SPRINGFIELD — For the state’s housing chief Edward M. Augustus Jr., the $4 billion bond bill winding through Beacon Hill is key to his mission “to create more faster.”
About 5% of housing units would be vacant in a healthy housing ecosystem, Augustus said Thursday at an editorial board meeting at The Republican. These days, only 1.6% of the state’s housing stock is up for sale or rent, creating power imbalances between prospective tenants and landlords and causing residents living in homes that don’t fit their needs to hunker down.