| Describing it as “the biggest thing that we all do together related to affordable housing development,” a top Baker administration official on Tuesday asked lawmakers to support a five-year $1.3 billion bond bill that she said will create both affordable housing and jobs.
“We think about the bond bill as the engine that drives all of the choices that we make around programmatic stuff and how we get to implement those,” said Chrystal Kornegay, undersecretary for housing and economic development.
Kornegay testified before the Joint Committee on Housing at a hearing on Gov. Charlie Baker’s housing bond bill (H 3653).
Baker’s bill seeks $1.287 billion in additional capital authorization to support construction and preservation of affordable housing, and to provide funds for public housing maintenance and improvement projects. It also would extend a state tax credit that finances affordable housing development, extend a state tax credit that encourages new housing development in Gateway Cities, and offers reforms to facilitate redevelopment of state-aided public housing.
The bill was considered hours after a report was released showing median prices for a single-family home or condominium in Massachusetts hit their highest marks ever for the month of June. The Warren Group reported that the median sale price of a single-family home in June increased 6.2 percent to $395,000, above last June’s $372,000 median price. It’s the fifteenth consecutive month with a year-over-year increase.
Passage of the governor’s bill, the administration said, would add to $258 million in remaining and uncommitted capital authorization to create more than $1.5 billion in capacity to support a five-year, $1.1 billion capital plan announced in May 2016 and to ensure there is bond capacity for future years.
So far, the administration’s housing capital plan has led to the preservation of more than 10,000 affordable homes, the preservation of 45,000 public housing units – including 4,488 units partnered with elderly services – and 489 permanently supportive housing units for homeless families and individuals with disabilities, Kornegay said.
“When it comes to affordable housing, Massachusetts has a supply and demand problem,” Rachel Heller, CEO of Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, told the committee in written testimony supportive of bonding for affordable housing production.
The committee was also taking testimony on a similar five-year, $1.7 billion housing bond bill (H 675) filed by the committee’s chairs, Rep. Kevin Honan and Sen. Linda Forry.
Organizations representing early educators on Tuesday pressed the committee to include in whatever version of a housing bond bill it reports out a provision in the Honan/Forry bill that would authorize $45 million for the Early Education and Out of School Time Facilities Fund, which has invested $16 million over four years to increase capacity at certain early education facilities and improve the learning environments.
“Quality early education provides dual benefits through both enhanced school readiness and as an economic stimulus that allows parents to work,” said William Eddy, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Early Education and Care. “Our members know the importance of stable housing, economic supports and quality early education and out of school time services for families in need to succeed.”
Capital spending bills are a favorite of lawmakers and, once they reach the House and Senate, usually pass with overwhelming support.
