MassHousing Chair Says More Workforce Housing Needed

BOSTON—Michael Dirrane, the newly appointed chairman of the Commonwealth's Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, is confident that the Baker administration will address Massachusetts' fiscal issues, but also the need to add more workforce housing and transit-oriented development in key markets.

Dirrane, in an interview with Globest.com, says Gov. Charlie Baker is more than qualified to meet the fiscal challenges ahead, as well as address the pressing need for more affordable housing in Massachusetts. Dirrane was appointed by Gov. Baker last week as chairman of the MassHousing Board of Directors.

A South Boston native, he is the longest-serving board member in MassHousing's 49-year history. He has served on the governing body for nearly half of the time the agency has been in existence. He was first named to the board in 1993 and took over as its chairman in 1995 and served until 2009. Dirrane, senior managing director at National MI Holdings, began his career at MassHousing in the 1980s. He subsequently held senior positions at MGIC, the nation's largest mortgage insurer; Amerin Guaranty, where he was a founding partner; GE Mortgage Insurance Co.; Fannie Mae and PHH Corp. He holds a BA from Boston College and a MA from Boston University.

He tells Globest.com that he and Gov. Baker share the same goals in terms of housing policy. “There has been nobody in my experience better prepared to take over the corner office than Charlie Baker… He knows the numbers, he knows the expenditures, he knows where the fat is to be cut and he is very focused on a number of issues, housing being one of them.”

At the MassHousing board of directors meeting last Tuesday, Dirrane said he stressed that the agency focus on the development of more workforce housing and transit-oriented housing, particularly in the gateway cities of Massachusetts. He says that Massachusetts should also look at preserving units in “expiring use” projects as affordable.

He says the agency needs to address “Millennial homeownership, young people (aged 21 to 35) who have college degrees and decent jobs, but in cities like Boston and elsewhere have exorbitant rents up to $3,000 a month, who can't save a down payment, and have huge student loans that affects their back-end ratio buying a property,” he says.

While low-income families have programs to provide housing assistance, it is the middle-income families that are being squeezed, he says. “Union carpenters, laborers, cops, firemen, teachers can't afford to live in the towns that they serve. It is becoming more and more of a gap that we need to take a look at as a Commonwealth,” he notes.

Dirrane, who grew up a half-a-mile from Boston's Seaport district, says that the current development boom there is impressive and is a “tremendous success story,” but comes with one major caveat: “Where do the people that have service industry jobs, where do the people that are actually building those skyscrapers going to live?" Dirrane asks. "That's what needs to be attacked and that is what we have to put our collective minds together (to address) because we know there aren't any huge funds coming out of Washington.”

He stresses that MassHousing “will be in lock step with Gov. Baker on where he wants to take housing dollars and the housing economy on a going-forward basis.”

He adds that transit-oriented development in gateway cities can help provide the sorely needed workforce housing and says that Gov. Baker and Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash are thinking about ways to help spur more TOD projects that provide affordable and workforce housing.

Dirrane predicts that housing will be a big part of Gov. Baker's agenda moving forward. He also praised Boston Mayor Martin Walsh's goal to create 53,000 housing units in the city by 2030.

In appointing Dirrane to his second stint as chairman of MassHousing, Gov. Baker stated, "In addition to a distinguished career in real estate finance, Mike has decades of experience with MassHousing in several capacities: as an employee, as a board member, and as a long-time chairman and most recently as vice chairman. His experience and leadership skills will add tremendous value to the Baker-Polito team's efforts to create and preserve affordable housing."

MassHousing has provided more than $18 billion in total financial resources for affordable and mixed-income housing since closing its first loan in 1970.