Lt. Gov., Cape Senator Promote Affordable Home Act

HARWICH – “Massachusetts is the best place to live in this country, according to WalletHub. There’s a lot we do well,” Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said during the One Cape Summit event put on by the Cape Cod Commission at Wychmere Beach Club last week.

 Housing, however, isn’t one of those things.

“Massachusetts is a great place to live if you can afford it,” she added. “Everywhere we go, what we hear is housing.” Making housing more affordable is “our economic imperative,” she said. “It’s a way of life imperative.”

Housing is central to the economy of Massachusetts and the creation of jobs, she stressed.

 Gov. Maura Healey signed the Affordable Home Act into law in early August establishing new policies to support the production and preservation of affordable housing. The act provides $5.16 million over the next five years for affordable housing initiatives.

Driscoll and Cape and Island Senator Julian Cyr, D-Truro, highlighted the provisions of the act, focusing on benefits that will impact Cape Cod. 

The act relaxes accessory dwelling provisions, allowing units under 900 square feet by right on single-family lots. Units can be attached, detached, located in a basement or attic of single-family homes or as a cottage in the backyard. The new policy replaces a patchwork of zoning regulations with a uniform law that allows homeowners to add units without a special permit or variance unless adding more than one. 

Driscoll said Massachusetts has never had a housing production plan; it has always been left to towns to create individual plans. The act establishes an Office of Fair Housing and Fair Housing Trust Fund and mandates the creation of a state-wide housing plan. Driscoll said the plan will look at where and how housing needs will grow and will track housing growth in the state on an annual basis. The plan should be completed by the end of the year, she said.

Of particular interest on Cape Cod is the seasonal community designation, which allows preferences for housing seasonal community workers. The designation is the first step in developing tools for communities with a substantial variation in housing needs due to seasonal employment and population fluctuations. The framework for the tools will be developed by a Seasonal Communities Council created by the act.

Cyr said in his eight years serving as a senator, housing has been the major issue. When he was first elected, the median housing cost on the Cape was $350,000; it is now close to $900,000, a 150 percent increase. Cyr said 1,000 families a year are leaving the Cape and there is no longer a sustainable workforce.

There are 50 unique housing initiatives in the act, said Cyr. The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities will establish an office under the seasonal communities designation that will provide technical assistance on housing to towns on the Cape and elsewhere with the designation, which will be assigned to municipalities where 35 percent or more of housing is owned by second homeowners. All of Barnstable County could qualify, Cyr said. The towns from Provincetown to Dennis “are certainly seasonal communities and will have access to this assistance,” he said. 

 Cyr said there needs to be a major focus on year-round housing, including subsidizing housing for working class families who don’t own homes. Under the act, year-round housing trust funds can be established by a vote of the select board. He said payments can be made to homeowners to provide a deed restriction requiring the property to be sold to year-round residents to try to boost the year-round housing market. 

 “Housing is the number one issue in Massachusetts and we need to reject opposition to housing. It harms the continuity of our way of life,” said Cyr.

 “Our role is uplifting and empowering what is happening on the local level. You have an ally and a partner in the state,” said Driscoll.