PITTSFIELD, Mass. - The Healey-Driscoll administration claims a $4 billion proposal to help build homes and make housing more affordable would be the largest investment of its kind in Massachusetts history.
What You Need To Know
- The Healey-Driscoll administration is announcing the Affordable Homes Act, which aims to help build homes and make housing more affordable
- The $4 billion plan is said to be the largest housing investment in state history and will create more than 40,000 new homes
- As part of the plan, a total of $1.83 billion would be directed to housing production and preservation in Massachusetts
- The Affordable Homes Act is investing in green building and decarbonization and would also make the Community Investment Tax Credit Program permanent and increase it from $12 million to $15 million per year to support the work of Community Development Corporations
Pittsfield marked Gov. Maura Healey’s third stop on Wednesday to announce the "Affordable Homes Act" in a statewide tour which began in Chelsea.
A lack of inventory continues to be an issue for the state’s housing market, so in total, this proposed investment aims to create 40,000 homes which otherwise wouldn’t have been built.
Healey said most of the spending will benefit moderate and low-income households and the goal is to face the state’s housing issue head-on.
“This is such a big problem that we've got to go big," Healey said. "We have got to go big, or else we're just nibbling around the edges and we're going to have too many people struggling financially, too many people leaving, too many businesses looking to locate or relocate outside of the state. The goal with this legislation is to make housing more affordable, more available for everyone across the state.”
Among many proposals, the bill aims to fund preservation and rehabilitation projects for homes and $1.6 billion would help improve public housing units across the state.
Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus said this bill would also combine with the housing development tax credits Healey signed earlier this month.
“As a former city manager of a gateway city, I understand how important housing growth is," Augustus said. "In Worcester, we needed both market rate housing and affordable housing to revitalize neighborhoods and provide people with safe, attractive and affordable places to live. The increase in the funding of the HDIP program included in the $1 billion tax relief package will do this for gateway cities like Pittsfield.”
Healey said the work now is in advocating to get the Affordable Homes Act passed by the state legislature, and time is of the essence. A full breakdown of the Affordable Homes Act’s provisions can be found here.