by iwd Tina | Jun 22, 2021 | Housing News
On June 21, Governor Baker introduced a plan to immediately use $1 billion of the Commonwealth’s federal aid from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for housing and homeownership. The $2.9 billion plan also included priorities related to economic development and local downtowns, job training and workforce development, health care, and infrastructure.
Specifically, the plan proposes the following for housing, per the state’s website:
- $300 million to support expanded homeownership opportunities, focused on first-time homebuyers who are residents of disproportionately impacted municipalities;
- $200 million to support housing production through MassHousing’s CommonWealth Builder Program and similar efforts, which aim to help communities of color build wealth by promoting home ownership among residents of disproportionately impacted municipalities;
- $200 million to fund rental housing production and provide increased housing options to workers and residents of disproportionately impacted municipalities;
- $300 million to finance the statewide production of senior and veteran housing. These new housing options would contain a supportive services component, and would be combined with other resources including Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, rental payments, and, in the case of veteran housing, VA health care.
Gov. Baker and the Legislature have disagreed about how the state’s ARPA funds should be appropriated after receiving $5.3 billion in May. The Legislature is expected to hold public hearings on the use of these funds between now and the fall before passing a spending plan. The Governor hopes his proposal will be taken up quickly.
The $5.3 billion in direct ARPA aid to Massachusetts are discretionary funds intended to support urgent COVID-19 response efforts, replace lost revenue, support immediate economic stabilization for households and businesses, and address unequal public health and economic challenges in Massachusetts cities and towns throughout the pandemic.
CHAPA will be advocating for these recovery funds to be used to support affordable housing. We will post updates as the process for distributing these funds plays out in the Legislature.
by iwd Tina | Jun 17, 2021 | Housing News
On June 17, the Baker-Polito Administration and MassHousing announced the first awards under the CommonWealth Builder program, a new $60 million program to create homeownership opportunities and build generational wealth in communities of color. MassHousing is committing $3.35 million to four projects, located in Boston, Everett, and Haverhill, which will support the creation of 33 new mixed-income homes, including 23 CommonWealth Builder homes.
Governor Baker and MassHousing launched the CommonWealth Builder program in July 2019, as the centerpiece of an $86 million state investment in moderate-income housing. The program provides subsidies to support the construction of new, moderately priced single-family homes and condominiums in the state’s 26 Gateway Cities, the City of Boston, and Qualified Census Tracts throughout the Commonwealth. The program subsidizes the production and purchase of homes restricted to moderate-income first-time homebuyers with income restrictions set anywhere between 70 percent to 120 percent of their Area Median Income.
The initial round of project commitments by MassHousing will support the creation of fourteen new mixed-income condominiums in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, seven new affordable homes in Haverhill and six new affordable townhomes in Everett. MassHousing is also funding the creation of two new CommonWealth Builder homes in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, as part of a broader eight-unit affordable homeownership development. Additional project commitments will follow in the coming months.
Massachusetts has the sixth-largest racial homeownership gap in the United States. The homeownership gap between white and nonwhite residents in Massachusetts has helped drive significant disparities in household wealth. A 2015 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found that US-born black residents in the Boston area had a median net wealth of $8.
In 2018, MassHousing established the Racial Equity Advisory Council for Homeownership (REACH), a public-private working group that seeks to narrow the racial homeownership gap through demand-side interventions, including down payment assistance, homebuyer training, and marketing of high-quality mortgage products. The work of REACH led MassHousing to engage on this topic with Governor Baker and the state Legislature’s Black and Latino Caucus. The $60 million CommonWealth Builder program is a result of that ongoing dialogue.
The Commonwealth Builder program will grow the state’s stock of moderately priced starter homes, and advance intergenerational wealth-building in underserved communities. MassHousing has set a goal of creating roughly 500 new affordable homes through this new initiative.
MassHousing’s Homeownership Division will support the CommonWealth Builder program through a combination of mortgage financing for homebuyers, down payment assistance loans, mortgage insurance with job-loss protection at no added cost, and targeted marketing in the Gateway Cities to ensure that borrowers of color are made aware of this new opportunity for homeownership.
As of June, 2021, MassHousing had 27 projects in its CommonWealth Builder pipeline, representing $76.5 million in financing demand.
Committed CommonWealth Builder Projects:
2147 Washington Street, Boston
2147 Washington Street is a mixed-income, mixed-use building to be constructed in Boston’s Nubian Square. The project is being developed jointly by New Atlantic Development and DREAM Development, with support from Haley House and Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development.
When complete, 2147 Washington Street will transform a city-owned parking lot and an adjoining lot controlled by Haley House into 12 new mixed-income condominiums, 62 affordable and workforce rental units, and commercial and maker space. MassHousing is contributing $1.2 million in CommonWealth Builder funds to support the creation of 8 affordable condominium units, four of which will be sold to households at or below 70 percent of the Area Median Income, and four of which will be sold to households at or below 100 percent of AMI. The remaining four condominiums will be sold at market rates. The City of Boston contributed $1.3 million to project’s homeownership component.
The project’s rental component will be built utilizing resources from MassHousing, the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the City of Boston. Construction will begin this fall.
