Advocates Are Aiming For Healey To Issue An Executive Order on Assistance
Homeowners clamoring for state help as they deal with the hefty costs of fixing their crumbling foundations, which could eventually render their houses unlivable, called on Gov. Maura Healey Wednesday to wield her executive power to kickstart a potential solution.
Advocates with Massachusetts Residents Against Crumbling Foundations say they want Healey to issue an executive order to create a committee to develop recommendations on providing assistance for those dealing with crumbling concrete woes. Those recommendations could form the basis for legislation on a relief plan and account, which advocates say would help people who are on the hook for hundreds of thousands dollars in repair or replacement costs for their deteriorating home foundations, caused by pyrite or pyrrhotite minerals.
“We are asking for the ability to form a committee to start a captive insurance plan or start a plan that would allow us to get assistance to fix these foundations. We are mirroring a plan that’s already in place and working in the state of Connecticut — they’ve replaced over 1,000 homes,” said Cynthia Poirier, an assessor in Brimfield and Holland. “They use a $1 a month surcharge on homeowners’ polices, no more than $12 a year. The first year alone, if we were able to put that together in Massachusetts, we’d raise close to $22 million.”
A Healey spokesperson did not directly answer a News Service question about whether the governor is willing to issue an executive order sought by advocates.
“The Healey-Driscoll Administration recognizes the importance of providing support to homeowners whose concrete foundations are crumbling,” Healey spokesperson Karissa Hand said. “We will continue to work together with our partners in the Legislature to evaluate potential solutions that would provide relief to homeowners.”
Financial relief proposals have failed to gain momentum on Beacon Hill, despite persistent lobbying from affected homeowners.
The Senate, in its affordable housing bond bill, unanimously adopted an amendment that would have created a crumbling concrete working group and relief fund. The policy did not survive closed-door conference committee negotiations. Amendment sponsors, including Sens. Peter Durant, Ryan Fattman, Michael Moore and Jake Oliveira, joined with advocates outside the State House Wednesday morning.
Advocates say more than 40 municipalities are affected by what they call the “crumbling foundation crisis” that stymies affected homeowners from selling or refinancing their houses.
“My position is we have enough money to spend on so many other things and support so many other people, but we need to support the people that have been paying taxes in all of these towns, with these homes that are no fault of their own,” Monson Select Board member Peter Warren said. “And they’re not getting any support.”
