In October 2023, Gov. Maura Healey introduced a “$4 billion plan to jump-start the production of homes and make housing more affordable.” Her bill, H. 4138, titled the Affordable Homes Act, was touted as “the largest proposed investment in housing in the state’s history.”

“The cost of housing is the biggest challenge facing the people of Massachusetts,” the governor said. An “infusion of new homes would lower costs” and “achieve a healthy vacancy rate.”

Healey’s bill creates a program of home modification loans or grants for homeowners or tenants with blindness or severe disabilities, and for building an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), defined as “an additional dwelling unit separate from the primary dwelling unit, for a person with disabilities or an elder needing assistance with activities of daily living.”

A few weeks after the governor’s bill was released, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies released a report called “ADUs: Lessons for Massachusetts,” which concluded that “most (but not all) of the [Massachusetts] cities and towns continue to greatly restrict the construction of ADUs.” The Harvard “lesson” was: “Policymakers must decide whether to pursue a more ambitious and politically controversial ‘comprehensive’ approach that also limits localities’ ability to impose restrictions on occupancy.” That’s exactly what the state Senate has done.

On a voice vote, lawmakers rejected an amendment that would have required ADUs to be “owner-occupied.” The Senate also agreed to force all cities and towns in Massachusetts to allow ADUs “as of right,” with no special permit required. Many western Massachusetts towns will now have to rewrite their zoning bylaws to comply with this “politically controversial” state mandate.

There are three kinds of ADUs in most local zoning bylaws: 1) within a house, 2) attached to a house, and 3) detached from the house. Since May 2020, Greenfield’s zoning ordinance has required a special permit — but only for detached ADUs. Within, or attached ADUs, are allowed “as of right.” But at least one of the dwelling units must continue to be occupied by the owner as their primary residence. A main selling point was helping families age in place by allowing the addition of an “in-law apartment.”

Healey’s legislation seeks to create more than 8,000 ADUs over five years. The bill throws mama from the train: “The use of land or structures for an accessory dwelling unit shall not require owner-occupancy of either the accessory dwelling unit or the principal dwelling.”

Communities will be able to prohibit the use of ADUs for short-term rentals, but neighbors will lose their right to appeal a special permit in court because special permits are gone. Ironically, these bills place this new “by right” mandate into Chapter 40A, Sec. 3 — the same statute that forces battery energy storage systems everywhere.

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With “owner-occupied” deleted, the new rules will allow an investor to buy a single-family home, convert it to two or more units, and build an accessory unit in the back or side yard. The landlord gets three rents from their investment, or can flip the parcel for its profit. A single- family-owned house becomes three rental units. Use by elderly and disabled family members is an option, but the owner doesn’t have to occupy any dwelling.

Homeownership is an intergenerational wealth-builder for families. By breaking the family ties for ADUs, no wealth remains to be passed on to heirs, except for the wealthy investor. Single-family homeowners may view their home as a bad investment. What happens to the resale value of a house surrounded on four sides by two-family rentals, with an ADU in each backyard? What happens to tenants when the landlord flips the house, and the new landlord wants you evicted?

The governor says “we’re going to make our state a place where people can afford to move and to stay to build their future.” Low-income families are not going to “build their future” in a 900-square-foot accessory dwelling unit in someone else’s backyard. That’s not the American dream. They need a decent job at a living wage, a low-interest home loan, and a growing piece of equity to call their own.

According to RenoFi.com, a detached 750-square-foot ADU can cost as much as $285,000. This is an investor’s market. Many homeowners may fantasize creating a supplemental income in their backyard but hesitate to take out a second mortgage. We still need to attract families with enough money to buy their own home. We need to build more pathways to homeownership, not rental ADUs that mostly build wealth for landlords.

Al Norman’s Pushback column appears twice monthly on Wednesdays in the Recorder.