What is the Affordable Homes Act? Why is it important?
UPDATE: The House passed the Affordable Homes Act and it now goes to the Senate. Some additional funds were included in the legislation and allowing ADUs. The Local Option Transfer Fee was not included. The Senate could still put this back in when they take up the legislation.
The Affordable Homes Act is a comprehensive package of spending, policy, and programmatic actions. It represents the largest proposed investment in housing in the state’s history – addressing the root causes of housing unaffordability while also making progress on the state’s climate goals.
The Affordable Homes Act includes $4 billion in capital spending authorizations and 28 substantive policy changes, three executive orders and two targeted tax credits.
A few key aspects of the bill:
Local Option Transfer Fee: This fee could generate over $35 million per year for affordable housing in Newton.
Allows municipalities and regional affordable housing commissions the ability to decide if they want to adopt a transfer fee to fund affordable housing development. The fee could range from 0.5% - 2.0% on the portion of sale that is over $1M or the county median home sales price, whichever is greater. (If a house is sold for $1,100,000, the fee would only be on $100,000.)
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs): Permits ADUs (900 SF or less) to be built in single-family zoning districts in all communities without going through a special permit process that can be lengthy and costly. While Newton does allow ADUs, many towns do not. Allowing ADUS would be a way to build more affordable housing throughout the state.
$1.6B for Public Housing: Supports the repair, rehabilitation, and modernization of over 43,000 public housing units across the Commonwealth.
$800M for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund
$275M for Sustainable and Green Housing Initiatives
$100M for Mixed-Income Housing Fund
Statewide Housing Plan: Require the preparation of a statewide housing plan every 5 years.
Tenant Protections in Local Housing Authority Redevelopment and Eviction Sealing
Homeowner Production Tax Credit: New credit to incentivize production of homeownership units targeting households with incomes of up to 120% AMI.
Identifying Surplus Public Land for Housing
Check out this fact sheet for a complete rundown of spending, policy, and programmatic actions.
To voice your support for the Affordable Homes Act it is important to contact the leadership in the Senate including: Senate President Karen Spilka and Majority Leader and Senator for Newton, Cindy Creem.