New Poll Highlights Housing As Most Pressing Political Issue
A University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB poll released Monday morning found that housing was the most-mentioned issue when respondents were asked what is the most important issue facing the state.
Given the chance to name one issue they would like Gov. Maura Healey and the Legislature to tackle in the next year, 34 percent of those polled pointed to the state’s “housing shortage and affordability” problem. And residents seem open to any number of ways to address the problem — all six policy proposals polled won the support of a majority of respondents.
The five-year, $4.12 billion housing bond bill (H 4138) she filed in the fall seeking to kickstart production of new housing units has been redrafted by the House Ways and Means Committee and is being teed up for debate Wednesday.
Home sales across Massachusetts sank to a 12-year low in 2023 and housing here is inaccessible or unaffordable for many residents. Gov. Maura Healey last year identified housing as “the number-one issue facing this state” and said there is a shortage of 200,000 units across the state that must be closed to keep up with population growth and stem the loss of talented workers.
“With unified government now a reality in the Bay State and overwhelming support across demographic and political groups for the governor and Legislature to deal with this crisis, voters likely expect movement on this issue as soon as possible. While failure to address the housing conundrum may not have electoral consequences in the 2024 election, if the problem persists, expect the housing crisis to be used as the rationale to ‘throw the bums out’ in 2026 and beyond,” Tatishe Nteta, provost professor of political science at UMass Amherst and director of the poll, said. He added that the poll results reiterating the importance of housing were “no surprise.”
The housing policy idea that got the greater support (73 percent strongly or somewhat support) was providing tax breaks to developers to convert empty office buildings into housing, something Healey included in her bill. The second-most supported policy was one that Healey did not propose: allowing local governments to limit annual rent increases (72 percent strongly or somewhat support).
Residents also support allowing accessory dwelling units by right in single-family zoning districts (66 percent strongly or somewhat), tax breaks for developers who will build more low-income housing (66 percent strongly or somewhat) and allowing cities and towns to tax real estate transactions valued at more than $1 million to raise money for local affordable housing (62 percent strongly or somewhat).
