Budget Priorities

MASSACHUSETTS RENTAL VOUCHER PROGRAM (MRVP) (7004-9024)

REQUEST: $250,000,000
MRVP is the most effective tool to immediately help people who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness find homes they can afford by providing a combination of tenant-based and project-based rental vouchers.
$250 million would create an estimated 6,000 new vouchers, help preserve affordable housing developments, and support improvements like implementing small area fair market rents and allowing vouchers to cover security deposits that will make vouchers more usable and reduce lengthy lease up times.

ALTERNATIVE HOUSING VOUCHER PROGRAM (AHVP) (7004-9030)

REQUEST: $26,000,000
People with disabilities are more than twice as likely to be homeless as their nondisabled peers. AHVP helps solve the urgent issue of homelessness and institutionalization in the disability community by creating more accessible and affordable homes with over 1,000 vouchers. $26 million would create another 250 vouchers and support program improvements including allowing vouchers to be project-based to build new deeply affordable and accessible homes.

RESIDENTIAL ASSISTANCE FOR FAMILIES IN TRANSITION (7004-9316)

REQUEST: $250,000,000
RAFT provides emergency housing cost assistance for households with very low incomes experiencing a housing crisis such as an eviction or a foreclosure. RAFT has provided a lifeline to tens of thousands of households facing the loss of their home, especially as federal emergency rental assistance funds become unavailable. $250 million will ensure this critical resource remains available and will support important program improvements including removing the requirement that a household receive a notice to quit or utility shut off before being able to apply.

PUBLIC HOUSING OPERATING (7004-9005)

REQUEST: $184,000,000
These funds support more than 43,000 deeply affordable homes at public housing authorities throughout Massachusetts. Over three-quarters of public housing residents are elderly or persons with disabilities. Unfortunately, years of underfunding have left many housing authorities struggling to operate and keep apartments in good repair. We are working to double the operating subsidy for public housing to preserve these homes for all current and future residents.

FAIR HOUSING TRUST FUND (NEW)

REQUEST: $1,500,000
CHAPA requests a new line-item to support a Fair Housing Trust Fund to support initiatives across Massachusetts to address the factors that influence housing discrimination, segregated communities, and disparities in access to opportunity. The trust fund would help eliminate housing discrimination and affirmatively further fair housing by providing resources to organizations, housing authorities, or communities that are working to enforce our fair housing laws, provide education and outreach to residents, and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity for all those protected by our anti-discrimination laws.

HOUSING CONSUMER EDUCATION CENTERS (HCECS) (7004-3036)

REQUEST: $10,185,000
This program supports regional housing organizations that offer anyone in the Commonwealth a wide range of resources, including housing search assistance, eviction prevention, and homebuyer and foreclosure counseling. HCECs are also essential to delivering other housing and homelessness prevention resources, including rental vouchers, RAFT and HomeBASE. This funding will ensure that these housing agencies are able to continue to effectively assist hundreds of thousands of residents across Massachusetts in need of housing assistance.

PUBLIC HOUSING REFORM (7004-9007)

REQUEST: $7,700,000
This program funds the implementation of public housing reform, passed in 2014. These reforms improve governance and operation of housing authorities by assisting with capital improvements, management, and operating. $7.7 million will help support new initiatives to support the health and well-being of residents, including for tenant organizing, maintenance apprenticeship programs, transportation, and language access.

HOME AND HEALTHY FOR GOOD (7004-0104)

REQUEST: $8,390,000
Home and Healthy for Good provides deeply affordable homes and support services to individuals experiencing chronic homelessness through a housing first model that is less costly and more effective than managing residents’ homelessness and health problems on the street or in shelter. Annually, the program saves the state an estimated $11,700 per housed tenant because of a decreased reliance on other expensive public services once an individual is in permanent supportive housing.

HOMEBASE (7004-0108)

REQUEST: $60,000,000
HomeBASE helps families with children avoid or exit emergency shelter, including staying at hotels or motels, through stabilization services and up to $10,000 to pay rent, utilities, security deposits, and other expenses that would allow them to stay in their homes or move out of shelter. The additional funds would allow families to renew their HomeBASE benefits if otherwise facing a return to homelessness.

FORECLOSURE AND HOUSING COUNSELING (7006-0011)

REQUEST: $3,050,000
This program, funded through retained revenue from licensing fees for mortgage loan originators, supports foreclosure prevention and housing counseling that assist over 11,000 people across the Commonwealth each year. By allowing the Division of Banks to retain more revenue, it can support more foreclosure and housing counseling.

TENANCY PRESERVATION PROGRAM (7004-3045)

REQUEST: $2,000,000
The Tenancy Preservation Program helps prevent homelessness by working with households with disabilities facing eviction. In consultation with the Housing Court, the program works with landlords and tenants to determine if the disability can be reasonably accommodated and the tenancy preserved.

MASSACCESS REGISTRY (4120-4001)

REQUEST: $150,000
Everyone should have solid information for making choices about one of the most important decisions–where to live. The MassAccess line-item supports the Housing Navigator website which provides a free online tool that makes it simple to search for affordable and accessible rentals statewide. Working with owners and public sector partners, the site has built a database of income-restricted rentals from all over the state. It shows listings with reliable, actionable information ensuring that renters find details they can trust.

UNACCOMPANIED HOMELESS YOUTH (4000-0007)

REQUEST: $12,000,000
This program helps meet the housing and support service needs of unaccompanied youth and young adults, ages 24 and younger, who are experiencing homelessness. Additional funds will provide much-needed resources to further build up a systematic, effective response to unaccompanied youth and young adult homelessness across Massachusetts through providing affordable homes and support services.

NEW LEASE FOR HOMELESS FAMILIES (7004-0106)

REQUEST: $250,000
New Lease helps find homes for families living in shelters by implementing a preference for these families in affordable housing developments across the state. Through New Lease, homeless families can live in desirable communities with the supports they need for success. The funding will allow New Lease to continue serving the over 300 families it works with to help find and maintain homes.

ACCESS TO COUNSEL (NEW)

REQUEST: $7,000,000
Data demonstrates that access to counsel results in greater housing stability and saves money. Tenants facing eviction are overwhelmingly individuals living in poverty, females, and people of color. Evictions have far-reaching consequences beyond housing insecurity and negatively affect people’s physical and mental health. Unfortunately, while 86% of landlords are represented, only 11.5% of tenants have a lawyer. $7 million will help support a new statewide Access to Counsel program to be administered by the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation to help prevent evictions and achieve housing stability.