Is this the fix for Massachusetts’ housing crisis?

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It’s become common to see housing in the US described as a crisis. Across much of the country — including in Massachusetts and Greater Boston — the cost of renting, buying, and building apartments, condos, and houses has risen and the supply of available housing has fallen.

But in recent years, advocates for more housing at lower cost have seen a shift. “ There’s so many more people speaking up,” said Rachel Heller, who leads the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, a Boston-based nonprofit. The result, Heller said, has been a new willingness from lawmakers, businesses, and communities in Massachusetts to act.

Change has happened at both the state and local levels. Legislators on Beacon Hill have passed new laws, communities have changed zoning rules, and developers have moved to convert underused buildings. The issue’s political profile has risen, too, with housing affordability already generating headlines in this year’s mayoral election in Boston.

Today’s newsletter explains what Massachusetts is doing to make housing more plentiful and less costly — and the limits of those efforts so far.

More, more, more

Communities across the state have taken steps to expand the housing supply. The MBTA Communities Act, which Governor Charlie Baker signed into law in 2021, requires cities and towns served by public transit to revise their zoning rules to make it easier to create more multifamily housing. Of the 177 communities required to make changes, most have already moved to do so. As a result, Governor Maura Healey’s administration says, more than 3,000 new homes “are already in the pipeline” to be built.

Accessory dwelling units, known as “granny flats,” are another recent change. A provision in the Affordable Homes Act, which passed last year, legalized ADUs in single-family zoning districts statewide, allowing for more multigenerational living on one plot. One study estimates that the provision, which took effect this month, will generate up to 10,000 new dwellings over the next five years. The law also funded affordable housing and repair work for decades-old public housing units.

Some local communities have gone further. The Cambridge City Council voted this month to end single-family zoning, enabling six-story buildings to be built across the city. The change, among the most ambitious rezoning rules in the country, is expected to generate more than 3,500 homes over the next 15 years.

Developers have also taken new steps. Some have proposed renovating vacant schools, university buildings, and downtown office high-rises into housing. Currently, 760 units are planned.

Cutting costs

Some communities are also moving to lower housing costs.

In December, Boston launched a fund meant to help local nonprofits buy apartment buildings and rent them to lower-income tenants. The fund supplements existing programs that help low-income families with down payments and closing costs. Last week, the city council approved making Boston the first municipality to opt into a state program that offers tax breaks to landlords who choose to keep rents affordable.

More expensive construction materials and higher interest rates have also made it costlier for developers to build new homes. The Affordable Homes Act includes a $50 million fund to jump-start construction on thousands of projects paused because of financial challenges.

The big picture

These changes are important steps, experts say, but they are probably not enough.

Governor Healey has set a goal of 222,000 new homes in the state over the next decade. Meeting it would require significantly increasing the number of homes the state permits each year, which was less than 12,000 in 2023. If you’ve been doing the math, you can already see that it doesn’t add up.

“Those policies will certainly make a dent,” my colleague Andrew Brinker, who covers housing, told me. “But not a huge one.”

One reason is that policy changes can take time to take effect. Another is local opposition. Last year, Milton voters rejected a zoning plan that would have allowed new apartments and condos to be built there, testing the Healey administration’s appetite to enforce the MBTA Communities law; last month, Needham voters did the same. Other communities have drafted zoning rules that discourage new construction. All of these efforts mean that the law, which advocates hoped would create hundreds of thousands of new homes by 2035, could yield as few as 20,000. A recent court ruling could also slow its implementation.

Closing the housing gap will likely require other changes, advocates say. Some suggest eliminating parking lot size requirements or allowing triplexes, quadplexes, or townhomes by right on lots. And still other measures may be needed to address adjacent problems, like rising rates of homelessness.

As Heller puts it, “There’s been a lot of good policies that have been put in place over the last few years. And we need more.”

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🧩 9 Across: Leak slowly | 🌤️ 27º Partly sunny

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Boston and Massachusetts

• Accusation: A Norfolk Superior Court judge abruptly ended a hearing in the Karen Read case yesterday after prosecutors claimed her lawyers paid expert witnesses who were supposed to be independent.
• ‘We have no voice’: The Boston City Council is once again pushing to make the School Committee an elected body.
• Tug of war: In a Boston courtroom, ICE and local prosecutors are fighting over whether to convict or deport an undocumented man accused of rape.
• Inside successor: Boston College chose the Rev. John T. “Jack” Butler, S.J., as its next president.
• Trouble at Fenway? Rafael Devers doesn’t want to move from third base even though the Red Sox just signed an All-Star corner infielder in Alex Bregman. Now his teammates are weighing in.

New England

The Trump administration

• Backwards: Trump criticized President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine after US and Russian officials met to talk about ending the war, falsely accusing Zelensky of having “started it.” (CNN)
• No emergency … yet: A judge declined to immediately stop Elon Musk and his DOGE staff from accessing federal data or firing government workers, but said that Massachusetts and 13 other states’ case against Musk’s status is “strong.” (CNN)
• Justice departure: A top federal prosecutor quit after refusing to launch what she called a politically driven investigation into Biden-era climate spending. (The Guardian)
• Cabinet makers: Senate Republicans confirmed Howard Lutnick, a billionaire investor who has defended Trump’s tariff agenda, to be commerce secretary. (WSJ)
• Downer: Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plan to investigate what they call the “threat” of prescribing antidepressants, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs to children. (USA Today)

Nation and World

• Gaza hostages: Hamas said it would release the bodies of four dead hostages, including infant and toddler siblings, tomorrow. (CNN) Six captives who are still alive will be freed on Saturday. (Jerusalem Post)
• Not guilty: A jury in Los Angeles acquitted the rapper A$AP Rocky in the 2021 shooting of his former friend. (Pitchfork)
• Zizian update: The police arrested three members of a cult-like Bay Area fringe group after they allegedly trespassed in Maryland. One of them had a loaded gun.
• Walk the walk: About 40 percent of Americans — mostly Democrats, Black shoppers, and Gen Zers — refuse to patronize certain businesses because of their political stances. (Axios)
• Checkup: Pope Francis has pneumonia in both lungs, the Vatican said, and he remains hospitalized “in good spirits.” (Vatican News)

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🚲 Bike fight: Bring up bike lanes in Boston and watch the arguments explode. Which led the Globe’s Beth Teitell to ask: Who has the right to public space?

🖍️ Sketchy royals: Kensington Palace released four portraits drawn by Catherine, Princess of Wales, and her three children. You have to guess who drew which. (BBC)

⚠️ America’s deadliest workplace: Why didn’t safety regulators shut it down? (WashPost)

👮 Step by step: Boston native Donnie Wahlberg, actor and New Kids on the Block alum, is returning to the “Blue Bloods” franchise for a spinoff set here.

👰 The Big Day: By their second date, they each knew the other was “the one.”

🏠 Trading spaces: Would you ever swap your home? More and more people are saying, “Mais bien sûr!” (CNN Travel)

🍸 No more vodka shots: As women age, they can’t hold their liquor nearly as well as when they were younger. The culprit could be menopause. (HuffPost)

📚 Read this: The US used to be able to do big things. A new book explains why it’s struggling now.

🖐️ Are fingerprints really unique? Here’s a video guide to how to read those black smudges. (Vox YouTube)

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Ian Prasad Philbrick can be reached at ian.philbrick@globe.com.