Bill > H3921

This bill expands the purposes of the Somerville Affordable Housing Trust by allowing it to fund two additional types of housing-related social service programs. First, the trust can now support programs such as landlord-tenant mediation, legal services for tenants, case management, homelessness prevention, and housing counseling. Importantly, these social service programs do not need to be directly linked to a physical housing asset or result in adding new affordable housing units to the city's inventory. Second, the trust can fund start-up costs for new affordable housing production initiatives. This broadens the trust's traditional role beyond directly creating or managing affordable housing units to include supporting tenant welfare and helping to initiate new affordable housing projects. The bill will take effect immediately upon passage, giving the Somerville Affordable Housing Trust expanded flexibility in how it can use its resources to address housing-related challenges in the community.

Housing and Urban Affairs

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H3921