As Gov. Maura Healey sees it, the housing crisis is the top issue facing Massachusetts. She says the state needs to get to work on building new homes and rehabbing old buildings to help drive down costs for residents.
Sitting down in her State House office for a wide-ranging interview with GBH News, Healey said housing is "going to be the thing I continue to harp on and talk about."
The Democratic governor recently launched a $20 million campaign to end veteran homelessness, and she says she wants to help cities and towns comply with a state law that requires new zoning plans for multi-family housing near public transit. She's also open to making changes to the emergency shelter system that's strained to accommodate an influx of migrant families over the last several months.
"I'm open to reforms because I want the system to better work for families," Healey said. "Also, we can't handle the numbers we're seeing in terms of the new arrivals, so we need to put some guardrails. We need to put some parameters around that."
Housing is far from the only pressing matter on Healey's radar. She talks with Katie Lannan about what comes next after she called for Steward Health Care to leave Massachusetts, her views on the MCAS exam and the ballot question that would remove it as a graduation requirement, and more.
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