Improving Housing Quality & Resident Health Now and for the Future
People need safe and healthy environments in which to live.
Lead, poor indoor air quality, and other substandard housing conditions lead to preventable health consequences. The passage of this legislation will create the Massachusetts Healthy Homes Program (MHHP) Fund, to scale up the Commonwealth’s efforts to address serious health problems caused by substandard housing.
Housing quality impacts resident health.
- Lead harms children's physical health, slows growth and learning, impairs hearing and speech, and causes behavior problems.
- Poor indoor air quality can trigger respiratory and allergy symptoms, breathing difficulties, exacerbate asthma.
Housing quality is a racial equity issue.
- Black children are 2.5x more likely than white children to have lead poisoning.
- Hispanic and Black children have 2.5-3.5x higher asthma-related emergency visits compared to white children.
- In Gateway Cities, where there are higher proportions of Black and Latinx residents, lead poisoning and asthma-related hospitalizations are significantly more common.
The Massachusetts Healthy Homes Program will:
Equitably Address Housing Habitability Concerns at Scale
- Address health hazards and habitability concerns (i.e. asbestos, mold, pests, and lead)
- Address barriers to improving energy and water efficiency, promoting renewable energy, and reducing utility costs.
- Leverage funding from, and increase coordination with, existing home repair programs.
- Increase retention in workforce development programs associated with home repairs.
Provide Flexible Funding to Meet Community Needs
- Grants and forgivable loans to eligible owner-occupants of multifamily properties.
- Loans, including deferred payment loans, to eligible investor-owners, with protections for existing tenants.
- Support technical assistance to building owners, contractors, and others to ensure successful program implementation.
Address Health Inequities Associated with Poor Housing Quality
- Allocate significant funding towards lead paint, poor indoor air quality, and other problems that disproportionately affect households of color.
- Dedicate at least 50% of the funds to Gateway Cities, which have higher proportions of households of color.
- Address cultural, linguistic, and other barriers to improve access to program resources
The Massachusetts Healthy Homes Program Coalition
In a previous version of the Healthy Homes legislation, MACDC cast a wide net to get organizational support this important work. Over forty organizations signed onto a letter advocating for significant funding for housing quality work in Massachusetts. In the process of working with legislative staff to draft this version of the bill, we reached out to organizations to get input early in the legislative process. Once the bill was filed, we invited organizational supporters to an initial meeting to discuss how they would like to communicate with us around the legislative effort. In addition to organizational sponsors, the coalition is comprised of legislative staff as well as individuals who by nature of their role cannot formally advocate but who can lend subject matter expertise. Over 50 people showed up for this initial meeting and indicated that they had energy to come to quarterly coalition meetings to stay updated and to strategize together how to get this legislation across the finish line. Our next coalition meeting was a visioning session to think together about the best way to frame the need for this program and to discuss ongoing legislative strategy. We look forward to continuing to work with this amazing group to garner more support for the Massachusetts Healthy Homes Program legislation.
Join these incredible organizations in supporting the Massachusetts Healthy Homes Program!
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Community Organizations |
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