Governor Maura Healey visited the Housing Assistance Corporation in Hyannis on Thursday to promote her administration's first Capital Investment Plan, which allocates $14 billion to target issues of transportation, climate change, and housing projects, among other pressing needs.
“I don’t want to see people leave Massachusetts because they can't afford to live here. I want them to be able to live here, to grow families here, to grow old here," she said, while standing in front of 100 drawings made by local children that depict the meaning of home.
Healey specifically touted her new $97 million HousingWorks initiative, which, she said, will help create 200 to 300 affordable housing units each year for the next five years that the plan is in action.
HousingWorks will offer subsidies to cities and town that provide plans to develop new low-to-moderate-income housing, and follow best zoning practices. They'll focus on transit-oriented housing projects.
The spending plan also incentivizes community projects that preserve and rehabilitate the state’s aging affordable housing stock.
The housing crisis is a top priority, Healey said, and recognized particular challenges faced by Cape Codders.
“I know a lot of people who grew up as kids on the Cape who can't afford to be here,” she said. “I know what that means, when you think about looking after aging parents, when you think about trying to build a career, a family.”
In addition to housing, the spending plan provides $1.4 billion for transportation projects, $1.6 billion for decarbonization projects, and several hundred million dollars to expand local libraries, invest in the life sciences field, and build new veterans homes in Chelsea and Holyoke.
Following through on an earlier promise, the plan also pledges $262 million towards beginning reconstruction of the Bourne and Sagamore bridges.
After Healey spoke, Alisa Magnotta, CEO of HAC, said it’ll take courage, community, and cash to take on the region’s housing crisis.
“Thank you, Governor ... for your courage,” she said, “and your cash.”
The governor’s five-year Capital Investment Plan is updated yearly and does not require approval from the Legislature.
