State Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell says statewide housing, health care, consumer protection and safety issues affecting Greater Haverhill are among those she’s tackling statewide.
In an interview with WHAV Tuesday, Campbell said she received praise from Haverhill state Rep. Andy X. Vargas on her decision to file suit yesterday against the Town of Milton for failing to create a district with multifamily zoning. The law signed in January 2021, sponsored in part by Vargas, requires communities serviced by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority—or MBTA—to allow denser housing developments near rail stations. With its downtown zoning, Haverhill already complies, according to City Economic Development and Planning Director William Pillsbury Jr. Campbell’s suit is on top of Gov. Maura Healey cutting off grants to the town a week prior.
The lawsuit follows Campbell’s release of her strategic plan Monday. She told WHAV the plan reflects her “bottom-up” approach, with everything the office does “in response to actual people.”
“It is a necessary tool to address our housing crisis,” Campbell said of the MBTA act. “It’s just too expensive to live in Massachusetts. It’s too difficult for seniors, young people, young couples who want to start a family, workers, folks who want to come and move to Massachusetts for a job – to be able to buy a home, and in some instances, to rent a home.”
Two additional priorities, according to Campbell, are youth mental health and public health and safety. Her office is working with other state agencies to address Steward Health Care’s financial problems, which she called a “crisis.” Last Friday, the owner of Holy Family Hospitals in Haverhill and Methuen said it is seeking to sell its physician group and private jets to try to save the company.
The state also requires Steward release financial records, ensure quality healthcare and continue providing healthcare workers jobs. Campbell explained her office needs detailed records to figure out how to hold the company accountable legally.
Asked about nonprofit purchases of other health care practices in Haverhill—Steward is for-profit—she said her office scrutinizes transactions to ensure providers “are delivering on things the community needs.”
“We also have our community benefits, which is a big part of what the office does, where nonprofit institutions, such as Beth Israel and Mass General Brigham, give resources to the Commonwealth, and they’re supposed to be for community benefit,” she added. “There’s an opportunity to reevaluate and to push the conversation even further with these institutions to deliver more.”
Drawn from surveys, the office’s hotline and “crisscrossing the state” as a candidate, Campbell said her strategic plan gives highest priority to affordability and economic opportunity. She told WHAV the office can enforce the state’s consumer protection laws by, for example, suing predatory solar companies that scam elderly people into signing onto their plans, thinking it is cheaper than their current utility bills.
With public safety a priority, she said her office would help ensure incidents like the 2018 Columbia Gas explosions in the Merrimack Valley will not happen again.