The Commonwealth of Massachusetts HUD CPD Consolidated Plan addresses the major housing and community development needs in the state's non-entitlement communities, and includes a description of the federal and state resources which will be used to meet the identified needs. The plan contains the state's long term priorities for housing and community development, and the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) one-year action plan, the HOME program description, the Emergency Shelter grant application process, and the Housing for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) process for the selection of project sponsors.

The plan was developed by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Communities and Development in consultation with those state agencies and authorities which are responsible for housing and community development programs statewide, including the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and its affiliate agencies, the Executive Office of Elder Affairs, and the Community Development Finance Corporation, the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, the Massachusetts Government Land Bank, the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, and the Massachusetts Housing Partnership Fund.

Three public hearings were held to solicit comment during the plan's preparation, two public hearings were held on the draft plan, and two additional public forums were held with the specific aim of explaining the major features of the CDBG one-year action plan.

Availability of the draft plan was announced by public notice in the state's major metropolitan newspapers; in addition, notices were mailed to local government, housing, and community development officials, regional planning agencies, and housing and social service providers. Copies of the draft plan were distributed to key organizations statewide, as well as public entities. Also, copies of the draft were made available by EOCD upon request.

Housing Needs

Identification of housing needs was based on data assembled and analyzed for the preparation of the state's 1994 Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS). The general findings of housing need include the following:

• very-low income renters are more likely to experience housing problems (excessive cost burden, physical inadequacy, or overcrowding);
• minority households experience a higher incidence of major housing problems than white, non-Hispanic households;
• over one-half (56.4%) of the Commonwealth's renters are low income;
• housing concerns for the state's elder population include affordability, need for assistance with maintenance and repair of homes, and need to adapt present housing to elder needs;
• the housing concerns of special needs population include:
  • availability of accessible, affordable housing
  • need to combine housing with support services
  • need for transitional housing settings;

• the high cost of housing is an impediment to home-buying for the low and moderate income population; Massachusetts home values doubled in the 1980s, and although prices have leveled off recently, the current median home price of $121,600 is still often too high to allow low and moderate income potential buyers to save sufficient funds for a downpayment. High rents prevent many low or moderate income households from meeting a downpayment savings goal. Moreover, the mortgage obligation is likely to be greater than a moderate-income tenant's rent burden.

The Commonwealth has responded to many of these concerns through a variety of state initiatives, and effective use of available federal funds. For example, both EOCD and the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency operate programs to assist first-time homebuyers of low and moderate income; Community Development Block Grant funds have been used for housing rehabilitation benefitting low and moderate-income renters and owners; state management of federal weatherization programs have also aided the low income in making homes more energy efficient. Through the state's participation in the Low-Income Tax Credit Program, more than 3,500 units have been completed, with 92% of such units set aside for low income people. Housing vouchers totalling almost 15,000 are provided through the state's allocation of various components of the HUD Section 8 program, and an additional 13,000 vouchers are managed through the state's own rental assistance program, the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP).

In addition, Massachusetts has close to 50,000 units of public housing. EOCD's own recent efforts to assess the capital needs of public housing authorities has provided an improved basis on which to determine public housing priorities. A 1993 bond authorization will be used to protect the state's investment in public housing statewide through major repairs and renovation, including: lead paint abatement in family public housing units; sprinkler installation in high rise buildings; and removal of abandoned fuel tanks. New public housing construction in the year ahead will produce an additional 63 units of family housing, 159 units of elder housing, and 80 units for special needs populations. Future plans call for the development of 500+ additional units for special needs populations.

Homeless Needs

The Commonwealth's homeless population is diverse, including persons with extensive service needs such as the homeless mentally ill, persons with AIDS, persons with substance abuse problems, and families in need of housing combined with appropriate support services. Housing needs for this population range from recovery homes for those with substance abuse problems, to public housing for elders and families. There is a shortfall of units for individuals with physical, sensory, and/or mental disabilities. Families with service needs and/or disabilities are experiencing particular difficulty.

