Housing affordability has become one of the biggest challenges facing families, workers, seniors, and young people across the Berkshires. If we want our communities to remain vibrant and economically competitive, we need to ensure people can afford to live here, and actually find an available housing unit.

Across the 1st Berkshire District, we are seeing the impacts of a constrained housing market every day. Rising rents, limited housing inventory, aging housing stock, workforce shortages tied to housing availability, and increasing pressure on local property taxes are affecting communities of every size. Young families are struggling to buy homes, seniors are struggling to remain in their communities, and employers are struggling to attract and retain workers because people cannot find attainable housing close to where they work.

As someone who has worked directly on downtown redevelopment, community development, and local housing initiatives, here is no single solution to this challenge. We need a practical, balanced approach that increases housing production while respecting community character and supporting long-term affordability.

I support policies that encourage the development of mixed-income housing, adaptive reuse of underutilized buildings, downtown housing creation, infrastructure investments that unlock new housing opportunities, and stronger support for first-time homebuyers, seniors, and working families. I also support continued state investment in affordable housing production, housing rehabilitation programs, and local tools that help municipalities proactively address housing needs in a manner aligned with their own community goals and objectives.

Massachusetts has already begun moving aggressively on housing policy through the Affordable Homes Act, expanded housing tax credits, infrastructure investments tied to housing growth, MBTA Communities zoning reform, and increased support for housing production and rehabilitation programs statewide. While some statewide approaches may need flexibility to reflect the realities of rural communities, the overall direction is clear: Massachusetts must build more housing, modernize aging housing stock, and support communities working to address affordability challenges.

For the Berkshires, housing policy must also recognize the realities facing rural and small-city communities. That includes aging infrastructure, misaligned redevelopment costs compared to viable rental rates, workforce housing shortages, and the importance of helping municipalities compete successfully for state funding and development resources to help bring projects of appropriate scale into reality. Here, that means supporting not just large housing projects, but the 2, 3, or 4 unit developments that can make a significant difference in our communities.

Housing policy should not be ideological. It should be focused on practical outcomes: creating more attainable housing options, reducing barriers to development where appropriate, supporting responsible growth, and helping people remain in the communities they love. It should be a matter of government acting thoughtfully, responsively, and in a way that eliminates undue barriers that especially impede less urban areas of the Commonwealth.

As your State Representative, I will work collaboratively with the state, municipalities, housing advocates, developers, nonprofit organizations, and regional partners to ensure the Berkshires have a strong voice in shaping housing policy and securing the resources needed to support long-term affordability and community growth. This is an all-hands-on-deck issue, and one that requires leadership that is willing to listen, learn, and catalyze action at the state level that deepens the public-private activity needed to take on this monumental issue, together.