Bay State lawmakers advanced several housing-related priorities this legislative session, including a bill that would provide additional school funding to communities that create housing in smart-growth zoning districts and more money for rental assistance programs that help low-income families.
But housing advocates, homebuilders and Realtors will continue to keep their eyes on issues that the Legislature didn’t take up this session, including a controversial proposal to reform the state’s zoning laws and bills to weaken Chapter 40B, the anti-snob zoning law.
“We face some legislation that will be detrimental to housing production,” said Mark Leff, senior vice president of the Home Builders Association of Massachusetts. “We’re hopeful that the [Romney] administration and Legislature will take a hard look at housing issues and see if they can devise better policies for increased housing production.”
While those issues remain unresolved, housing advocates were relieved to see that the economic stimulus bills passed by both the House and Senate included recapitalization of the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, a program that has provided grants and loans to developers and communities to assess and clean up contaminated sites across the state since 1999. Some sites that have been cleaned up in the past with funds from the program have been transformed into mixed-use developments.
The economic stimulus bills also extended tax breaks for developers who redevelop historic properties and contaminated sites.
Another major victory for housing activists was the passage of legislation known as Chapter 40S, which requires the state to provide additional school aid to communities that allow denser housing development in specially created smart-growth zoning districts. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Mitt Romney last Wednesday.
The measure complements a law passed last year known as Chapter 40R. Under Chapter 40R, communities that establish districts near public transit stops or in town centers where housing can be developed are eligible to receive upfront payments of $1,000 per unit from the state and an additional $3,000 per unit once building permits are issued. The new developments must include homes for lower-income households.
Supporters say the extra school funding is a critical piece of the smart-growth legislation because communities often resist housing development fearing that new homes will create a financial burden on their school systems.
“I attend dozens of planning and zoning board meetings each year and even when local officials know that their community lacks reasonably priced housing for younger residents and families, they are often hesitant to approve projects for school budget reasons,” Mark Vaughn, a partner at the Burlington law firm Riemer & Braunstein, said in a prepared statement.
Realtors and homebuilders are among the supporters of Chapter 40S. “I don’t think you can really realize the value of Chapter 40R until you have school funding,” said Greg Vasil, chief executive officer of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board.
‘A Huge Step’
While some measures approved by lawmakers are aimed at expanding the supply of housing, the Legislature also took steps to preserve existing housing.
Legislators allocated $34.8 million for the operating budgets of public housing authorities, up from $31.9 million last fiscal year, and the supplemental budgets approved by the House and Senate would provide anywhere from $7 million to $10 million more.
The Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association had pushed for a $10 million increase in funding for public housing to keep up with ongoing maintenance and repairs and to keep pace with increasing utility costs.
CHAPA also advocated for more money for the Alternative Housing Voucher Program, which helps people with disabilities pay rent, and the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program, which provides rental assistance to low-income tenants living in privately owned apartments. The Legislature delivered on both fronts.
The House and Senate increased funding for the Alternative Housing Voucher Program by $700,000, and approved $26.2 million for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program, a $2 million increase from last year.
The Legislature also changed the rental voucher program to ensure that tenants using vouchers are not using more than 40 percent of their income to pay for rent.
In the past, 60 percent of tenants with vouchers statewide were paying more than 40 percent of their income for rent, according to Julia Kehoe, executive director of the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership.
And in high-priced markets like Greater Boston the vast majority of renters with vouchers were paying more than half of their incomes for rent, said Kehoe.
Kehoe said the changes approved by lawmakers and the funding increase helped to stabilize the rental voucher program, which was once funded at $125 million.
“It was a huge step in the right direction but there’s still a long way to go,” Kehoe said.
Chris Norris, CHAPA’s assistant director, said when the Alternative Housing Voucher Program was originally created it served 800 households. Two years ago, the state stopped issuing new vouchers and made it harder for people who had vouchers to use them. Funding increases approved this year are allowing approximately 200 new vouchers to be issued.
“I think it was a successful first half of the session and the jury is still out on the remaining items,” Norris said.
Other housing-related matters that were advanced during the session included a bill that requires the installation of carbon monoxide detectors in residential properties. The bill was supported by GBREB and MAR.
MAR is currently working on informational materials about the carbon monoxide detector law, which takes effect in March, to distribute to Realtors.
“We want to make sure they [MAR members] have something they can hand to home sellers so they know what they have to do to comply with the law so there are no surprises at closing time,” said Stephen Ryan, MAR’s legislative counsel.
Another priority high on MAR’s legislative agenda – a bill that would require a licensed pharmacist to distribute Sudafed and other over-the-counter medicines that contain the key ingredient used in the production of crystal methamphetamine – made some progress. MAR leaders support the bill because they say the process of converting chemicals from cold medicines into crystal meth can contaminate properties and pose a serious health threat to tenants.
At a hearing on the bill in July, Ryan urged lawmakers to pass the legislation to protect property values and people from exposure to poisonous gases and toxic waste produced by crystal-meth labs.
The Senate approved the bill and it is now before the House.
“We’re encouraged by the response of the Legislature on that issue,” Ryan said last week.
With the beginning of 2006 quickly approaching, homebuilders and Realtors will be monitoring efforts to pass the Land Use Reform Act. A hearing this past summer to discuss the proposed legislation, which would give communities more control over development, drew fierce opposition from homebuilders who fear the measure would hinder housing development.
Leff, of the homebuilders’ group, said the legislation includes several provisions that would hurt housing production, including one that would make it more difficult for developers to build on so-called “approval-not-required” lots that currently meet zoning requirements and don’t need local approval.
The proposed legislation is being studied by a committee.
“The state has to decide whether it’s serious about increasing housing production or [if it’s] going to pay lip service to the problem,” Leff said. “The future viability of the state will depend on the answer.”
