Gov. Maura Healey will sign the largest housing bond bill in state history on Tuesday, according to her staff, a $5.16 billion investment into solving the state’s “greatest challenge – housing costs.”
The Affordable Homes Act represents the “the most ambitious” housing legislation ever to be signed by a Bay State governor, Healey’s office said Monday.
According to House and Senate leadership, the bill offers bond authorizations and tax credits to “spur housing production” and “sweeping policy initiatives to facilitate the development of affordable housing and preserve public housing in Massachusetts.”
“Given that Massachusetts is one of the most expensive states in the entire country to buy a home or rent an apartment, the funding and tax credits provided by this bill will be crucial as we work to ensure that every Massachusetts resident can afford to live here, work here, and raise a family here,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said in a statement.
“An affordable, equitable, and competitive Commonwealth is one in which a renter can find an apartment within their budget, a family can afford a down payment on their first home, and residents aren’t priced out of communities where they want to live,” Senate President Karen Spilka said.
The final bill is about $1 billion shy of the House’s early-summer offering, but $1 billion more than Healey asked for in January, when she said solving the state’s housing problem was her administration’s “highest priority.”
Massachusetts, according to state officials, will need to construct upwards of 200,000 new homes by 2030 to keep up with demand.
Among other major investments, the law authorizes $2 billion worth of investments toward the repair and modernization of the state’s 43,000 public housing units, $200 million to support Local Housing Authorities, and $150 million to “decarbonize the public housing stock.”
A further $800 million can be deposited in the state’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, $425 million used for Housing Stabilization Fund and the Community Investment and Preservation Fund projects, $200 million “to accelerate the development of mixed-income multifamily housing,” and $100 million each sent to the Middle Income Housing Fund and the Commonwealth Builder program.
Healey, according to her staff, will sign the bill into law at a 10 a.m. ceremony in Newton.