whatever we can take on to address what happens on the federal level.”
State officials said a “full digital version of the plan will be launched in the spring and will include an interactive resource center and production tracking guide.”