Passage of a $509 million bond bill has hit another snag, frustrating housing advocates who just weeks before were celebrating a compromise on the measure.
House lawmakers agreed not to vote on the bill last week because some lawmakers want to guarantee changes to Chapter 40B, the state’s anti-snob zoning law, before voting to spend millions to preserve, renovate and create affordable housing.
“They don’t really want to proceed with the bond bill because they feel that it’s the only leverage they have to get the 40B bill done,” said Rep. Patricia A. Walrath, D-Stow, co-chairman of a conference committee that was responsible for reaching a compromise on the bond bill.
But housing advocates are disappointed and claim that hundreds of affordable housing projects are needlessly being held up.
“We’re extremely disappointed because we do not think that something that a lot of people agree on should be held up because some people disagree on something else,” said Joe Kriesberg, vice president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.
“The opponents to Chapter 40B want to make it harder to build housing in their communities. Now they’re taking it a step further in that they’re making it harder to build housing in communities that want it,” he added.
This latest round of legislative bargaining comes several weeks after a six-member conference committee reached a compromise on the housing bond bill, which provides $350 million to renovate public housing and grants to nonprofit groups and housing authority to construct new affordable housing.
The House and Senate passed different versions of the bill last summer, and it was up to the conference committee to hammer out one bill. When the compromise bill was agreed upon in the second week of February, housing advocates expected it to be quickly passed by the House and Senate and then signed by the governor.
Instead, lawmakers who had previously tied the bond bill with a separate housing bill that includes changes to Chapter 40B and measures on homeless prevention programs, rent escrowing, so-called expiring-use properties and other issues, urged their colleagues to hold off on the bond bill.
“They want to wait and do the two together,” said Walrath.
‘Incredible’ Delay
In the meantime, a different conference committee is trying to work on a compromise to House and Senate versions of the housing bill that contains the Chapter 40B changes. Walrath said that House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, D-Mattapan, indicated last week that he would be talking with Senate members of that committee to see what progress they’ve made on the bill.
When asked if she thought it was fair to tie the housing bond and Chapter 40B bills together, Walrath said the bills are related because if rules pertaining to affordable housing projects are changed, why should the state proceed with funding them.
Yet, Walrath also said of the bond bill, “It’s an important bill, and I’m looking forward to getting it enacted into law.”
Meanwhile, housing advocates are continuing to push for the bill.
“Every day that we wait is a day longer that the families are waiting for this housing,” said Kriesberg.
There are projects totaling hundreds of units that are waiting funding through the bill, he said.
“It’s incredible that legislation that passed the House and Senate almost eight months ago has not made it to the governor’s desk yet,” said Kriesberg.
