Housing News

On April 14, the Baker-Polito Administration announced affordable housing awards for 15 projects in 14 communities across the Commonwealth. According to the Governor's press release, the $63 million in awards will result in the creation or preservation of 697 rental homes, with 479 affordable homes for low-income households and another 150 homes for extremely low-income individuals or households.

On April 15, the state will stop accepting applications for the federally funded Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) and Subsidized Housing Emergency Rental Assistance (SHERA) program as these federal funds are depleted. Residents can still apply online for the state emergency rental assistance program, RAFT. This program provides up to $7,000 for rent and other housing costs, including moving expenses.

On April 1, Governor Baker signed a supplemental state budget for FY2022 that $100 million in additional funding for emergency rental assistance through the RAFT program. The budget also extends renter protections through March 31, 2023, that pauses eviction cases for tenants who have a pending application for emergency rental assistance.

CHAPA's Comments on Draft Guidelines for MBTA Communities submitted to the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development on March 31, 2022. Dear Secretary Kennealy,

On Thursday March 24th, the Massachusetts Senate will be debating the FY2022 Supplemental budget proposal (S.2776). The Senate Ways & Means proposal includes $100 million for rental assistance through the Rental Assistance for Families in Transition Program (RAFT) same as the House allocation. The budget also extends renter protections that pause eviction cases for tenants who have a pending application for emergency rental assistance.

The following chart depicts CHAPA's current FY2023 state budget priorities for affordable housing, community development, and homelessness development programs. The chart also highlights funding levels in the current fiscal year (FY2022) and the proposed funding levels for the programs in the Governor's FY2023 budget request.

Please join CHAPA in signing a letter in support of a proposed Zero Carbon Renovation Fund to allocate $250 million of the state's ARPA funds to rapidly renovate the Commonwealth’s existing buildings to zero carbon.

Governor Baker filed a supplemental budget bill on February 18th, that seeks to spend $2.4 billion to keep COVID-19 response efforts going and make investments in areas like housing, human services, childcare, and others. The bill proposes $2.4 billion in spending with $1.6 billion allocated from the surplus revenues in FY2022, with the rest allocated from federal funds and reimbursements.  

On February 2nd, the Joint Committee on Housing, chaired by Senator Keenan and Representative Arciero, favorably reported out four of CHAPA priority bills. The following bills will likely move to the respective Senate and House Committees on Ways and Means chaired by Senator Rodrigues and Representative Michlewitz.

On January 26, 2022, Governor Baker released his $48.6 billion state budget for FY2023 (H.2), which begins on July 1, 2022. According to Governor Baker, the budget would promote growth and support the ongoing public health response to COVID-19 while increasing total state spending by approximately 0.5% above Fiscal Year 2022.