WORCESTER, Mass. - The demand for housing in Massachusetts keeps growing, and the Lieutenant Governor says the state is way behind.

"We need so much more housing here in the Commonwealth," Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said Tuesday. "Hundreds of thousands of units of housing to meet the demand and make it more accessible not just for people who live here today, but for next generations." 

What You Need To Know

  • Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito says the state needs hundreds of thousands of housing units in order to meet demand
  • Massachusetts received roughly $5 billion in funds from the American Rescue Plan, $1 billion of which is planned to go towards housing efforts
  • Acording to the state's Housing and Economic Development Secretary, there are about 175 housing projects on line as of Tuesday.

Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy says the state received around $5 billion in funds from the American Rescue Plan. It's money the Commonwealth will use to address the housing shortage.

"The Governor has proposed to spend a billion dollars of that on housing," Kennealy said. "We've been in the middle of a housing crisis now for a generation in Massachusetts. We'd like to spend half a billion dollars of that on home-ownership opportunities, half on the production of affordable rental housing."

Kennealy says help is on the way though.

"About 175 projects like (the Courthouse Lofts) are in our pipeline today," Kennealy said.

But the need goes beyond just housing. Creating affordable places to live is the key. The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports 30% of renter households in Massachusetts are extremely low income.

Projects like the new Courthouse Lofts in Downtown Worcester are looking at the issue.

"We've got 118 new families living here at all incomes," said Michael Lozano, Vice President of Development for Trinity Financial.

Polito hopes the courthouse can be a model for the rest of the Commonwealth. 

"We just need more, right," Polito said. "And we have a one time opportunity with the ARPA dollars, the federal rescue dollars, to really put projects like this on an accelerated track."