Housing Policy Articles and Studies

This section contains information on different types of housing policy: expiring use, national trends and policies, local tenant organizations, project-based contract administration, the financial crisis, State laws, and moving to work.

Expiring Use

How Residents Preserved Inman Square Apartments

Cambridge Housing Authority Converts Enhanced Vouchers to Project-Based Vouchers to Preserve Inman Square, Bill Brauner, Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (April 2011)
See also http://cedac.org/preservation.html.

Inman Square Apartments Preservation Documents

Expiring Use Housing in Massachusetts

Massachusetts Expiring Use Law ("40T")

An Act Preserving Publicly-Assisted Affordable Housing

Funding Preservation

See Presentations from CHAPA's Forum on Funding Preservation Transactions in 2011 (June 8-9, 2011)
Preservation in Cambridge/Inman Square Apartments and CAST, presented by Peter Daly, Executive Director of HRI and CNAHS
www.chapa.org/expiring-use

Craigie Arms

"Chapman Arms is Dedicated" - Cambridge Chronicle - June 19, 1986
"Claims Put Housing in Doubt" - Cambridge Chronicle - June 23, 2011
"Deal on Table to Maintain Affordability for Craigie" - Cambridge Chronicle - September 1, 2011

Tenant participation requirements in multifamily housing

HUD Notice H 2011-29

The State of the Nation's Housing, 2011

Report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies
Press release for the report

Local Tenant Organizaitons

Cambridge Housing Authority Policy for Recognition of Local Tenant Organizations at Public Housing Developments (Approved and adopted by the CHA Board of Commissioners May 18, 2005)
State Right-to-Organize Laws

Project-Based Contract Administrator for Massachusetts

In July, 2011 CHA ("Cambridge Housing Services") was selected by HUD to be Project-Based Contract Administrator for Massachusetts; a month later, the award was rescinded. HUD reopened the bidding process on housing contracts in 40 states including Massachusetts as a result of complaints by losing bidders. CHA, which partnered with CGI, will have to compete again to win the contract. During the start up period, CHA's fee would have been close to $500,000 (plus an incentive fee for doing well). The consequence of HUD's decision (it can't be appealed) is that CHA lost money. HUD has extended Mass Housing's existing contract until 2012.

Contract Administrators Selected, Bringing Changes in Several States, HDR Current Developments (July 25, 2011)
HUD Will Reopen Project-Based Contract Administration Competition, HDR Current Developments (August 22, 2011)
"Feds reopen housing contracts in Mass., elsewhere," Steve LeBlanc, Associated Press (August 12, 2011)
List of housing agencies selected by HUD (July 2011)
What is CGI? Articles about 2009 contract renewal and 2011 contract renewal with CGI for Section 8 Project-Based Contract Administration

Housing and the Financial Crisis

Housing And The Financial Crisis: What Happened And What To Do About It, Michael E. Stone. Human Geography, Volume 2 Number 1 (2009)

Cambridge Housing Authority

Bylaws

Low Income Housing Tax Credit

2013 study with recommendations about how CHA collects rents

State Public Housing Law

Moving to Work

Overview of Moving to Work

To view the Cambridge Housing Authority's Moving to Work agreement with HUD, visit the CHA's's Moving to Work page and click on the "Moving to Work Agreement" in the right column.

Moving to Work CHA Proposed Plan (1998). It's worth taking a look at the proposed plan to see which ideas have been put into practice and are considered by CHA to be successful (rent simplification and mixed financing are two examples). Some proposals were studied by consultants who decided they were unworkable (Section 8 homeownership). Policies were tried that didn't meet CHA's expectations (employment incentives). Tenants and advocates have pushed back against radical changes to Section 8. Stay tuned to see what happens next. The CHA's current MTW agreement with HUD expires in Fiscal Year 2018.

HUD Report to Congress - Moving to Work: Interim Policy Applications and the Future of the Demonstration (August 2010). This HUD report was written with the intention of bolstering Congressional support for MTW. CHA is singled out for praise for its approach to rent reform (i.e., rent simplification) and for CHA's commitment to public process. CHA tells HUD that Cambridge is a unique environment, a politically active community with a lot of advocates. "As a result, CHA has one of the most open and exhaustive public processes of any MTW agency in order to maintain community and resident support for their programs...." (page 56)