More Romney and AIDS

July 23, 2003

ROMNEY CELEBRATES NEW CHAPTER IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Signs legislation that provides flexibility in meeting housing goals

Governor Mitt Romney today celebrated the signing of a new law that will allow MassHousing to continue to make loans to finance affordable housing in the Commonwealth.

Within weeks, the quasi-public agency was poised to come up against its legal debt cap for rental housing, which would have prevented it from making any new loans for mixed-income rental housing developments.

"This new law will allow MassHousing to finance mixed-income homes without interruption," said Romney. "We must work harder, and be smarter, to increase the state's housing supply and have it affordable to those across a broad range of incomes."

While MassHousing had additional lending capacity to make loans to first-time home buyers, the measure signed by Romney allows MassHousing to combine two separate debt limits for rental housing and home ownership into one. No new funds are being made available. Rather, the action allows MassHousing to make better use of its existing resources.

Romney signed the bill at the Providence House in Brighton, which will become a 102-unit assisted living complex for the elderly. Adjacent to the Providence House will be the rehabilitated Seton Manor, an existing 20-unit building that houses people with HIV/AIDS.