On Thursday, June 24, 2021, the Biden administration extended the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) eviction moratorium for 1 month from June 30th to July 31st.
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.
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.
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:
On June 14, 2021, the Baker-Polito Administration released its FY2022 Capital Investment Plan, which includes resources for affordable housing and community development programs.
Highlights from the FY2022 Capital Budget for affordable housing and community development include:
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 esta
The state’s COVID-19 emergency declaration is set to end on June 15. The Legislature is working on extending some pandemic-era policies beyond the state of emergency that would otherwise expire without legislative action. The State Senate is expected to take up legislation on June 10 with the Massachusetts House taking up legislation soon after.
The State Senate has indicated that it will work to extend emergency flexibilities for town meetings, including around quorum thresholds and remote participation in representative town meetings.
Testimony is available in PDF form. You can also watch the full hearing video.
June 3, 2021
Testimony of CHAPA Chief Executive Officer, Rachel Heller
Joint Committee on Housing Virtual Informational Hearing
On May 27th, the Massachusetts Senate concluded debate on its FY2022 state budget proposal. The budget includes strong investments in CHAPA’s affordable housing priorities. The House proposed increases for Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP), Alternative Housing Voucher Program, Public Housing, Housing Consumer Education Centers, and DMH Rental Subsidies.
On May 11th, the Senate Committee on Ways and Means released its state budget proposal for FY2022. CHAPA thanks Senate President Karen Spilka, Sen.