I am pleased and grateful to be back in Massachusetts working to preserve and create affordable housing. The Commonwealth is committed to solving the many challenges to making housing affordable, available, and accessible. The Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC) plays an essential role in carrying out that commitment.
The Commonwealth has already enacted the Affordable Homes Act and the MBTA Communities Act. The $5 billion commitment to affordable housing is historic. Fulfilling its promise requires concerted efforts by public, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations all working toward shared goals. I know that working together Massachusetts can turn the vision into reality.
CEDAC has a long history of supporting community-based affordable housing and child care development, primarily by nonprofit community development corporations. These are the organizations rooted in communities and focused on creating opportunities for people who have been too often excluded. Since our creation in 1978, CEDAC has been an innovator in preserving existing affordable housing and in nurturing the capacity of emerging developers to create new housing and improved child care facilities. These capabilities in predevelopment lending and technical assistance are an essential part of what Massachusetts needs at this moment.
The team of mission-committed professionals at CEDAC understand affordable housing in Massachusetts and care deeply about its success. They are part of the reason I chose to return here, and I have been learning with them and from them since I joined the team in June. I aim to bring my ideas and experience to support them in pursuit of our affordable housing and community development mission. The board members who guide CEDAC and our affiliate the Children’s Investment Fund are an invaluable source of wisdom and direction in all our work.
When I left Massachusetts in 2011 to work on affordable housing policy in Washington, DC, the HUD Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Boston was $1,349. Today it is $2,837. Now more than ever, we need good choices and creative thinking in housing policy. For any family, an affordable home creates safety and stability; its absence limits opportunity and consumes prosperity.
The Commonwealth faces well-understood housing challenges. It also faces massive uncertainty about what the federal government will do, for good or ill, in coming months. CEDAC will be here to help navigate those challenges. We will help community-based developers find the resources they need and put together developments that can succeed. We will identify targeted solutions to preserve older affordable housing properties that have been too long neglected. We will find ways to deploy capital for energy efficient, climate-resilient housing. We will reinvigorate the Home Modification Loan Program to better meet the need for accessibility. We will work closely with the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities to help deploy public capital into supportive housing and improve accessibility in rental homes. And we will need to work together to adjust to whatever comes our way from Washington.
In 2021, President Biden appointed me to lead HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Policy. It was an honor to lead the HUD effort that by the end of 2024 awarded all the $1 billion allocated to HUD under the Inflation Reduction Act to make properties safer, more energy efficient, and healthier for residents to live in. That honor was tempered by the disappointment that the massive housing investments of the Build Back Better proposal were not enacted. But as a dedicated houser, I know never to give up. So now, I feel even more honored to be leading CEDAC, especially at a time when Massachusetts is so committed to affordable housing. I am glad to once again call Massachusetts my home. Let’s all work together to make good homes available to everyone.
Ethan Handelman
