Massachusetts House proposes $6.2 billion bill to address housing shortage

In response to the housing crisis confronting the Bay State, the House on Monday released a $6.2 billion proposal aimed at filling the 200,000-home hole in the commonwealth’s housing stock.

According to House Speaker Ron Mariano’s office, the House bill represents “the largest housing investment in state history.”

“The cost of buying a home or renting an apartment in Massachusetts is amongst the highest in the United States, a crisis that has made the Commonwealth less competitive with other states, and that has made the American Dream unachievable for many of our young people,” Mariano said in a statement after the bill’s release.

“With this legislation however, the House is making a concerted effort to change that reality by increasing access to affordable and middle-income housing, and by ensuring that the Commonwealth’s infrastructure system is equipped for an increase in housing production,” Mariano added.

The bill, according to the speaker’s office, uses bond authorizations, tax credits, and more than 20 policy initiatives to promote housing production — including affordable options — and preserve the state’s existing public housing stock.

“This comprehensive bond bill will help address the Commonwealth’s undeniable housing crisis. By putting billions of capital resources towards constructing new homes and towards rehabilitating our aging public housing infrastructure, we will be making a difference to the thousands of residents who live in these facilities,” House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz said.

The bill would change state rules around accessory dwelling units, sometimes called “in-law apartments,” to allow units under 900 square feet in all residential zoned parts of the state.

The House bill also “authorizes a court appointed receiver of a vacant residential property, in actions to enforce the sanitary code, to sell the property at fair market value to a nonprofit which will rehabilitate the property, correct sanitary code violations, and sell the property to a first-time homebuyer with an income not more than 120 percent of AMI.”

The proposal would invest $2 billion toward the repair and modernization of the state’s 43,000 public housing units and $200 million to support the Local Housing Authorities.

A further $800 million would be deposited in the state’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, $475 million used for Housing Stabilization Fund and the Community Investment and Preservation Fund projects, and $250 million “to accelerate the development of mixed-income multifamily housing.”

The bill also calls for a $1 billion investment into the expansion of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s water system to the South Shore and the Ipswich River Basin.