On November 13 Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick outlined a bold new plan to produce 10,000 new multifamily housing units a year through 2020.
“Access to housing for our middle- and moderate-income families is an important component in the Commonwealth’s continued growth to retain and build our young and innovative workforce,” said Governor Patrick. “By working to strengthen and expand our current initiatives and through greater collaboration with organizations and agencies across the Commonwealth, we aim to produce 10,000 multi-family housing units annually.”
The Governor’s new Compact Neighborhoods program is the cornerstone of this initiative. It is designed to encourage transit-oriented development in city and town centers. The initiative would complement existing smart-growth programs by providing incentives to encourage residential development near transit and town centers. The program will recognize communities planning ahead systematically for economic and housing growth, and will offer Chapter 40B relief and priority consideration in discretionary funding programs, such as the MassWorks Infrastructure Program.
NH&RA Keynote Address To Explore Details
You can learn more about this important new initiative at NH&RA’s Developers Forum, December 10-11 at the Langham Hotel in Boston.
Massachusetts Undersecretary for Housing and Community Development Aaron Gornstein’s Keynote Address will be providing and update on how this new initiative will work with the Commonwealth’s existing affordable housing programs and priorities.
Mr. Gornstein oversees the Department of Housing and Community Development, which administers nearly $1 billion in state and federal funds for a variety of programs for affordable housing production, community development, municipal assistance, local and regional planning, energy conservation, rental assistance, public housing, and others. He also serves as the chief housing policy advisor to the Secretary of Housing and Economic Development and to the Governor, and serves as Chairman of the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, which provides technical and financial assistance to non-profit developers of affordable housing.