Many of the state agencies which work with the homeless cite common concerns and preferences regarding the availability and affordability of housing for many of the homeless populations:

• preference for smaller, residential settings with access to transportation, shopping, public education, day care, and employment opportunities.
• need for availability of support services in the home or nearby.
• need for greater availability of single room occupancy units
• for single adults needing minimum support or supervision.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has developed and implemented several initiatives in the past three years, with a strong focus on developing transitional and permanent housing and service programs for these populations. The ultimate goal is not only to provide housing and services, but to foster self-sufficiency and independence. Examples of these efforts include:

• A Homeless Intercept Program which was instituted under an interagency service agreement between the Executive Office of Communities and Development and the Department of Public Welfare to provide homeless prevention, mediation of landlord/tenant disputes, stabilization services, and housing search assistance.

• Emphasis by the Department of Public Welfare on scattered site housing as preferable to hotels and motels for emergency shelter.
• Use of the family self-sufficiency models developed by HUD.
• Development of the Statewide Action Plan for the Homeless Mentally Ill.
• Maintenance of a shelter "safety net" while further planning and development for transitional and permanent housing are ongoing.
• Increased state funding for services to battered women, including supportive social or medical services.
• Issuance of regulations for the Facilities Consolidation Fund, described in the Resources section of this plan.
• Development of a five-year plan for responding to the service and housing needs of homeless veterans.
• Continuation of the Inter-Agency Task force composed of representatives from the Executive Office of Communities and Development, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and its affiliate agencies, and the Executive Office of Elder Affairs. This task force has worked in a collaborative fashion on many of the issues facing the homeless and those at risk of homelessness, including use of McKinney and Emergency Shelter Grant funding, start-up of the "Facilities Consolidation Initiative", and the "Mixed Population Initiative" (also discussed in the Resources section of this plan).

Community Development Needs

Community development needs were identified using two main sources: an analysis of requests for the prior three years for funds from the Massachusetts Small Cities Program/Community Development Fund, and Community Action Statements, which are completed by municipalities to provide a local assessment of current needs and priorities. The availability of Community Action Statements (described in Part IV of this plan) from 70% of the Commonwealth's cities and towns provided an enhanced understanding of local perception of community development needs and priorities.

Both the applications and the Community Action Statements revealed similar concerns in the area of community development; both sources cited ongoing municipal interest in improving the condition of infrastructure and public facilities, identifying and implementing appropriate economic development strategies for the individual community and/or the surrounding region, and maintaining housing stock in good condition through rehabilitation assistance.

Massachusetts has responded to these needs through a variety of programs, including the various components of the state Community Development Block Grant Program (program components are described in the chart on the following page).

Other assistance efforts include grants to Community Development Corporations for housing and economic development activities; the creation of the Economic Development Incentive Program, intended to create full time permanent jobs for residents of economically depressed areas; the bond reauthorization of the state's Community Development Action Grant (CDAG) program to provide public support for infrastructure in instances where private development would not occur without such state intervention; planning and management grants to local governments; recent establishment of the Rural Economic Development Council, supported by U.S. Department of Agriculture and state funds; highway, road and bridge repair funding; job training programs; and the creation of the Housing Stabilization Fund, described in the Resources section of this plan, emphasizing the revitalization of low and moderate income neighborhoods through housing improvement and related investments.

