Law Commons^™

Unaffordable “Affordable” Housing: Challenging The U.S. Department Of Housing And Urban Development Area Median Income, Michael E. Stone

Center for Social Policy Publications

There is no such thing as “affordable” housing. Affordability is not a characteristic of housing: It is a relationship between housing and people. For some people, all housing is affordable, no matter how expensive. For others, no housing is affordable, no matter how cheap.

Massachusetts' System Redesign To End Homelessness: An Overview And Assessment, Donna H. Friedman, Ghazal Zulfiqar

Center for Social Policy Publications

The Clayton-Mathews and Wilson 2003 analysis of Massachusetts’ expenditures of state and federal dollars to address family homelessness documented a serious system misalignment of public resources: that is, 80% of state and federal resources were tied up in shelter provision, while only 20%, including rental assistance, were designated for homelessness prevention (Clayton-Matthews and Wilson, 2003). Their analysis demonstrated what many had long suspected: if homelessness is to be ended in Massachusetts, fundamental changes would be needed to shift the state system from shelter-oriented toward prevention-oriented. Both the Romney and the Patrick administrations have clearly prioritized this objective with broad-based support …

Immigrant Workers In The Massachusetts Health Care Industry: A Report On Status And Future Prospects, Ramon Borges-Mendez, James Jennings, Donna H. Friedman, Malo Hutson, Teresa Eliot Roberts

Center for Social Policy Publications

Given the vital picture of foreign-born health care workers, this study has the following objectives:

1. To document the labor market position of foreign-born workers in the sector at various levels (national, statewide, sub-regional) including patterns of occupational concentration during the last decade or so, prospects for occupational mobility, wages, geographic concentration, employment by type of establishment (hospitals, community health centers, etc.) and workforce development opportunities;
2. To document, whenever possible, the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of foreign-born workers in the sector, including country of origin and gender among others;
3. To document the qualitative contribution of foreign-born workers in the health care …

Maturing Subsidized Mortgages: The Next Frontier Of The Expiring Use Crisis, Emily Achtenberg

Center for Social Policy Publications

Over approximately the next decade, close to 17,000 affordable housing units could be lost in Massachusetts as their federally- and state-subsidized mortgages mature, terminating all associated use and affordability restrictions. Most of this housing, developed 30-40 years ago under various federal and state mortgage subsidy programs, is only partially assisted with project-based Section 8 rental subsidy; but 100% of the units are affordable due to budget-based (and tiered) rent restrictions.

To the extent that the properties have Section 8 assistance, the maturing mortgage crisis overlaps with larger crisis of expiring Section 8 subsidy contracts. However, the unique characteristics of this …