Fall Legislative Activity

By Nathanael Shea, Director of Public Policy

It’s going to be a busy fall for our legislative agenda. On September 9th, the Joint Committee on Revenue held its hearing on Local Option Luxury Transfer Fee legislation. There was a great showing of individuals and organizations across the state advocating for having the resources they need to build and preserve affordable housing and keep people in their homes. A particular hat tip to MACDC members MA Affordable Homeownership Alliance, CHAPA, Somerville Community Corporation, and Island Housing Trust for delivering terrific testimony. You can watch all of the testimony here, and that page also includes information on how you can submit your own written testimony in favor of a Luxury Transfer Fee. And if you want to skip ahead you’ll find the several panels from the LOHA Coalition starting at around the 2:29 mark and MACDC’s own panel (alongside MAPC and MassBudget) as part of that coalition starting around the 2:48 mark. You can also read our testimony here.  

The Legislature also just announced a September 25th hearing date for the Zero Carbon Renovation Fund bill, and we’ll be working with our partners in that coalition to make sure the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy hears strong testimony about the need to invest in decarbonization. If you’re interested in getting information on sending in supportive written testimony or participating in that hearing, please feel to reach out to the great Emily Jones of LISC, who leads that coalition, at ejones@lisc.org. 

We’re also continuing to advocate, alongside our coalition partners, in favor of our other priority legislation like the AHEAD Act and the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA). If you wish to submit testimony on the AHEAD Act, it’s not too late! Please use these templates or check out the Action Network link for quick and easy submission. And stay tuned for information on the TOPA bill, which hasn’t yet had its hearing scheduled.  

MACDC’s Health Equity Committee 

MACDC’s Health Equity Committee will be meeting next on Monday October 6th at 2pm over Zoom where we will discuss CDCs’ involvement in local food policy councils. We invite any interested MACDC members to join in this important conversation! 

Equity Initiative Updates 

MACDC’s Housing Quality and Health Equity Initiative (“The Equity Initiative”) team is kicking off our engagement in our second cohort of Gateway Cities: Lynn, New Bedford, and Worcester. CEDC in New Bedford graciously hosted our New Bedford stakeholder meeting, which was attended by over 15 individuals. We will be holding meetings in Worcester and Lynn later this month. Please contact Elana at elanab@macdc.org if you’d like to learn more. 

Introduction to the Convergence of Health Equity and Community Development 

MACDC’s Director of Health Equity, Elana Brochin, and Michelle Wiener, formerly of DBEDC, facilitated their popular training on the convergence of Health Equity and Community Development. Participants learned about the ways that CDCs are impacting health outcomes in their communities and had the opportunity to workshop ideas for how their work could have a positive impact on health and how to measure this impact.