An Affordable Home in the Hand Is Worth Preserving
While we are investing billions of vital dollars in affordable housing production we must also ensure we are not allowing existing affordable units to be lost.
Housing Bill Lands on Healey’s Desk, Minus TOPA
House and Senate negotiators filed an early-morning agreement on a policy-filled $5.16 billion housing bond bill Thursday, potentially salvaging a priority for the House, Senate and Gov. Maura Healey.
TOPA Is Back – But Still Unworkable at Its Core
Everyone agrees that we need to generate more affordable housing. Unfortunately for both property owners and tenants, a “tenant right of first refusal” proposal made it into the House version of Beacon Hill’s big housing bill.
Industry Attacks Tenant Right-to-Purchase Language in Housing Bill
House of Representatives leaders didn’t just add several billion dollars of additional housing funding to Gov. Maura Healey’s big bonding-and-policy bill earlier this month. They also added a measure anathema to real estate trade groups.
Massachusetts Can Build a Triple Threat to Attack the Housing Crisis
The state’s pervasive housing problems need a three-pronged approach that adds more housing subsidies and prioritizes the needs of our most vulnerable neighbors.
How the Healey Administration May Confront the Housing Crisis
Gov. Maura Healey understands the serious, long-term threats the housing crisis poses to Massachusetts. But as she looks to go even further than her current pledges, there are three policy ideas that will make the crisis worse, and which she should avoid.
‘Vulture Season’ in Massachusetts Is Closed for Now
Landlords and developers got two wins in the last 30 days in the fight to stop tenant “right of first refusal” or “TOPA” laws: one on Beacon Hill and the other in a Middlesex County Courtroom.
Letter to the Editor: Don’t Sugarcoat the Bitter Truth About TOPA
The Small Property Owners Association disputes the TOPA Coalition’s duplicitous defense of TOPA as a “good housing policy” in its June 19 column in Banker & Tradesman.
TOPA Is Good Housing Policy
Misinformation has been spreading about what the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act would do. Here are the facts, and the many places it’s been refined with real estate industry feedback.
Silent Threat to Property Rights Creeps Forward on Beacon Hill
“Tenant right of first refusal,” sometimes called “TOPA” is making inroads among state legislators. But the idea has a bad track record and would severely violate landlords’ property rights.
Beacon Hill Battles Over Renter Rights
The pandemic has cast a spotlight on the precious living situation of so many people in Renter Nation, from surging rents to evictions. Now, legislators are debating a range of bills from renters’ right of first refusal to changes in who oversees real estate agents’ licenses.
Hate Tenant Right of First Refusal? Consider Who’s to Blame
Think single-family prices have gotten out of hand in Greater Boston? Well, wait till you see what’s happened with the backbone of the local apartment market, small rental properties. Now, an inevitable backlash is building.
New Tenant Right-to-Purchase Bill Heard on Beacon Hill
After Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed the state legislature’s previous attempt last year to guarantee apartment tenants the right to purchase the building they’re living in, senators and representatives are back with a revised bill they say addresses some industry concerns.
Tenant Right of First Refusal to Be Heard on Beacon Hill
Although benign-sounding, the two bills would literally destroy rental housing through their provisions for “small amounts of demolition,” among other draconian measures.
Landlord Groups Plead with Baker to Stop Jobs Bill
Massachusetts’ small-landlord trade groups have launched a push calling on Gov. Charlie Baker to reject the omnibus economic development bill passed in the early hours of Wednesday morning over provisions that would grant apartment tenants the right of first refusal if a landlord sought to sell the building.
