Efforts to advance a ballot question seeking to establish a broad spectrum of policies related to the rental housing market, including the legalization of rent control, gathered less than 15% of the required signatures over six weeks of outreach. With the November 22 signature deadline looming, the campaign was unable to gather the remaining 60,000+ signatures required and has suspended operations. This means that the question will not go before voters in 2024.
As NAIOP CEO Tamara Small told The Boston Globe over the weekend, rent control will not address our housing crisis.
Today NAIOP CEO Tamara Small joined business leaders, advocates, legislators, developers, and representatives from the Healey-Driscoll administration in Chelsea for the unveiling of the Administration’s $4 billion housing bond bill, The Affordable Homes Act. The legislation represents the largest proposed investment in housing in the state’s history.
In direct response to NAIOP’s advocacy and work convening a broad range of business and economic development groups over two legislative sessions, the final bill includes a language tripling the annual cap on the Housing Development Incentive Program from $10 million to $30 million, and a one-time $57 million allocation to clear out the almost-2,000 unit backlog of shovel ready housing projects in Gateway Cities across the Commonwealth. The bill also includes a NAIOP-supported $20 million increase in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, bringing the total annual allocation to $60 million.
The above archive includes blogs posted from December 2020 onward, and reflect NAIOP updates from July 2020 to present. For posts prior to July 2020, please visit NAIOP's archived blog.