Testimony Guide for S.1004/H.1481 - An act to create affordable homes for persons with disabilities

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People with disabilities are disproportionately affected by the ongoing housing crisis in Massachusetts. The Commonwealth’s housing stock is largely old and inaccessible, and thousands of people are in nursing homes, primarily because there is nowhere accessible for them to go. “An act to create affordable homes for persons with disabilities” presents a unique and important opportunity to increase the stock of affordable, accessible housing across Massachusetts and allow persons with disabilities to transition back into their chosen communities

This bill will create affordable homes for persons with disabilities by codifying and improving the Alternative Housing Voucher Program (AHVP). AHVP provides mobile housing vouchers to low-income individuals with disabilities under 60 years old. It also incentivizes new accessible construction through project-based vouchers. AHVP ensures people with disabilities can live independently with an increased quality of life in their own homes, rather than facing the impossible choice between homelessness and institutionalization.

We have seen significant improvements to the program in the past few years through budgetary and programmatic changes. However, additional improvements are hampered by AHVP’s establishing language from 1995.

This bill will make AHVP more usable and flexible by:

• Aligning AHVP more closely with the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program and federal Housing Choice Voucher Section 8 program

• Replacing outdated definitions for persons with disabilities to align it with the definition used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act;

• Increasing the maximum age eligibility from 60 to 62, to better align with existing affordable housing programs for seniors;

• Making the vouchers more useable and flexible by creating a payment standard that is at least 110% of the current fair market rent

• Allowing any unspent AHVP funds from the current fiscal year to stay with the program into the next fiscal year to ensure long-term stability

• Requiring the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities to issue new regulations for AHVP to ensure the growing program operates as effectively as possible, rather than tying it to the regulations for another program