Our Legislators, Our Housing Secretary, ALL OF US SAY: EMAIL HOUSE LEADERS NOW!

We just said good-bye to each other at our 8th Annual Network Gathering: over 150 of us in a room, Housing Secretary Ed Augustus, over a dozen western MA legislators, mayors, and 100+ community partners. We felt the power to make change happen.

Our legislators inspired us today in a call to ACT NOW for House Leadership to hear us on the Affordable Homes Act. The House Ways and Means Committee is very likely to bring their version of the bill to the House floor either as soon as next week or the week after. They need to hear from us RIGHT NOW for us to make the biggest possible impact and to have the best shot at this bill meeting our region’s needs.

Please “copy and paste” what is below (adapt as you wish!) to key legislators—with email addresses below—of the Network’s priority asks:

Dear House Leaders:

First, we are writing in enthusiastic support of the Affordable Homes Act’s investment of $4.1 billion in affordable housing.

Secondly, we ask for your support of the following amendments to the Affordable Homes Act to better meet western Massachusetts’ needs:

Transfer Fee for Affordable Housing: See our 4 requested amendments here by the LOHA Coalition. We MUST change the threshold for enacting a transfer fee (currently at a $1m home sale) in order to make the transfer fee at all useful in western Massachusetts. Also see the FAQ on the transfer fee here.
Eviction Record Sealing: Substitute Section 47 in H.4138/Housing Bond Bill with the H.4356/HOMES Act (see factsheet to explain more here) and provide automatic sealing for eviction cases that are dismissed, decided in a tenant’s favor or are no-fault cases. The current proposals require the tenant to petition the court to seal in all cases, creating a new barrier to housing. Access to housing and administrative efficiency together compel the adoption of automatic sealing.
Flex Pool for Permanent Supportive Housing: Insert language from H. 1354/S.855 into Chapter 21H in H.4138/Housing Bond Bill (see factsheet to explain more here) to make supportive housing opportunities available and more responsive to the growing number of people who need it.
Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA): Include the TOPA bill (S.880/H.135) to give communities the local option to preserve housing affordability by providing tenants or their designee the right of first refusal to buy their buildings when they are put up for sale by matching the purchasing price (see factsheet here).
Western Massachusetts Housing Coalition Priorities: Please go here for the list of additional western MA-specific amendments that will meet the unique needs of more rural regions.