MACDC’s Campaign for our Neighborhoods a success
Fiscal year 2010 built on the successes of the previous year as we finished our Campaign for our Neighborhoods. We strengthened foreclosure stabilization efforts, supported efforts to preserve affordable housing in so-called “expiring use” buildings, created stable funding for small business assistance programs and established new resources for our members to build and support the communities they serve.
Our members played a key role in this phenomenal success. Members invited their legislators to their CDCs for breakfast and over 200 CDC staff, board and leaders spent a day in the State House to walk the halls and make the needs of our communities heard at nearly 40 meetings. Our members also made calls when action alerts were sent out and forwarded those alerts to others so allies and friends could also support MACDC’s legislative agenda.
MACDC was successful in passing nearly all of our state legislative priorities including:
1. Protecting tenants in foreclosed homes and promoting long term, sustainable homeownership
An Act Relative to Stabilizing Communities (Chapter 258) unanimously passed the legislature and was signed into law by the Governor on August 5, 2010 in the driveway of a formerly foreclosed home in Brockton that was rehabilitated by the MACDC member, NHS of the South Shore. MACDC worked closely in coalition with CHAPA, Boston Tenants’ Coalition and other organizations to pass this bill along with our chief legislative sponsors, Representative Kevin Honan and Senator Susan Tucker. The new law helps homeowners by providing incentives for servicers to negotiate with loan modifications in good faith; it helps tenants by protecting them against unfair evictions; and it helps neighborhoods by requiring servicers and banks who own foreclosed properties to prominently post contact information for the local management company.
In addition, MACDC advocated for continued funding of the state’s foreclosure counseling program. In 2010, based on the revenue received from mortgage licensing fees, the State’s Division of Banks made $800,000 available to support CDCs and other non profit organizations, and they plan to make additional funding available in early 2011.
2. Strengthening community based development in our neighborhoods
MACDC was able to successfully include modernizing language into the state law that defines CDCs in An Act Relative to Economic Development Reorganization (Chapter 240). This update of a 1975 definition – before fax machines, the internet or social media - was identified as an important reform by the Massachusetts Community Development Innovation Forum. The new law creates a more flexible and modern definition, requires DHCD to certify groups as meeting that definition and provides a framework for targeting resources to CDCs to help local residents and businesses advance community-identified priorities. MACDC will work to ensure this new definition is fully developed and incorporated into broader state community development policy. MACDC is grateful for the leadership that Representative Steven Walsh and Senator Harriette Chandler showed to ensure this key component was incorporated into the economic development law of 2010.
3. Strengthening locally owned businesses
Continuing our success in getting funding even during the difficult budget debates, MACDC was able to secured $1.2 million in funding for the Small Business Technical Assistance Grant Program for FY10 and FY11. MACDC and its members are committed to helping these business owners and their employees survive these tough times and the Small Business TA program provides some of the necessary funding to support these efforts.
In addition, MACDC strongly advocated for the creation of the new Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation, the new “one-stop” for small business for both capital and advice created by Chapter 240. MACDC successfully advocated for language in the GCC’s enabling language that targets resources to economically distressed communities within the Commonwealth. MACDC President, Joseph Kriesberg, was subsequently appointed by Governor Deval Patrick to serve on the GCC board of directors to help develop its initial priorities and programs.
As we reported in last year’s annual report, MACDC also secured a victory on another part of our Campaign for our Neighborhoods when An Act Preserving Publicly Assisted Affordable Housing (Chapter 159)was signed into law in November, 2009. The law creates a framework to ensure that tens of thousands of privately owned apartments in Massachusetts remain affordable even though time-limited state and federal subsidies are ending.
Other Policy achievements
MACDC and its members were instrumental in the creation of the Massachusetts Low Income Multi-Family Retrofit Program for non-profits and public housing authorities, launched in 2010, that provides cost-effective residential energy efficiency improvements that benefit low-income occupants and owners of multi-family buildings. The program is funded by the electric and gas utilities in Massachusetts, and MACDC Members sit on its Advisory Committee. Utilities have committed to three years of funding, with $10 million available in 2010 and increasing amounts the two following years. Many MACDC Members have applied to the Program, and we anticipate that CDCs will be able to energy retrofit 1,000 units per year.
MACDC engaged with our members, allies and public officials on CDC efforts to acquire and redevelop foreclosed properties. We convened our members working on foreclosed properties, facilitated dialogue with officials at MHIC and DHCD on the use of federal NSP funding, served on CHAPA’s Foreclosed Properties Committee, and participated in efforts to prevent displacement of renters in foreclosed properties. We also submitted comment letters on the State’s successful application for NSP 2 funding. MACDC and CDCs are now routinely included in State policy discussions on how to address the foreclosure crisis.
We worked with CHAPA and our national allies at NACEDA to help pass the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Exchange program and the Tax Credit Assistance Program in 2009 – these programs help save the LIHTC program and jump start nearly 30 stalled affordable housing projects in Massachusetts.
In addition we advocated with our national partner NCRC for strong consumer protection language in the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill that created the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In Massachusetts we worked with CHAPA and the Building Blocks Coalition to fight to preserve MRVP and other affordable housing programs in the FY11 budget. The Coalition worked to protect affordable housing during another difficult budget season.
MACDC has been working with its partners in the Smart Growth Alliance. We are working to develop the vision for a Great Neighborhoods Initiative that will help advance MAPC’s Metro Future plan by providing support to local smart growth efforts throughout the region. This program will be launched in the fall of 2010.