Our View: The cost of housing leaves some in despair
Editorial Board of the Gloucester Daily Times | February 10, 2025
One would have to be heartless not to be moved by Alyssa Craigen’s story.
The single mother has been forced to move 12 times in 14 years as she searches for stable housing for her family. And another unwanted change is lurking around the corner.
“I am living in Essex currently with my three children and I have to move again,” Craigen told Gloucester Daily Times reporter Stephen Hagan. “I cannot afford the rent. Of course, by now I figured I would be in some sort of housing situation. It’s awful. It’s the worst. I can’t move forward because there’s always the black cloud of what’s next.”
What’s next is awfully expensive. Craigen, who works as a hairdresser, estimates she needs about $10,000 for first and last month’s rent and a security deposit before she can move into a new place. It’s money she doesn’t have.
Not many people do. (And if you have $10,000 stashed away, chances are housing isn’t a worry at the moment.)
“If you are a person who lives on a modest income, you still need thousands to find a place,” said Gloucester housing advocate Sunny Robinson. “The waiting lists are very long. Every time you enter the housing market, you have the same set of obstacles.”
Those obstacles were put in stark relief last week when the Healey administration reported that the state needs to add 220,000 new homes over the next decade to meet demand.
The Healey report identified the Merrimack Valley as having the biggest housing gap in the state, requiring a more than 10% increase in housing stock to keep up with future demand. Coming in a close second was the North Shore, which according to the report needs a 7.5% to 10% boost in stock to meet the rising need.
At this point, no one should be surprised at the news. The real question is what we are willing to do about it.
“It’s honestly hard to see how we can attain (220,000 units by 2035) without major changes in both policy and the amount of funding we’re dedicating to housing,” Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, told The Boston Globe. “If we produce at the rate we did last year, we’ll fall very far short. It’s a big goal, and it’s going to require taking a hard look in the mirror, and probably making some big policy choices that are painful for some folks.”
We have been down this road before, of course. Healey’s predecessor, Republican Charlie Baker, spent the better part of his last term ushering a sweeping housing reform package through the Legislature.
A key element of that package — the MBTA Communities Act — requires that the 177 communities served by the T adjust their zoning to make it easier to build much-needed multifamily housing.
It’s a smart measure that has unfortunately been met with backlash in some communities, including Gloucester, where NIMBYs have forced a referendum vote on the measure. Such opposition is selfish and shortsighted and only serves to hurt people like Craigen, who are struggling to find an affordable place to live.
“I literally don’t have anywhere to go,” Craigen said. “As you can imagine, I am quite stressed and worried about what is to come next. Homelessness is not out of the question in the near future for me and my family.
“I can’t afford $3,000 or $4,000 rents,” she said. “I know a lot of single parents are in the same situation. I don’t want to be homeless at all.”