Update on the Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP): a subsidy for market rate housing
The Commonwealth has spent or committed $146 million to subsidize market rate housing in Gateway Cities under the Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP) and is poised to spend up to another $30 million every year indefinitely. Yet the key question about HDIP remains unanswered: why is the state spending precious resources on high-end housing?
Fall River Needs a Balanced Housing Strategy
Fall River is riding a wave of exciting changes including the long awaited arrival of the South Coast Rail and a massive waterfront redevelopment. While working class and low income city residents welcome the city’s revitalization, they also need protections from rising rents, eviction and displacement. As the mayors of Salem and Lynn warned: Our current residents are […]
Policy Recommendations: The Affordable Homes Act
On October 18, 2023, Governor Healey filed a $4 billion housing bond bill, The Affordable Homes Act, H.4138 (Bond Bill), calling for significant investments in housing as well as policies intended to protect tenants and provide new tools for local communities. We applaud the Administration for proposing critically needed investments in preserving and creating affordable […]
Models of Justice: MLRI Annual Report 2021-2022
The past few years have been challenging, testing us individually and as a nation. Compounding crises exposed and exacerbated long-standing societal injustices, but also brought communities together to create powerful movements for change. As has been the case so many times since our founding, MLRI rose to meet the moment, marshaling our half-century of experience […]
Review of the Housing Development Incentive Program (“HDIP”)
The Housing Development Incentive Program (“HDIP”) provides millions in state tax credits and local tax breaks for developers of market rate and often luxury housing in the 26 Massachusetts Gateway Cities.1 The commonwealth has awarded almost $90 million in credits for this program and will distribute millions more every year—indefinitely. As the affordable housing crisis […]
The Default Project: A Survey of the Reasons for Tenant Defaults in Housing Court Eviction Cases
Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) and the Justice Center of Southeast Massachusetts (JCSEM) have released an innovative report analyzing the high rate of eviction cases where tenants default, or do not appear, at a court hearing. Statewide, tenants are defaulted in nearly 25% of eviction cases, with often disastrous results. The Massachusetts Access to Justice […]
Family Voices
Families and youth shared essential insights into what services worked for them, both those they received through DCF and those they found outside of DCF. They also talked about the services they needed but did not get. Finally, they shared important information about the impact of the DCF system on the effectiveness of its services. […]
Connecting Community College Students to SNAP
Food insecurity is on the rise throughout the country, including for low-income college students struggling to complete their education. COVID has further exacerbated the crisis for students. In a national survey conducted in the fall of 2020, roughly three in five college students reported they are experiencing basic needs insecurity during the public health crisis. College […]