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Lawmakers Call For Reform of Affordable Housing LawBy Catherine Williams - October 28, 2007
State House News Service
BOSTON - The state's chief housing official last week unveiled a proposal for a pilot program featuring incentives for cities and towns to adopt affordable housing projects.
The proposal, outlined by Undersecretary of Housing and Community Development Tina Brooks, would modify an existing affordable housing law, known as Chapter 40B. The proposal is a pilot program designed to reward municipalities for approving projects that create housing for low and moderate income individuals and families.
Administration officials said the proposal is an economic development tool designed to create housing for moderate income workers needed by employers. But critics of Chapter 40B oppose modifying the law and favor scrapping it.
"We believe the pilot program is an important step in the evolution of 40B," said Brooks, during her testimony at the Committee on Housing hearing today.
Since Massachusetts cities and towns are encouraged to maintain 10 percent of total housing supply as affordable housing, units are counted in each municipality. Under the pilot program a municipality would reach the quota with less total units if it designates both low- and moderate-income units.
It is unclear if the change would need to win approval from the Legislature because the proposal is in the early stages of crafting, said Philip Hailer, spokesman for the Department of Housing and Community Development.
In addition, Brooks said during her testimony that she is in the midst of a top-to-bottom review of the law and plans to make recommendations for changes to Chapter 40B to speed up the appeals process and update regulations based on recent court rulings.
State housing officials plan to submit regulation reform recommendations to the secretary of state's office by the end of the year in time for a public hearing about the proposed changes, said Hailer.
But the issue is complicated and affordable housing reform debate has plagued lawmakers for decades. Lawmakers and state officials who oppose the law said it needs an overhaul not just modification.
Even the state's inspector general, Gregory Sullivan, is weighing in on the topic. Sullivan is conducting an ongoing investigation of "wide-spread abuse" of one aspect of the law that sets profit caps for developers.
"This represents the biggest scandal in state history," Sullivan said in an interview.
Sen. Robert Hedlund, R-Weymouth, said Chapter 40B is "an abject failure" and would support scrapping the law to craft and come up with something better.
"I would like some of these people to get out of policy papers spoon-fed by organizations such as CHAPA (Citizens' Housing and Planning Association) and talk to local officials who are on the front lines," said Hedlund.
Meanwhile, the housing committee's co-Chairwoman Sen. Susan Tucker, D-Andover, said Brooks' proposal is worth pursuing.
"We hear constantly from employers that we are losing talent because of the high cost of housing. We need a whole menu of solutions to keep the economy afloat," Tucker said in an interview. |
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