Housing News

On Wednesday, March 10th, the Senate voted 66-34 to confirm former Representative Marcia Fudge (D-OH-11) as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Secretary Fudge becomes the first Black woman in decades to head the agency and will be charged with addressing the challenges of America's housing crisis that have been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 2, the Baker-Politio Administration announced $46 million in affordable housing awards that will support 12 projects in 8 communities, creating 572 new homes, including 507 affordable homes, with 108 reserved for extremely low-income households. 

On March 2, DHCD announced $34 million in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) awards to 41 communities. The awards will help will help cities and towns rehabilitate more than 350 homes, fund 17 infrastructure improvement projects, and support programming for children, teenagers, survivors of domestic violence, homeless individuals, and the elderly.

On February 26, the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development published preliminary guidance for local officials on determining voting thresholds for zoning ordinances and bylaws under the new Housing Choice law.

It's a brand new legislative session, and CHAPA staff are already hard at work putting together CHAPA's legislative agenda for 2021-2022. In the meantime, we need your help in asking your legislators to show their support for affordable housing priorities this session.

On Monday, February 22nd, the United States Department of the Treasury (Treasury) released a revised frequently asked questions (FAQ) document for the implementation of the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program that was  created in the year-end federal stimulus package. The guidance includes some of the following provisions:

Despite this challenging year, CHAPA was able to successfully pivot our work to advance our legislative and budget priorities, in addition to addressing the housing impacts of the pandemic. Check out our 2020 Annual Report for all of last year's accomplishments, including our policy and program work.

On February 12, 2021, Speaker Mariano and Senate President Spilka announced their leadership and committee assignments for the two-year legislative session. These assignments will allow the work to begin reviewing all the bills that have been filed in the House and Senate.

On January 29, 2021, the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) issued preliminary guidance for MBTA communities regarding compliance with new law requiring by-right multifamily zoning (M.G.L. Chapter 40A, Section 3A). The purpose of section 3A is to encourage MBTA communities to adopt zoning districts where multifamily zoning is permitted as of right, and that meet other requirements set forth in the statute.

On January 27, 2021, Governor Baker released his $45.6 billion state budget for FY2022 (H.1), which begins on July 1, 2021. According to Governor Baker, the budget would support the ongoing public health response to COVID-19 while reducing total state spending.