CHAPA Files 2019-2020 State Legislative Agenda
With the beginning of the new 2019-2020 state legislative session in January, CHAPA announced its legislative agenda. CHAPA's priorities include bills that will help increase access to affordable housing, protect fair housing, strengthen tenant protections to reduce displacement, and build stronger communities throughout the Commonwealth.
For a brief description of CHAPA's legislative priorities, click here.
CHAPA thanks all the legislators who sponsored or co-sponsored our priorities. We look forward to working with the Legislature this session to move forward these policies that will help everyone in the Commonwealth have a safe, healthy, and affordable place to call home.
As the next step in the legislative process, the bills will be assigned to committees. The committees will have the opportunity to work on the legislation and schedule hearings later in the year.
For a fact sheet on each of the bills, please click the bill title.
|
Docket no. |
Title |
Sponsor |
Description |
|
HD.3379
SD.1640 |
Rep. Honan
Sen. Boncore |
These bills will increase housing production by using the Governor’s Housing Choice bill as a foundation and including additional provisions like requiring multifamily zoning around public transit, abutter appeals reform, and setting affordable housing production goals |
|
|
HD.3872
SD.864 |
Rep. Madaro
Sen. Eldridge |
These bills improve MRVP by codifying the program, raising fair market rent standard for vouchers and making other programmatic fixes |
|
|
HD.1472
SD.1099 |
An Act promoting fair housing by preventing discrimination against affordable housing |
Rep. Barber
Sen. Chang-Diaz |
These bills will promote fair housing by prohibiting cities and towns from making discriminatory land use decisions against affordable housing or developments that are suitable for families with children |
|
HD.2718 |
An Act relative to smart growth multifamily housing production |
Rep. Barber |
The bill will help produce more housing by requiring multifamily zoning in cities and towns served by public transit
|
|
HD.2911
SD.2021 |
An Act to streamline housing production through abutter appeals reform |
Rep. McGonagle
Sen. Cyr |
These bills will streamline housing production by helping to prevent frivolous abutter appeals against development |
|
HD.3784 |
An Act setting a housing production goal for the Commonwealth |
Rep. Dave Rogers |
The bill sets a statewide housing production goal of 427,000 homes by 2040 with 20% reserved as affordable, allowing us to measure progress towards meeting our housing needs |
|
HD.3781
SD.1987 |
An Act relative to local housing authority board member elections |
Rep. Honan
Sen. Boncore |
These bills will increase resident engagement by creating a process for appointing tenant members to housing authority boards in towns |
|
HD.3652
SD.1332 |
An Act leveraging additional resources for local housing authorities |
Rep. Dave Rogers
Sen. Crighton |
These bills will leverage new resources for public housing by allowing housing authorities to borrow against their capital funds and retain the proceeds from the sale of their property |
|
HD.3385
HD.1618
SD.625 |
Rep. Tyler
Rep. Dave Rogers
Sen. DiDomenico |
These bills will help preserve tenancies and prevent homelessness by providing low-income tenants facing eviction with a right to counsel |
|
|
HD.2639
SD.723 |
Rep. Honan
Sen. Boncore |
These bills will help prevent displacement by creating a $1,500 tax credit to small residential property owners who maintain their rents at or below market rent |
|
|
HD.2519
SD.910 |
An Act relative to economic mobility for families with low-income |
Rep. Vega
Sen. Lewis |
These bills will further economic mobility and address cliff effects for families in Massachusetts |
|
SD.1433 |
An Act providing for coordinated data and assistance to address family homelessness |
Sen. Comerford |
The bill increases transparency by directing state agencies to improve access to data on certain homelessness related measures and to make benefit program information more accessible to families |
|
HD.2600 |
Rep. Honan |
This bill creates a program to assist residents in subsidized housing to help mediate disputes between landlords and tenants and coordinate economic self-sufficiency services |
|
|
HD.2835
SD.746 |
Rep. Ferrante
Sen. Creem |
These bills will increase the deeds recording fee to provide additional funds for the Community Preservation Trust Fund |