July 23, 2003
ROMNEY CELEBRATES NEW CHAPTER IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Signs legislation that provides flexibility in meeting housing goals
Governor Mitt Romney today celebrated the signing of a new law that will allow MassHousing to continue to make loans to finance affordable housing in the Commonwealth.
Within weeks, the quasi-public agency was poised to come up against its legal debt cap for rental housing, which would have prevented it from making any new loans for mixed-income rental housing developments.
“This new law will allow MassHousing to finance mixed-income homes without interruption,” said Romney. “We must work harder, and be smarter, to increase the state's housing supply and have it affordable to those across a broad range of incomes.”
While MassHousing had additional lending capacity to make loans to first-time home buyers, the measure signed by Romney allows MassHousing to combine two separate debt limits for rental housing and home ownership into one. No new funds are being made available. Rather, the action allows MassHousing to make better use of its existing resources.
Romney signed the bill at the Providence House in Brighton, which will become a 102-unit assisted living complex for the elderly. Adjacent to the Providence House will be the rehabilitated Seton Manor, an existing 20-unit building that houses people with HIV/AIDS.
Both developments are receiving financing from MassHousing, with the aid of the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Commonwealth’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the City of Boston.
“We are grateful to Governor Romney, HUD Committee Co-Chairs Rep. Kevin Honan and Sen. Harriette Chandler and the Legislature for their quick action in getting this bill passed and signed into law,” said MassHousing Executive Director Thomas R. Gleason. “We can now continue to do what we do best, which is make loans that produce attractive and much-needed rental housing units.”
Chartered in 1966, MassHousing sells bonds to generate loan proceeds that it lends to developers who build or rehabilitate mixed-income rental housing, and to low- and moderate-income homebuyers. MassHousing’s bonds are not obligations of the Commonwealth, and do not affect the Commonwealth’s debt ceiling. The statute that created MassHousing included two debt limits for rental housing and home mortgage loans. The limits have been periodically raised over the years.
“The state's housing crisis requires that we give top priority to produce housing for our workforce and to stimulate economic development. This MassHousing funding presents an opportunity for our state government to fulfill the dreams of thousands of first-time homebuyers and for renters to find an affordable, decent place to live,” said Kevin G. Honan, HUD Committee Co-Chair.
Since making its first loan in 1970, MassHousing (formally the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency) has provided approximately $7.5 billion in financing for 79,000 rental-housing units and 43,000 home mortgage loans.
###
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.