In the early hours of Thursday, the state Legislature passed a $5.16 billion housing bond bill packed with policy measures. The bill is now in the hands of Gov. Maura Healey.
The House proposed a $6.5 billion bill, which included a $1 billion water resource expansion, while the Senate’s was about $1 billion lower, at $5.4 billion. Both proposals exceeded the $4.1 billion base bill Gov. Maura Healey filed.
The housing bond bill aims to jumpstart housing production and make it more affordable across the state.
However, the House and Senate left several sponsored policies on the table.
“Lots of minor stuff is not in there,” Sen. William Bronsberger, one of the lead negotiators, told reporters, including the State House News Service, after he filed the compromise at 6:30 a.m., after 19 hours of open sessions.
Most of the financial proposals the governor sought survived the final compromise, including $2 billion for the rehabilitation, repair and modernization of more than 40,000 public housing units across the state. According to the Massachusetts Municipal Association, this is an increase of $500 million over what Healey initially proposed in the Affordable Homes Act she filed last October.
Advertisement:The bill also includes $800 million for affordable units, and policy provisions such as expanding seasonal community designations and a condo conversion law to cover two- and three-family units.
It also includes a measure sealing eviction records that Healey asked for.
The bill will allow accessory dwelling units — so-called in-law apartments — in single-family zones, preempting almost all local authorities and existing regulations on ADUs. According to the governor’s office, the change to allow smaller additions placed on larger single-family homes could create 10,000 new units across the state.
Significant investments in the bill include $375 million for the HousingWorks Infrastructure Program, a grant program for municipalities and other public entities for infrastructure-related activities that will help with housing.
The compromise did not include a Senate proposal to make landlords pay for broker’s fees instead of tenants.
Advertisement:The State House News Service reports that it did not include grants such as $50 million for rural and small-town housing, $50 million for mid-sized suburban town housing for communities with under 40,000 residents, and another $50 million for seasonal communities, which face unique housing challenges from the inflating prices of the second-home market.
The news service also reported that an apprenticeship program, which the construction industry sought, was left out.
In addition, Massachusetts Water Resource Authority’s $1 billion expansion to water and sewer services to areas north and south of Boston that would drive more housing didn’t make the cut.
The news service reports that several House-backed ideas also failed in negotiations. These include an idea to have $150 million go towards converting unused commercial spaces into residential properties and $50 million towards Healthy Homes, which would provide grants to address lead paint, air quality and other health issues, and a veteran’s program.
“At the end of the day, we took an approach that was focused on the financial elements that were in common between the two bills,” Brownsberger told the State House News Service.
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