Bill > H1267

This bill proposes to amend Chapter 40B of the General Laws by adding a new section, Section 20A, which defines an "Affordable Housing Unit" as any housing unit whose assessed value is affordable to a household earning less than 80% of the area median income, meaning 80% of the typical income for that geographic region. If a unit meets this affordability criterion for five consecutive years, it will count towards a town's ten percent housing unit threshold, a requirement related to ensuring housing developments are "consistent with local needs" as defined in Section 20 of the same chapter. The Department of Housing and Community Development, a state agency responsible for housing initiatives, will be tasked with creating regulations to put this new section into practice.