8. The extreme shortage of housing affects the economics, health and well-being of all of us. What other policies do you advocate to help address housing needs?

Rick Lipof

We all have to work together to tackle the housing crisis.  Controlling rents by allowing reasonable increases but not excessive increases needs to be considered and debated. Pushing the federal government to support housing nationwide is something I can work on with our DC delegation advocating for grants and low-interest loans.  I would promote the reuse of buildings, converting underutilized or vacant commercial and industrial buildings into residential units (this is in the housing bond bill).  I would advocate for green building incentives.  I would always keep workforce housing in every conversation and solution as it is the missing middle/middle income earners that may not qualify for traditional affordable housing but still struggle with high housing costs.  As a real estate professional, I bring deep knowledge of complex market factors and historical evidence to every conversation on housing.  It’s my profession and my passion. 

Bill Humphrey

Housing stability is key to life stability foundational to health, recovery, employment, educational attainment, and more. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I was the only Councilor to go door-to-door to constituents with leaflets about our emergency rental assistance program. One of our state policy objectives on housing should be to help people stay in their current housing as often as possible, especially because instability ripples across municipal borders. We must reduce foreclosures and evictions, from emergency financial bridges to expanded right to counsel and more. We also need to take a serious state-level look at the issue of rent stabilization local options, again due to the ripple effect across municipal boundaries. Virtually everyone feels there is some upper limit on a reasonable annual increase in monthly rents without property upgrades, even if not everyone agrees on how high that is, and we should have that conversation as a commonwealth.

Amy Mah Sangiolo

Housing is a human right and everyone should have access to safe, accessible, and affordable housing. I support and will advocate for the following: increasing funding for wrap-around programs and services to help tenants stay housed; giving cities and towns the ability to adopt rent control or other measures to stabilize rents; municipal housing vouchers; stronger tenant protections, including the right to counsel and eviction sealing; and requiring mediation prior to foreclosure. In addition, I support publicly funded social housing and community land trusts.

Alex Jablon

I support implementing real estate transfer fees, supporting community land trusts, and making the most of the land we have, especially in eastern MA. There is so much to be done, all I want is that anyone that wants to live here should be able to afford to do so. We are in a crisis here in the commonwealth, and the time to act is now.