Declining population and access to funding: Event explores housing in rural Mass.
GREENFIELD — The way the state has historically doled out funding to support housing projects in Massachusetts is inequitable, said Linda Dunlavy, executive director of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments.
Dunlavy spoke at an event Monday — attended by State Housing Secretary Ed Augustus and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll — that explored the challenges rural areas of the state face when it comes to housing.
Franklin County, made up of 26 communities, is facing a 3,000-unit shortfall to meet the demand for affordable housing, according to the statewide housing needs assessment. This year, a report from the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities determined there is a shortage of about 220,000 units needed to meet the demand across the state.
Hampshire and Hampden counties need more than 40,000 units .
"Since COVID, our housing prices have gone up, but our incomes have not," said Dunlavy. "We have now a $200,000 gap between our median home price and what is affordable for our median income."
Franklin County, the most rural county in Massachusetts, is expected to experience a population loss over the next two decades, she said.
"Despite the projection of declining population, we have a need for more housing units because household sizes are getting smaller," she said. "To serve sustainable communities, we need to proactively create housing."
Last year, Gov. Maura Healey signed the Affordable Homes Act, the state's biggest investment into housing in its history. Augustus, the state's housing secretary, said many of the programs passed through the legislation are still being rolled out.
It's important, he said, to "find the right balance between protecting our environment and making housing easier, (of) which we need to do both."
"It's not an 'either/or,' it's 'both/and,' and so, we're looking at ways that we can ... streamline those processes," he said.
Franklin County faces barriers to housing development, Dunlavy said: low rents and sale prices compared to construction costs; limited public infrastructure, including public water and sewer systems; and the lack of local revenue and inaccessibility to state funding.
In addition, the county does not qualify for many state programs that support housing projects, including funding through the Housing Choice Initiative, the MBTA Communities Act , and the MBTA Catalyst fund.
"I believe one of the biggest issues is our inventory problem," said state Rep. Susannah Whipps, an independent from Athol. Whipps said the people who want to live locally can't afford to do so.
Young families moving to Western Massachusetts "would address our declining enrollment in our schools and our workforce challenges, but there's nowhere for these seniors to go to open up those homes," she said.
Each region in Western Massachusetts faces its own "unique set of challenges," Driscoll said.
The state said its departments will work with local stakeholders and community members to ensure that needs are met across the four counties in Western Massachusetts.
"Successful solutions that we're going to come up with come from the bottom up," said state Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Sunderland, at the roundtable discussion. "That is what is important about having so many people in this room together today."
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