I’m Andrew Brinker, a reporter at The Boston Globe covering housing and the cost of living in Massachusetts. Ask me anything about Greater Boston’s housing crisis.

Update: Andrew is done answering questions for the day! Thank you all for sending in so many great questions, and for contributing to the discussion. Be on the lookout for future AMAs!

-Adria, Audience Editor

We did an AMA similar to this one two years ago, and wanted to check back in to talk about what has changed in the housing world recently. The 30,000 foot view of things is that the housing shortage around here, and the affordability crisis that stems from it, is worse than ever. Home and rent prices are still going up year over year with few signs of slowing. But there have been a few key policy shifts that are worth talking about. The first is that the Legislature passed a $5 billion housing bill proposed by Governor Maura Healey aimed at stemming the problem.

We’ve also seen the progress and fallout of the MBTA Communities Act, a law passed in 2021 that mandates cities and towns with access to the MBTA make it easier to build multifamily housing. So far just over 100 of the 175 communities covered by the law have passed new zoning in an attempt to comply. At the same time, we are expecting a ruling soon from the state’s Supreme Judicial Court after Attorney General Andrea Campbell sued the town of Milton earlier this year for refusing to follow the law.

Ask me anything and I'll do my best to answer!

Bio: I’ve been the Globe’s dedicated housing reporter for the last couple of years. Much of my work focuses on state and local housing policies, with a specific focus on the state’s recent efforts to push the Boston suburbs to build more apartments after decades of shutting out development. Last year, I worked with the Globe’s esteemed Spotlight investigative team to produce a series on the origins of the region’s housing crisis, and how we might go about fixing it. I'm also a renter in Boston, so I know all too well the struggle of living in a city where housing is in such short supply.

Here are some of my latest headlines: