Posted on January 15, 2010
BOSTON, Jan. 15, 2010 --- The state Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) announced this week the process for selecting developers to purchase expiring use affordable rental housing properties under the state’s new affordable housing preservation law.
The new legislation, signed into law by Governor Deval Patrick in November, creates a framework to preserve affordable rents in properties where long-term, publicly subsidized mortgages are paid off and affordability restrictions can expire.
This legislation includes a provision that provides a right of first refusal for DHCD or its designated developer to purchase publicly assisted housing. The Request for Response (RFR) issued this week outlines the process in which DHCD will create an interim pool of non-profit and for-profit developers that could act as designees if DHCD exercises its right to purchase an expiring use property.
The new law coincides with the rollout of a $150 million preservation loan fund, supported primarily by private dollars. This short-term acquisition fund was created by the state quasi-public Community Economic Assistance Corp (CEDAC) in partnership with DHCD. The program is supported through state bond funds, a $3.5 million award from the MacArthur Foundation, $40 million from private lenders, and $100 million from the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp (MHIC). MHP provides financing to CEDAC and MHIC from its bank-funded loan pool, and this will also help support the preservation loan fund.
The new law also includes notification provisions for tenants within expiring use properties and modest tenant protections for projects with affordability restrictions that terminate. To read the new law, go to the DHCD web site, go to News & Updates and click onto "Interim Procedures Related to Properties Covered by GL Ch.121B, s. 40T (S.2190); An Act Preserving Publicly Assisted Affordable Housing."