So much of the pushback to new housing is rooted in fears of change to "neighborhood character." Few in the public seem to realize, or possibly care, that by spending the better part of the past 60-years preventing our housing supply from keeping up with our region's growing population and economy, we're actually destroying the "neighborhood character" people claim to be fighting to protect. Neighborhood character isn't homes, it isn't buildings, it's small business owners, it's municipal officials, it's teachers, its firefighters, it's entrepreneurs and doctors and innovators, it's people, it's the people that live in the buildings in our communities.
By 2030, 21% of Massachusetts Residents Will Be 65+, Up From 14% In 2010. In communities like Marblehead, that have largely resisted any new housing construction and seen their population shrink in the past 20 years, the median age has gone from 41 to 48 and rising. By freezing our housing supply, many communities have also frozen our communities, but not frozen the world.
People continue to age, and demands that come with that aging population change as well. We want to allow people to age in community and to age with dignity but decades of opposition are going to prevent our communities from being able to support these rapidly aging populations. Will your family and children be able to live close by? Do you have the opportunity to downsize out of a big home if your health deteriorates? When you get older, where will those people you may rely on to sustain your daily life live?
By resisting "change," in the name of preserving 'community character' we've forced a change on our communities that will eventually be responsible for destroying them. A struggle to provide stable housing options. A struggle to increase the tax base without forcing more of the growing cost burdens of running a town to fall on a stagnant population. A decimation of local school systems losing state and federal school funding as towns age and the student population decreases. It's setting our communities up to fall off a cliff in a few years. It's not too late to change our ways, but we have to shift public perception of housing production and fast, to allow policy changes necessary to produce the housing we need to begin to have an impact on our region.