MASSACHUSETTS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT PROGRAM

Program Components	Allocation
Community Development Fund Activities funded from this annual and competitive round include a variety of community and economic development projects eligible under federal regulation. These generally include community economic development; housing rehabilitation, acquisition, demolition and homeownership; public facilities and infrastructure improvements; social services; and community planning activities.	$ 22,198,180
Ready Resource Fund This program funds a broad range of viable economic and community development projects. Economic development projects include downtown partnerships; small business and micro business revolving loan funds; facade and sign improvements; streetscape improvements; pre-development studies; economic development planning projects; and infrastructure for economic development. Affordable housing initiatives with an emphasis on creation, preservation or improvement of units, in addition to critical community development projects are also eligible. Ready Resource will fund projects that cannot wait for a Community Development Fund round and therefore, by definition, are ready to proceed. Other exceptions are listed under each component.	$ 12,545,100
Massachusetts Community Capital Fund This program provides grants to communities which in turn make the funds available to businesses, non-profit organizations, and quasi-public development organizations. Applications are accepted on a rolling admissions basis. Funds can be used for real estate acquisition, new construction, rehabilitation, purchase of machinery and capital equipment, working capital, and credit refinancing. (*This allocation is funded with $4 million from Federal Fiscal Year 1995 and $1 million expected from MCCF program income such as loan repayments.)	$ 5,000,000
Administration The Executive Office of Communities and Development will administer the State Community Development Block Grant Program.	$ 892,720
108 Loan Guarantee Program (pledge of future CDBG allocation) The Commonwealth can guarantee a loan made by HUD for local development projects including: acquisition or lease of real property; rehabilitation of real property; site preparation; clearance, demolition and relocation; community economic development projects. $10 M will be used by the Commonwealth to develop one or more consortium with other state, regional and/or local public, quasi-public or private entities to create a loan pool or pools which will provide loans to businesses which cannot access traditional financing. It should be noted that 108 projects receive intense scrutiny since any loan defaults are guaranteed by future CDBG funds and therefore could have significant and deleterious effect on the cities and towns.	$ 30,000,000

Priorities Identified in the Plan

A. HOUSING

The four housing priorities discussed in the plan are drawn to a large degree from prior efforts to identify priorities in the Commonwealth's Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS).

These priorities reflect the Commonwealth's continuing commitment to the goals of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: decent, safe housing; a suitable living environment; and expanded economic opportunities for low-income people. As discussed in greater detail in the plan, the Commonwealth has many complementary resources which can be combined strategically with federal funds to respond to the following priorities:

• expand supply of permanently affordable housing for low and moderate income households, with special emphasis on affordable housing opportunities in distressed or failed properties;
• develop a range of housing options for homeless families;
• develop a range of housing options for persons with disabilities;
• preserve, maintain, and upgrade assisted and unassisted housing.

These four priorities reflect the Commonwealth's longer-term goals of: a) increasing homeownership; b) increasing the supply of suitable rental housing for the low and moderate income, the disabled, and those presently homeless; c) encouraging the return of distressed and failed properties to the affordable housing market; d) moving homeless families from shelter environments to supportive transitional and permanent housing; e) providing independent living arrangements in integrated settings for the disabled; e) rehabilitating structurally sound housing (both assisted housing and private market) in order to maintain a supply of safe, affordable housing.

The priorities recognize the catalytic value of HUD resources available through the HOME, CDBG, HOPWA, and ESG programs, as well as other HUD programs, such as the Lead Hazard Control Program, Section 8, and other McKinney funding. In addition, the Commonwealth has also made significant investments in addressing these goals through the creation of the Facilities Consolidation Fund -- with the aim of expanding housing options for clients of the Departments of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, and the homeless -- , the capital bond authorization for the improvement of state public housing, and the creation of the Housing Stabilization Fund, noted above.

B. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

The community development priorities are closely linked, cognizant of local fiscal, service, development, and growth conditions in the state's non-entitlement cities and towns. In addition, these priorities relate to the housing priorities described above so that the state's housing and community development goals work in harmony to achieve a better quality of life for residents living and working here, and businesses located here. The priorities are based in large part on the analysis of community development needs discussed earlier in this summary. The three priorities are defined as follows:

• address the economic development needs of cities, towns, and regions, with the emphasis on creating permanent employment opportunities for individuals of low and moderate income;
• respond to the need for infrastructure replacement and repair, as a factor in both economic development activities and in creating or improving low and moderate income housing; and
• promote the stabilization of older neighborhoods, creating desirable place for people to live, work, and shop, thereby, stemming the effects of deterioration, abandonment, and crime.

These priorities are also reflected in EOCD's decision to emphasize economic development and infrastructure in the one-year action plan for CDBG funds (see Part V-G of this plan), and also support the neighborhood stabilization priority, as infrastructure, housing, public facilities, and economic development considerations are often noted as integral in those communities which have identified neighborhood preservation and improvement in their Community Action Statement (CAS).

