MACDC Health Equity Updates
MACDC’s Health Equity Committee met on December 1st and discussed several CDCs’ partnerships in the health space, including Hilltown CDC’s Complete Streets program and Codman Square NDC’s work with Boston’s Live Long and Well Initiative. We also spoke about further coordinating CDCs food access work.
MACDC’s Housing Quality and Health Equity Initiative is continuing to engage in Lynn, New Bedford, and Worcester and is working with local stakeholders to determine priority areas in each municipality. Leaders in each City met by Zoom in December.
Taylor Robinson completed her time as MACDC’s Health Equity Intern and we plan to welcome a new intern this month.
MACDC’s Massachusetts Healthy Homes Program (MHHP) Coalition will meet on Thursday December 17th at 10am. Please be in touch with Elana at elanab@macdc.org if you would like to join and Elana will share the link.
MACDC Policy Updates
- Federal Advocacy Opportunity!
- We’ve been alerted about an opportunity to weigh in on a crucial federal policy affecting affordable housing development costs. The House Committee on Financial Services is considering a bill from Rep. Mike Flood (R-NE) that would exempt HUD- and USDA-funded developments from the Buy America Build America (BABA) mandate that has contributed to the escalation in building costs. With two MA congresspeople on that committee, we have an opportunity to weigh in on a policy that could help our public investments in affordable housing go farther. See here for information on how to weigh in ASAP (the markup will be Monday the 15th!).
- Massachusetts Legislative Updates
- The state Senate’s initial deadline for legislative committees to report on bills was last week, and we’re happy to report that MACDC priority legislation had several positive results! The House has a slightly later deadline, so while we’ve seen a little movement there, most House bills still have a month or two before they need to be reported out. The likeliest next destination for bills that received favorable reports will be the Ways and Means Committee. See below for which of our bills have advanced in the Senate:
- AHEAD Act
- Local Option Luxury Transfer Fee (LOHA)
- Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA)
- MRVP Codification (favorable report in both House and Senate)
- The state Senate’s initial deadline for legislative committees to report on bills was last week, and we’re happy to report that MACDC priority legislation had several positive results! The House has a slightly later deadline, so while we’ve seen a little movement there, most House bills still have a month or two before they need to be reported out. The likeliest next destination for bills that received favorable reports will be the Ways and Means Committee. See below for which of our bills have advanced in the Senate:
- The Governor’s Environmental Bond Bill, The Mass Ready Act, has also been reported favorably from the Joint Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources and is now before the Joint Committee on Bonding. The bill is focused on a wide range of investments in environmental infrastructure, including some of our priorities like water infrastructure and permitting reform for housing. You can find a summary of that bill here, and MACDC is continuing to work with our allies to insert some of our other priorities as it makes its way through the legislative process.
- Make sure you’ve saved the date for MACDC State House Lobby Day on April 15th! This is a great opportunity for us all to come together and demonstrate our collective power to our legislators on Beacon Hill.
- And keep an eye out for information on our annual Donuts with your Delegation campaign. This year the campaign will run January 20th – February 13th. More info and supporting materials will be sent out in the coming days. Please be sure to keep your events within these dates, as any later risks diluting our advocacy if it’s too close to Lobby Day.
- Our Friends in the MRVP Coalition are hosting our annual MRVP Cookie Day at the State House on February 11th. Come join us to enjoy come cookies and advocate to legislators about increased funding for the crucial program! Info here.
