Housing News

David Tille was sworn in on September 25 as the regional administrator for the New England office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  As reported by WMUR.com and the Boston Globe, he was previously the regional director of a free-market small business advocacy group, and in 2

On September 13th, the Massachusetts House of Representatives voted to override $275 million in spending from the FY2018 state budget that Governor Baker vetoed in July. According to House Ways and Means Chair Jeffrey Sánchez, the House started with veto overrides for programs that have a statewide impact. Most of the funding restored to the budget included $220 million for MassHealth. The House voted to restore funding to several of CHAPA's affordable housing and homelessness prevention priorities. These include overrides for the following programs:

Read CHAPA's September Housing Briefs for state and federal housing updates and recent research.

On September 8th, DHCD gave notice for a public comment period on proposed amendments to regulations on Occupancy Standards and Tenant Participation for State-Aided Housing (760 CMR 6.00). Written comments on the proposed regulatory amendments are due on October 6, 2017. For more information on the regulations, please visit DHCD’s website by clicking here.

In a notice published on September 1 in the Federal Register, HUD published its proposed FMRs for FY2018.  The new FMRs will go into effect on October 2 except in cases where HUD receives a request for a re-evaluation.  Comments are due no later than October 2.  As proposed, FMRs will increase in 18 FMR areas in Massachusetts and decline in one (the Lawrence FMR area) and 10 areas will see two-bedroom FMR increases of 10% or mor

It is very exciting

On August 29, 2017, the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) released a supportive housing Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the National Housing Trust Fund (HTF) and other DHCD funding sources. The NOFA is posted at DHCD’s website at http://www.mass.gov/hed/economic/eohed/dhcd/.

The Baker-Polito Administration awarded the inaugural $2.2 million round of Community Scale Housing Initiative awards for the development and construction of 36 new affordable rental housing units in Arlington, Norwell, and West Tisbury.

The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) will be holding multiple rental funding competitions during the next six to seven months.  As described on DHCD's website, it intends to host a mini-competition for highly-ready family production projects in October 2017.

The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) has identified a limited amount of federal and state Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and state bond funds that could be made available competitively to certain highly ready projects before the end of 2017. Because of the great demand for new, family housing, projects must represent affordable or affordable/mixed-income family housing that meet the definition of production in the 2017 Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP).