Last night the Massachusetts House of Reprsentatives approved a consolidated housing amendment for the FY 2006 budget that provides $5,436,626 more for DHCD accounts than the original House Ways and Means budget. One of CHAPA's top priorities, state-assisted public housing was the big winner, receiving an additional $3.5 million. Another priority, Residential Assistance for Families in Transition, received a $500,000 boost. The remaining increases were for specific earmarks contained in the DHCD administrative account and the Housing Services account.

The House chose not to make language changes to the RAFT program that would have helped the program work more effectively in all regions of the state, and the House also agreed with the Ways and Means committee in removing the ability of RAFT to be used to help cover moving expenses.

The House also decided not to provide any additional increases for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program, meaning that at least 800 of the vouchers lost since January 2003 will continue to sit unissued. Click here to see the consolidated amendment and here to see a list of DHCD line items.

When the House completes its budget debate later this week, all eyes will shift to the Senate. The Senate's budget is expected to be released in mid-May, with debate the week before Memorial Day weekend. It is not too late to call your Senator.

Brownfields Hearing on Monday

The Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources & Agriculture will hold a public hearing on Monday, May 2, at 1:00 p.m. in Room A1 at the State House to accept testimony regarding the recapitalization of the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund (H.1358). This bill, one of CHAPA's legislative priorities, would provide $30 million for the fund. It would also make the Environmental Response Action Tax Credit permanent and allow the tax credit to be transferred, sold or assigned. CHAPA is also working with the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance and Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations to have the bill language included as part of the anticipated House and Senate economic stimulus package.

Draft Public Housing Regulations Released

The Department of Housing and Community Development has announced that it will hold a public hearing from 10:00 a.m. until noon on Wednesday, June 22, to accept comments regarding new, draft, public housing regulations. A subcommittee of CHAPA's public housing committee has been working closely with the department for quite sometime to develop this road map for local housing authorities. The regulations will allow housing authorities more flexibility to raise private revenues and financing to supplement public resources, thereby helping to address the critical capital needs of aging state-assisted public housing developments. The draft regulations are available on CHAPA's web site, and we thank the DHCD staff, including Marc Slotnick, Alex Whiteside, and Paul McPartland, for their work on these regulations.

Affordable Housing Competition Winners Announced

The winners of the 2005 Greater Boston Affordable Housing Development Competition were announced at a ceremony on Friday, April 22. Cosponsored by CHAPA, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, and the Boston Foundation, the competition brings together students from local universities and provides them with the opportunity to work with developers on specific projects. Now in its fifth year, 140 students from eight universities have worked with 23 developers. This year there were eight teams. The $10,000 first prize went to the Asian Community Development Corporation's team. Second prize, $6,000, went to the team that worked with Waltham Alliance to Create Housing. For the first time, judges awarded an honorable mention to a team. This honor was given to Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation's students.

CHAPA thanks the student and developer participants, the judges, and the cosponsors of the event for another successful year. Information about the competition can be found at www.fhlbboston.com/compete.

New Study Shows Affordable Housing Does Not Negatively Impact Property Values

The MIT Center for Real Estate released a study today that concludes that mixed-income rental housing developments in Massachusetts do not the lower property values of nearby single family homes. The study includes case studies of seven projects in the six communities of Mansfield, Littleton, Norwood, Randolph, Wilmington, and Woburn. All of the projects are mixed income rental developments built under Chapter 40B between 1985 and 2000.

The authors compared sales prices of single family homes nearby the mixed income developments (“impact areas”) with sales prices in the community at large (“control area”) over a long period to time. They concluded: “The empirical analysis for each of the seven cases indicated that the sales price indexes for the impact areas move essentially identically with the price indexes of the control areas before, during, and after the introduction of a 40B development.”

The report is available here.

NeighborWorks Symposium in Boston June 22

NeighborWorks will hold a symposium on multifamily excellence on Wednesday, June 22, 2005. The keynote speakers include Douglas Foy, Secretary of the Massachusetts Office for Commonwealth Development; Jair Lynch, President and CEO of The Jair Lynch Companies; and Manuel Pastor, Co-Director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California in Santa Cruz, CA. The one-day symposium will examine the interplay between smart growth, mixed use development, and regionalism. Additional information is available at www.nw.org/training.