Across our western suburbs, there is no greater shared challenge facing our businesses than the crisis of housing affordability and availability.

Large and small businesses alike tell us this problem has made hiring and retaining workers extremely difficult. Between 2020 and 2022, over 110,000 residents left Massachusetts — many citing the cost of housing as the primary reason. Three-fifths of those who left were between the ages of 25 and 44. That is the next generation of our workforce, walking out the door. And every worker we lose increases the risk of losing the companies that employed them.

Where is this cohort going? Some are pushed further out, to places where land is cheaper — lengthening their commutes, congesting our roads, and in many cases leaving the state altogether. Businesses across sectors tell us many employees are now commuting from New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

This is not a sustainable way to run our regional economy.

For those leaving, the story is familiar: a young nurse, a first-year teacher, a software engineer hoping to start a family. None of them needs a five-bedroom colonial on half an acre. They need a modest home they can afford, close to where they work and raise a family. They need starter homes — but those homes are not being built.

In the suburbs we represent, and others across the Commonwealth, minimum lot size requirements have become a principal driver of this shortage. In our communities, minimum lot sizes are often triple what this initiative would allow — effectively guaranteeing that when a property turns over, the result is one large, expensive home rather than several attainable ones. We are zoning out the very people we need most.

Capping minimum lot sizes to spur the production of starter homes is a concrete and meaningful step toward reversing this trend. The market wants to build these homes. Families want to live in them.

The legislature could let the voters decide in November — a question that is so common sense it is bound to pass. Or you could act now and send a clear message to an electorate that may be tempted to turn to price controls for housing relief: that the legislature is already working to solve this problem.

The chamber and the businesses in our region urge you to pass this bill. Our communities are ready to welcome starter homes and the residents they will bring back. Help us make that possible.