We need to provide housing opportunities to ensure that teachers, firefighters and our children can afford to live in the communities where they grew up. Our legislative package will go a long way toward solving the overall demand for housing in the state. In his State of the State Address delivered last month, Cellucci made easing the housing crunch in the Commonwealth a major Administration priority. Today, Cellucci and Swift filed a proposal to increase and speed up housing construction by freeing up nearly 1,000 acres of underutilized state property.
Current law requires special legislation to develop any surplus state property.
Currently, there are 17 sites across the state with a total of 982 acres available for housing construction. In addition, the Administration announced a bill to address the cost of new development to cities and towns. Growing school and town budgets often cause many communities to resist the construction of new housing. Lastly, Cellucci and Swift moved to level the playing field between small landlords and tenants to protect the existing rental housing in Massachusetts. Currently, a tenant can withhold rent in disputes with landlords over reported code violations.