Senate Passes Jehlen’s Supportive Housing Bill

Supportive Housing Legislation to Help Homeless, Persons with Disabilities, & Seniors

On Thursday July 21st, the Massachusetts Senate passed An Act Relative to Community Housing and Services, filed by Senator Pat Jehlen (D-Somerville). This legislation will lead to the development of up to 1,000 units of Supportive Housing in Massachusetts over the next three years. Supportive Housing – defined as affordable housing linked with supportive services designed to help tenants with modest incomes maintain housing stability and maximize their independence – is a national best practice to end homelessness and is critical to enabling persons with disabilities and seniors with service needs to live independently in the community.

“The Senate has a long history of supporting affordable housing and doing what it can to increase the stock of housing available to lower income families, senior citizens and the disabled,” Senate President Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) said. “This bill will continue that progress.”

Senator Jehlen, the Senate Chair of the Committee on Elder Affairs noted: “It is absolutely critical that Massachusetts residents of all ages, incomes and abilities have choices when it comes to securing an affordable home. This initiative will expand opportunities for people that have too few options to live in an affordable home near friends and family today.”

An Act Relative to Community Housing and Services aims to increase the state’s focus on the development of permanent supportive housing. The legislation calls on the Administration to determine numeric benchmarks for the creation of supportive housing, charges them with creating an efficient and effective application process for creating supportive housing that eliminates government silos, and establishes a target of 1,000 units of new supportive housing over the next 3 years. The legislation does not include any costs to the Commonwealth, but provides a more efficient framework to utilize current resources to benefit residents that need affordable housing and services.

“This legislation is the logical next step to implement the Commonwealth’s Housing First Strategy to eliminate homelessness” said Senator James Eldridge (D-Acton), the Senate Chair of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing, “It will help reduce the shortage of affordable housing that is linked to the services that enable people with challenges to be healthy, productive, and independent.”

“Senator Jehlen’s legislation will enable agencies across government to work together to make housing available to Massachusetts residents with difficult challenges,” noted Sean Caron, Director of Public Policy at Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA), a statewide affordable housing advocacy group. “We would like to thank Senator Jehlen, Senate President Murray and the entire Senate for enabling a thousand households to have a place to call home in their own community.”

The legislation will head to the House and await action.

– Information from State Senator Pat Jehlen (D-Somerville, Medford)