Last week, the Joint Committee on Housing met to hear testimony about Governor Healey’s Affordable Homes Act. Speakers were held to 2-minute talks, and the talking went on from 11 AM to 10 PM.

Governor Healey, Lieutenant Governor Driscoll, and Housing Secretary Edward Augustus spoke (in person). As did Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston (by Zoom). They didn’t hold to two minutes. That same week, both the State of the Commonwealth address by Governor Healey and the State of the City address by Mayor Wu had a strong focus on housing this year.

After those — sort of keynote speakers — hundreds of people spoke in support of the package, or in support of or opposition to parts on the package. No one I heard thought the whole thing should be scrapped.

The Affordable Homes Act, like a lot of legislation, is a long, long, long read.126 pages. Even the summary is six pages long.

The sections that were getting the most attention were the sections about the accessory dwelling units (ADUs), the transfer fees, and section 35 about public housing.

What I got a deeper understanding about:

Distinct housing concerns:

52% of the towns and cities in Massachusetts are considered rural. Those municipalities have different housing needs than high priced, eastern, Boston metro area.

Other sections of the state are primarily resort areas. They have upwards of 70% of their housing stock owned by people who don’t live there all year. These second-home areas on the Cape and Islands and in the Berkshires have a year-round population that is having a hard time finding affordable year-round housing. When an Air-BNB can collect a year’s rental income in 46 days, there is a disincentive to rent year-round to the people who live there year-round. This has siphoned off housing from the teachers, medical people, police, and firefighters who serve the town year-round, as well as the people who work in the tourist businesses during tourist season.

Some of the conflict about the transfer fee focused on the one-size-fits-all nature of the proposed guidelines. The transfer fee is designed to create revenue for towns and cities in order to build affordable housing.

The guidelines that are being proposed for a transfer fee look like this:

Local Option Transfer Fee: Allows municipalities and regional affordable housing commissions (e.g., Cape Cod Commission) to adopt a transfer fee of 0.5% – 2.0%, paid by the seller of real property, on the portion of sale proceeds over $1M or the county median home sales price, whichever is greater. Fee used for affordable housing development.

In slightly more than half of the state, homes do not sell for over $1,000,000. Those towns and cities need affordable housing revenue, too. The Act was written with the eastern part of the state in mind, where housing inflation is making million-dollar sales common: Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and a significant part of the Boston suburbs.

Speakers came from the western part of the state to make it clear that they are being left out of any benefit from the proposed transfer fee, as written.

Speakers from the resort regions on the Cape and Islands and the Berkshires said they would benefit from the transfer fee. They spoke about the urgency to pass it. They also support another section of the Affordable Homes Act, which would affect them more directly:

Seasonal Communities Designation: Creates the framework for designating communities with substantial seasonal variations in employment and housing needs, as a critical initial step to developing programs targeting seasonal communities; creates a Seasonal Communities Coordinating Council to provide advice and recommendations to EOHLC regarding regulations governing designation of cities and towns as seasonal communities.

The biggest takeaway is that State-wide solutions need to be broad and flexible if local governments are going to benefit from them. This 4 billion dollar package of housing law will not work unless it benefits all the communities in our state.