Governor Baker Announces Five Year $1.1 Billion Investment in Housing Production and Preservation for Working Families

Upcoming capital budget includes 18 percent increase for housing opportunities for mixed incomes, homeless and middle-income families, individuals with disabilities, seniors

Governor Charlie Baker announced this week that the Baker-Polito Administration’s upcoming five-year capital budget will devote $1.1 billion to affordable and workforce housing development and preservation. The funding will maintain support for existing programs for high-needs populations, increase support for local public housing communities and finance new initiatives to preserve at-risk affordable housing and boost mixed-income housing production across Massachusetts.

Investments in public and affordable housing will be up 8 percent in Fiscal Year 2017 and 18 percent over the course of the plan. These investments support local housing authorities that serve over 80,000 residents, spur private construction of affordable and workforce housing, and initiate several new programs that will preserve or create approximately 5,000 affordable units over the course of the plan.

“Advancing a strong, vibrant and inclusive Commonwealth requires addressing the housing challenges facing working families and at-risk residents and engaging the private market to increase community development and housing production for all incomes,” Baker said. “Our capital plan undertakes a significant effort to preserve thousands of affordable housing units and boost the production of new affordable units that will provide housing security for our state’s most vulnerable residents, including homeless families.”

Baker made the announcement at the Urban Land Institute’s Housing Opportunity 2016 Conference, a gathering of national housing development and preservation leaders. The Administration’s full five-year capital budget will be released later this month.

“By strategically targeting resources through the Administration’s capital investment plan, we will be able to maintain and modernize existing housing and develop new affordable and workforce units,” said Secretary of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance, Kristen Lepore. “This is a great example of leveraging our resources to support low and middle income families across the Commonwealth.”

Housing Investments in the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2017-2021 Capital Plan:

• $50 million in new funding to preserve privately-owned affordable housing units with expiring affordability restrictions, to be matched with $50 million in new preservation funds from MassHousing;
• $25 million in new funding for the development of supportive housing for homeless families and individuals with disabilities;
• $34 million in new funding to advance mixed-income housing development;
• $25.5 million in new funding to accelerate the preservation and redevelopment of local public housing communities through public-private partnerships;
• $14 million in new funding to local affordable housing funds, and advance small-scale affordable housing development in communities;
• $12 million in additional capacity for capital projects at state-supported public housing communities.

“This capital plan supports our ongoing work to advance housing production, and increase private investment in mixed-income housing development,” said Undersecretary of Housing and Community Development Chrystal Kornegay. “By steering new resources to public-private partnerships in housing production and affordable housing preservation, we will deepen income security, and harness housing production as a driver of community development.”

The increased capital support for housing and community development is in addition to a new $100 million workforce housing development fund established at MassHousing, the state’s quasi-public housing finance agency. Governor Baker and MassHousing Executive Director Tim Sullivan announced the $100 million workforce housing development fund in Lynn last week to support the creation of 1,000 new units of moderately-priced housing.