Newton for Everyone sent the candidates in the Middlesex 11th and 12th district state representative races a questionnaire recently on housing, and now the housing advocacy group has published the candidates’ answers.
The group created a very detailed web page on its site, with drop-down menus for questions and candidates, so you can peruse at your leisure and get to know where the candidates asking for your vote stand when it comes to the housing shortage in Massachusetts.
The page is missing one candidate: Greg Schwartz, former Newtron City Councilor running for the Middlesex 12th seat, who NFE said didn’t complete the questionnaire by the deadline.
[Schwartz was, however, part of a candidates’ forum held by Engine 6 (another housing advocacy group in Newton) that focused on housing and increasing affordable housing supply in the state, and you can listen to Schwartz’s thoughts on housing during his portion of that forum in this video. Schwartz’s portion starts at the 41-minute mark.]
The NFE questionnaire asks eight questions, six of them directly about housing, and you can toggle each question to scroll down each of the candidates’ replies.
There are far too many on there to list here, so have a look.
Housing has become one of the top issues in races across the state as demand has outpaced supply to the point where young adults are leaving the state in search of a more affordable life.
For its part, Newton is set to have more than 2,000 new housing units coming, spread out over several developments across the city, and last year the City Council approved a Village Center Overlay District plan to comply with the MBTA Communities Act.