Under the sweltering sun outside the State House May 27, a large crowd of pro-housing advocates gathered on the front steps of Beacon Hill to urge lawmakers to pass zoning reforms aimed at accelerating housing production across the state.
But even at a rally centered on a statewide housing crisis, Marblehead repeatedly found itself at the center of the conversation.
And one resident, in particular, had become something of a celebrity.
David Modica, whose remarks at Town Meeting in May went viral online, drew some of the loudest reactions of the afternoon when he took the microphone to close out the rally.
Dressed in a Hawaiian overshirt with the same headphones slung around his neck that appeared in the viral Town Meeting video, Modica was repeatedly approached by attendees who told him they had watched his comments online.
One sign held above the crowd read: “Let’s not be pricks!” — a direct reference to the line from his Town Meeting remarks that has since spread widely across social media and housing advocacy circles across the state and country.
Modica, whose brief comments catapulted him into statewide housing discourse, now stood alongside statewide political leaders including Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, Sen. Brendan Crighton and Rep. Andres Vargas as advocates pushed lawmakers to pass reforms before the legislative session ends in July.
The rally, organized by Abundant Housing Massachusetts, focused on the proposed “Act to Promote Yes in My Backyard,” or YIMBY, legislation, a sweeping package of zoning reforms intended to encourage housing production statewide.
“We are here today because we know that housing is just too unaffordable in Massachusetts,” Abundant Housing Massachusetts Executive Director Jesse Kanson-Benanav told the crowd.
“Because there simply aren’t enough homes to rent or to buy to meet people’s needs or budgets.”
Among its provisions, the legislation would allow duplexes and multifamily housing up to five units by right in areas served by municipal water and sewer systems, legalize multifamily housing near transit, reduce parking minimums and eliminate minimum lot size requirements for new residential developments.
The bill would also make it easier to build housing on land owned by religious institutions and require municipalities to regularly submit housing production plans showing how they intend to meet affordable housing needs.
Marblehead locals weigh in
During his remarks Wednesday, Modica described becoming increasingly frustrated while attending local housing meetings.
“You think you’re going to figure out where to put the housing … but that’s not what happens,” he said. “They’re pulling out all these procedures and these pretenses, and you realize they don’t want to build any housing.”
He added: “You can get like real, real sense of dread because you look around the room and you realize most of these people are going to be in the ground before a single shovel is.”
He described reading a plaque at Fort Sewall stating that the structure had “been modified to accommodate the town’s changing needs.”
“Maybe history does have lessons for us after all,” he said.
Before the rally, Modica and fellow Marblehead resident Nick Ward spoke with the Current about why they traveled to the State House and how the proposed legislation could affect communities like Marblehead.
“I think it is a big step towards giving homeowners back their property rights,” Ward said.
“The result of that is that there are a lot of people out there who would like to make better use of their land and property,” he added. “In many cases that better use will be additional housing.”
Modica framed the legislation as an effort to reduce procedural barriers rather than radically reshape communities overnight.
“Allowing stuff, eliminating some of the procedural veto points are important,” he said. “It is a lot of opportunities to get held up, which cost time and money.”
He continued: “Removing those is going to remove a lot of friction when it comes to home building.”
Ward said the debate over local control had become secondary to the larger need for housing production.
“I want to be part of the solution,” he said. “If that means clawing back some degree of local control because towns and municipalities want to try to opt out of the broader needs of the Commonwealth, then that’s what it means.”
Modica also pushed back on arguments centered around local control, saying municipalities have repeatedly failed to address the housing shortage on their own.
“We’re not solving the problem,” he said. “We need to find ways to do it. We can’t be high-minded about this if people want places to live.”
He also argued communities cannot continue delaying housing conversations indefinitely.
“When you go to Marblehead, you see the sign that says 1629,” Modica said. “I feel like once you’re 400 years old, you give up the right to delay important conversations.”
State legislators address concerns
Crighton, who represents Marblehead and sponsored the Senate version of the bill, echoed many of those themes during both his speech and an interview with the Current.
“There is no silver bullet for solving the housing crisis,” Crighton said during the rally. “And it’s going to be one that we have to stay vigilant on and continue to plug away at, and I think our bill really picks up a lot of those pieces.”
Asked about criticism that statewide zoning reforms reduce local control, Crighton acknowledged the tension but argued state action has become necessary.
“I recognize as a local official you want to be in control, and I respect that space and certainly want to … give them levels of flexibility,” he told the Current. “That being said, across the Commonwealth we’ve seen local policies that have gotten us into this crisis.”
“When there’s a crisis, I think we need to take bold steps to move forward,” he added. “We don’t want to take away the control. We just want to make it easier to build housing.”
State Rep. Jenny Armini, whose district includes Marblehead, also attended the rally and emphasized that housing conversations must account for the realities of individual communities.
“Not every community in Massachusetts is the same,” Armini told the Current. “In Marblehead, we do not have the capacity for certain types of housing and so we’ve got to really be mindful of that.”
Still, Armini said Marblehead needed to continue making room for more residents, particularly younger families and workers.
“I think about one of my neighbors,” she said, describing a young firefighter who grew up in Marblehead and hopes to remain in town.
“I know that he wants to make his life in Marblehead,” Armini said. “And so whenever I think about housing, I think about him.”
She also addressed Marblehead’s recent prominence in statewide housing conversations.
“Marblehead’s become the poster child,” she told the Current. “But it’s important to remember that Marblehead isn’t the only one struggling with these issues. We are an unbelievable community with a big heart and I think we will find a way to make a little more room to the extent that we have it,” she added.
Statewide pressure
Throughout the rally, speakers repeatedly tied the housing shortage to broader economic pressures facing Massachusetts.
Kanson-Benanav argued that the state’s lack of housing supply was driving young residents and essential workers out of Massachusetts.
“The people that our communities rely on — childcare workers, nurses, service and retail workers — can’t find homes in the cities and towns that they serve,” he said. “When there are not enough homes, the wealthy will always outbid working people and everyone has to move further away, including away from Massachusetts.”
Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, who lives in Salem, framed the issue in even simpler terms.
“There are two words I want to say about housing,” Driscoll said. “More. Faster.”
She said Massachusetts currently faces a shortage of roughly 220,000 housing units.
“We need more housing. We need it built faster so we can support our strong economies and our strong communities,” Driscoll said.
As the rally wrapped up and advocates prepared to head inside the State House to meet with legislators, Modica remained surrounded by attendees for photos and conversations as the crowd slowly filtered indoors.
