HOUSING

Having a place to call home provides the foundation from which to build a work and educational life. Without housing security, the ability to sustain economic stability can be dramatically challenged. 

Several MCAN affiliates are addressing housing needs and challenges as determined locally by their leaders.  On the statewide level, MCAN affiliates United Interfaith Action of Southeastern Massachusetts and Essex County Community Organization organized behind the Affordable Homes Act, the largest housing bill of its kind in state history. ECCO’s members planned mass legislative actions with the state representatives of our districts. And when the real estate industry moved to scuttle key provisions in the bill, ECCO rapidly mobilized clergy actions in coordination with fellow MCAN affiliates, Brockton Interfaith Community and Pioneer Valley Project in Springfield. As a result, the current House version of the bill now includes: $2 billion in funding authorizations for repair and maintenance of state-owned public housing, $500 million more than we requested; allocations for a projected 20,000 homes targeted for extremely low-income residents; and accessory dwelling units, a measure that that was won last year by teams in Beverly and Rockport thus paving the way for this to be passed statewide.  

ECCO members also worked to make local impact on the following: the passage of local ordinances apportioning 10% of new construction around the MBTA transit developments to affordable housing in Gloucester and Rockport; an ordinance broadening Lynn’s standard of what incomes qualified for affordable housing funds; an increase in Salem’s ARPA housing funding to $9 million from a proposed $2 million; and $15 million in American Rescue Plan (ARPA) affordable housing trust money, vouchers, and rent stabilization programs.