After reading April 5’s article about a $250,000 grant Northampton received for affordable housing, I thought it would be helpful to note that it was part of a $5 million disbursement of capital improvement grants to 14 communities designated as House Choice Communities.
It’s a good program that citizens should know about. Northampton wasn’t the only local community that received such funds, and other towns can benefit from the program, which isn’t just for subsidized, affordable housing, but all housing. This is an important program with an urgent goal given the housing shortage exacerbated by the pandemic.
Although Gov. Charlie Baker’s Housing Choice bill was finally signed into law earlier this year, which lowered the threshold for zone changes from a two-thirds supermajority to a simple majority, after years of inaction by the state Legislature, his Housing Choice Initiative and community designation program was implemented a few years ago.
Money has been disbursed to eligible cities and towns since 2018. According to Mass.gov, 78 cities and towns have been designated as Housing Choice Communities.
Other Pioneer Valley towns were awarded a Housing Choice Community Capital Grant, along with Northampton. Amherst was awarded $174,300, Shelburne was awarded $93,000, Southampton was awarded $100,000, and Sunderland was awarded $43,361. Other Valley towns have been awarded these grants since the governor’s Housing Choice Initiative was announced in 2017.
Two different grants are available. There is the Housing Choice Capital Grant Program and the Housing Choice Small Town Capital Grant Program.
“The Housing Choice Community Capital Grant Program funds infrastructure improvements in those communities that have shown commitment to advancing sustainable housing production,” the Baker administration’s press release reads. “Recognizing that small towns face different challenges, the Housing Choice Initiative also set aside funding for a competitive Small Town Capital Grant Program exclusively for towns with populations under 7,000.”
If the Housing Choice Communities designation seems familiar, there is a reason for that. The program was modeled after Gov. Deval Patrick’s Green Communities program, which also designated cities and towns that met certain criteria as Green Communities, thereby making them eligible for grants. According to the state’s website: “The Housing Choice Initiative will track progress toward a goal of 135,000 new housing units statewide by 2025, or about 17,000 new units per year.”
All of this information is available on Mass.gov, including the criteria to become a Housing Choice Community, a list of Housing Choice Communities applications for the Housing Choice Community designation, and applications for the grants.
There was a housing shortage in the years leading up to the pandemic. That is why the governor initiated this effort to spur housing growth a few years ago. The pandemic just revealed the dire need for additional housing. Resolving the housing shortage should be a concern or every citizen of every socioeconomic status.
Michael Seward lives in Shelburne.