Call Carolina, Boston
Call Carolina is an eight-unit condominium townhouse development built by the non-profit Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC). The project will construct family-sized townhomes along the Southwest Corridor Park. The site includes a parcel that was originally cleared as part of the Southwest Expressway highway expansion project and subsequently acquired by JPNDC from MassDOT in 2018.
MassHousing is contributing $300,000 to the project, to support the creation and sale of two moderate-income units affordable to first-time homebuyers; the remaining six units will be affordable to homebuyers earning up to 80 percent of AMI, in accordance with the terms of sale from MassDOT. The City of Boston contributed $1.3 million in affordable housing funding, and MassDevelopment contributed $120,000 in brownfields funding. The MassHousing funding allowed JPNDC to create a fully affordable homeownership project, with more units for sale than would have otherwise been possible. Construction is underway and home sales will begin later this year.
Saint Therese Townhomes, Everett
The Saint Therese Townhomes project will create six new affordable homeownership opportunities in Everett. The sponsor is the non-profit The Neighborhood Developers, Inc. (TND). TND is constructing the St. Therese Townhomes in conjunction with a 77-unit affordable rental development, and pursued homeownership at the site as the result of community input. Three of the family-sized townhomes will be affordable to moderate-income households earning up to 80 percent of AMI, and three will be affordable to middle-income households earning up to 120 percent of AMI.
MassHousing is committing a total of $900,000 in CommonWealth Builder funds to the project. Other funding sources include $410,000 in HOME funds from city of Everett, through the North Suburban HOME Consortium, and a $250,000 Housing Choice grant from the Commonwealth. TND began construction in the spring of 2021.
Mount Washington, Haverhill
Mount Washington will transform a formerly blighted church property into seven new affordable townhomes for first-time homebuyers. The sponsor, Bread and Roses Housing, is a nonprofit housing developer and community land trust operator based in Lawrence. Two units will be restricted to buyers earning up to 70 percent of AMI, and five units restricted at 120 percent of AMI. The community land trust model, which separates land costs from the cost of homeownership, will allow Bread and Roses Housing to create deep and lasting affordability: Homes at Mt. Washington will sell between $150,000 and $225,000.
MassHousing is committing a total of $950,000 to the project. Other funding sources include HOME funds from the City of Haverhill and private philanthropic funds. Home sales commenced in the spring of 2021.
by iwd Tina | Jun 16, 2021 | Housing News
On June 16, 2021, Governor Baker signed a law extending certain pandemic-era policies. Many of the policies established during the pandemic were tied to the end of the state of emergency, which expired on June 15, 2021. The new law extends certain pandemic policies including eviction protections for tenants and allowing public meetings to be held virtually.
For eviction protections, the law:
- Requires courts to delay eviction cases if there is a pending application for emergency rental assistance applications. This protection is in place through April 1, 2022;
- Removes the connection of these state eviction protections from the end of the Federal CDC moratorium;
- Continues to require property owners to provide information on rental assistance and any relevant information on evictions with the Notice to Quit
- Also requires property owners to include documentation of any agreements between the tenant and landlord for the tenant to repay the landlord for non-payment of rent;
- Continues to require property owners to send copies of notices to quit to the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development;
- Continues to require courts to report data on eviction cases to Legislature until April 1, 2022; and
- Continues to require the Department of Housing and Community Development to report data on the Eviction Diversion Initiative to the Legislature until January 1, 2023.
The Legislature originally established these eviction protections in December 2020.
For policies related to virtual public meetings, the law allows public bodies to continue providing live, “adequate, alternative means” of public access to public meetings. The law also authorizes all members of a public body to continue participating in meetings remotely.
CHAPA thanks Governor Baker for signing the bill into law. CHAPA also thanks the Legislature for leading the effort on the policy extensions, specifically CHAPA thanks Senate President Spilka, House Speaker Mariano, Ways and Means Committee Chairs Sen. Rodrigues and Rep. Michlewitz, and members of House and Senate for extending eviction prevention provisions from the pandemic era.
by iwd Tina | Jun 9, 2021 | Housing News
The Senate Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday advanced a pandemic policy extension bill S.2467, that would continue many of the pandemic-era policies beyond the June 15th, end of the COVID-19 state of emergency. It includes some changes and extensions to the eviction prevention law passed in Dec 2020 — Chapter 257 of the Acts of 2020 — that established certain eviction protections and policy changes for tenants.
The bill extends Chapter 257 tenant protections until April 1, 2022. Specifically, the bill:
- Removes the connection of Eviction protection law to the Federal CDC moratorium after it ends;
- Continues to require landlords to provide information on rental assistance and any relevant information on evictions with the Notice to Quit (it is set to expire on June 30th 2020);
- Continues to require property owners to send copies of notices to quit to Executive Office of Housing & Economic Development (EOHED);
- Requires courts to grant continuances for eviction cases for pending rental assistance applications until April 1st, 2022;
- Requires courts to continue reporting to Legislature until April 1st, 2022; and
- Continues to require Dept. of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to report on eviction diversion initiative to the Legislature until January 1st, 2023.
Analysis of the amended Chapter 257 language as proposed by the Senate Ways & Means Proposal.
CHAPA thanks Chair Rodrigues and members of the Senate Ways & Means Committee for extending eviction prevention provisions from the pandemic era. This will help ensure housing stability for many households in Massachusetts beyond the state of emergency.
The Senate plans to take up the bill during a formal session on Thursday, June 10th.
