Housing News

On August 10, Housing Navigator launched its free affordable housing search tool. The Housing Navigator worked with owners and public sector partners to build a database of income-restricted rental listings from all over the state.

Thank you to those of you who were able to join us for our August 2nd session, Making the Case for Local ARPA Funds. We discussed funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and how it could be used for housing at the local level, including eligible uses, such as for affordable housing production, homeownership, non-congregate shelter acquisition, public housing, and supportive housing.  If you were unable to attend or want to review what we covered, you can view a recording of the session on YouTube.

On Tuesday, August 3, 2021, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced a new, targeted federal eviction moratorium to replace the moratorium that expired on July 31. The CDC’s temporary moratorium will last until October 3, 2021. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the new moratorium:  

Testimony as delivered to the Massachusetts Joint Committee on the Judiciary in August 2021:  CHAPA’s is writing in support of S.921, An Act promoting housing opportunity and mobility through eviction sealing (HOMES). CHAPA’s mission is to encourage the production and preservation of housing that is affordable to families and individuals with low and moderate incomes and to foster diverse and sustainable communities through planning and community development.

On Sunday, August 1st, 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) eviction moratorium expired. The White House noted that the CDC explored a possible executive action that would enact a new 30-day eviction moratorium, which would be targeted to prevent evictions in counties with high or substantial COVID-19 case rates.

On July 29, the Legislature finalized the FY2022 state budget by completing its budget overrides, including a veto of $4.7 million in funding for the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) program in the final FY2022 state budget. 

On July 27th, the Joint Committee on Ways and Means and the House Committee on Federal Stimulus and Census Oversight will be holding a virtual hearing on the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funding focusing on housing. 

On July 16th, Governor Baker signed the FY2022 state budget of $47.6 billion that included increases for many affordable housing programs. The Governor issued vetoes on some line-item language. The budget signed by the Governor includes appropriation amounts similar to the Conference budget for several CHAPA priorities including MRVP, AHVP and HomeBASE. The only veto on CHAPA priorities was for RAFT; the Governor vetoed the transfer of $4,725,768 from the Housing Preservation and Stabilization Trust Fund. 

On July 15, 2021, the Baker-Polito Administration announced $139 million in affordable housing awards for 28 projects in 21 communities across the Commonwealth. These awards will advance the development of 1,526 new rental units, including 1,346 rental units affordable for low- and extremely low-income households.  

On July 8, 2021, the conference committee released for the FY2022 state budget released its conference report, which reconciled the differences between the House and Senate budget proposals. For each of CHAPA's priorities, the budget contains the higher appropriation amount from the versions passed by the House or Senate.