If Boston’s lease management proposal makes it by the state Legislature, it might have a great shot at being signed into regulation, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll hinted on WBZ-TV’s Keller at Large phase Sunday morning — however she made no ensures.
“I definitely want to be clear that we are supporting our local communities as they come through with housing strategies and ideas,” Driscoll stated. “And we also know it’s got a process to get through. We don’t know what it’s going to look like finally, so it’s hard to say 100% we’re gonna be all in.”
The feedback observe the Boston City Council’s passage of Mayor Michelle Wu’s lease stabilization proposal on Wednesday. The invoice — which caps year-over-year lease hikes at 6% plus inflation, to a max of 10% — will face a difficult trek by the Legislature after Wu indicators it.
The lieutenant governor’s feedback additionally addressed an analogous proposal not too long ago put forth in Somerville. The metropolis council president there moved to start out work on lease management laws Monday and has signaled an intention to ship proposal to the Legislature by subsequent fall.
In the midst of the state’s “full-on housing crisis,” Driscoll stated, the administration is absolutely seeking to companion with native communities and “make sure they have the tools they need.”
Driscoll added the administtration can also be seeking to handle the issue on a state-wide scale with broad investments in housing manufacturing, the brand new housing secretary place and the Housing Choice initiative — 2021 laws incentivizing municipalities to regulate zoning to create a “diverse housing stock.”
“We have 200,000 (housing) units that were short in Massachusetts — we’re not going to tackle this issue unless we produce a lot more housing,” Driscoll stated. “So that’s our that’s our main focus right now.”
Asked about guaranteeing housing progress by taking extra state management of zoning or passing measures to override native votes, the lieutenant governor stated the younger administration is just not seeking to “come in and bigfoot” cities and cities from the get go.
“City leaders are smart,” Driscoll stated. “They know their communities are struggling to meet their housing demands, and that’s hurting constituents. So right now we’re focused on tools that can get the job done in terms of creating new housing and working with local governments.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”