Secretary Ed Augustus Reflects Proactively on Housing in Massachusetts and Greater Gardner MA
Gardner Magazine Publisher Werner Poegel spoke with Ed Augustus, Secretary for Housing and Livable Communities for the State of Massachusetts. We spoke about housing issues including the proposed Affordable Homes Act. Listen to the interview on any device. CLICK PLAY.
Secretary Augustus explained that Massachusetts is the only state with a large portfolio of state-owned public housing, over 43,000 units. The bill would fund much needed updates to roofs, windows, heating systems etc. to “make those units attractive, healthy, and really dignified.” The bill has several components intended to increase the amount of affordable housing in the state.
We spoke about the possibility of Tiny Houses for the homeless, accessory dwelling units, affordable housing, and even touched on how the reality of Climate Change will affect building in the future because it’s “not, you know, 100 years off, it is in front of us today, and we need to act with some sense of urgency.” He also stated, “Governor Healey has appointed the first climate chief in the country, and she’s been very focused on, you know, really putting together some new policies and plans to make sure that we’re really thinking about how to build redundant resiliency into projects that we’re funding.”
The Secretary explained Accessory Dwelling Units (ACUs) which would be allowed by right. “Accessory Dwelling Units can be a number of things. They could be a space above a garage, they could be a walkout basement, they could be an attic, or they could be a standalone building if you have a big enough, you know, plot of land that your home sits on or a tiny home. And this, we think, is a very, you know, quick way to create a large number of units. We estimate that just that policy change alone could create between 8 and 10,000 units over the first five years across Massachusetts. And the good news about that is it’s no cost to the Commonwealth. Those are costs that individual property owners, if they decided to build one of these ADUs, would take on themselves.“
It’s Possible: Gardner Could Have First Tiny House Village for Homeless in MA
According to the Secretary, the City of Gardner could allow a Tiny House village for the homeless with a Zoning Change and it might actually get grant funding, “You know, we’d have to look at the proposal and see how it fits, but we do have various parts of funding that do support everything from supportive housing for formerly homeless individuals that can be part of the solution to ending homelessness in a particular community. And we do have pots of money that could be available to fund those types of things. So I think it’s plausible. We haven’t seen something yet anywhere in Massachusetts along those lines, so we’d have to look at the particulars. But I think at a high level, the theory of a tiny homes village that is designed to meet the needs of the homeless population of the area, you know, would be something that potentially could receive some funding from existing programs that we have.”
Significant Praise for the City of Gardner and its Shared Vision
Secretary Augustus was impressed on his last visit to the City of Gardner stating in this interview, “Everybody was kind of coordinated and pulling in the same direction. Just my experience from Worcester, I know what a difference that makes. If everybody’s got a shared vision, moving in the same direction, it makes it so much easier to get things done. The mayor has really crafted that strategy, and he showed me, I think it was six or seven different projects that they had in the pipeline that they were hoping to get funded over the next couple of years to bring more housing of different types to Gardner. So I was just impressed. They knew what they wanted to do. They knew where they wanted to do it.They knew what programs that they needed to take advantage of for that, and they were very proactive in asking me to come out and educate myself about what their plan was and how we could help. I think having a plan, working together as a cohesive unit, and then really bringing in all the partners that you need to make it happen, and Gardner’s checked all those boxes.”