Resources Available to Respond to Priority Needs

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts expects to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as stated in the consolidation allocation formula:

* HOME	$ 11,148,000	* ESG	$ 2,139,000
* CDBG	$ 39,636,000	* HOPWA	$ 975,000

Administration of the funds is divided among those state agencies with primary service responsibilities related to these programs: the Executive Office of Communities and Development administers the statewide HOME and CDBG allocations; the Executive Office of Human Services oversees the administration of the ESG funding, and the state's Department of Public Health manages the state HOPWA program.

As this plan presents a series of housing and community development goals relating to expansion of the affordable housing supply, increasing housing options for the homeless and disabled, preserving existing housing, fostering economic development opportunities, improving infrastructure conditions, and encouraging neighborhood stabilization, the use of funds from these four sources contributes to a coordinated and comprehensive state response to housing and community development needs.

Specifically, the use of HOME, CDBG, and HOPWA funds responds to the needs to preserve present housing, expand the supply of housing, and respond to the specific housing and service needs of persons with HIV/AIDS. The Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) funding, emphasizing the need to prevent homelessness and provide a "continuum" model to move people beyond shelter and into supportive transitional and permanent housing supports the Commonwealth's current plan for this population.

CDBG funds are central to the community development priorities in this plan. Including economic development as a priority need is the logical next step to the Commonwealth's prior efforts (creation of the Massachusetts Community Capital Fund and the Ready Resource Fund) in building greater awareness in the state's cities and towns of the importance of linking economic development activities into a broader community development strategy.

The addition of two new CDBG/Ready Resource Fund program components, "Out of Round Community Development Fund," and "Pilot Planning Grants" represent an additional commitment by EOCD to assure that the program serves those communities in special circumstances: the "Out of Round Community Development Fund" is intended to respond to project proposals which make use of the Community Development Fund impractical because of time constraints in meeting conditions for application to the Community Development Fund competitive round, or the urgent nature of the project request. The "Pilot Planning Grants" recognize that communities with high statistical need indicators, but limited local capacity, may need more intensive assistance in determining appropriate strategies and developing an action plan to respond to community development needs.

The infrastructure and neighborhood stabilization priorities will also require the infusion of CDBG funding to bring to fruition; as noted in the plan, much of housing in the Commonwealth is older, as is the infrastructure originally built to support it. Rehabilitating housing and upgrading infrastructure will be critical elements in meeting the goal of bringing new vitality and renewal to older neighborhoods.

All HUD CPD funds described in this plan are proposed to be available statewide, with the caveat that CDBG/Small Cities funds will only be available in non-entitlement areas of the state, and that the HOME, HOPWA, and ESG programs give preference to non-entitlement areas, but do not exclude entitlement communities from applying for funding, based on certain conditions as described in Part V of this plan.

The Consolidated Plan includes extensive descriptions of the various state program and services which complement the aims of this federal funding; these resources are discussed in detail in both the Institutional Structure and Resources sections of the plan, and include:

• the housing development and financing programs of EOCD, the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, and the Massachusetts Housing Partnership Fund;
• the state's emergency assistance and shelter programs;
• long-term plans for additional construction of public housing units (anticipate construction of 500+ units for special needs populations in the next few years);
• the state's participation in the HUD Lead Hazard Control Program, with the expectation that more than 2,000 units of housing statewide will be deleaded as a result of the two grants the state is presently administering in conjunction with the state's Department of Public Health;
• recent economic development initiatives to promote job creation and retention, and encouraging business location and expansion in the state's economically distressed areas.

EOCD's involvement on many of the state boards, agencies, commissions, and authorities addressing housing and community development concerns is additional testament to both the quality and frequency of productive interaction in policy, program design, and implementation which the Commonwealth will continue as it implements the stated aims of this Consolidated Plan.

Marilyn Cantreas
Executive Office of Communities and Development
PH: (617) 727-7001 ex. 408