Help Arlington - Support Governor Healy's Affordable Homes Act

The affordable housing crisis is causing harm across our Commonwealth and Arlington is not exempt. Housing and apartment rental prices strain our budgets, our young people are forced to take their talents far from home, and local workers face long daily commutes that weaken their connections to our town.

The Real Estate Transfer Fee (RETF) enabling legislation that is part of Governor Healey's Affordable Homes Act is a powerful tool for local communities to increase funds to develop local affordable housing. The bill does not require a municipality to implement a transfer fee plan. However, if it chooses to, any municipality in the Commonwealth can develop its own plan that would include a 0.05% - 2% fee on the value of the real estate sale over $1 million. Thus, for a home that sold for $1.2M, the fee would apply to only the last $200K.

Funds raised through the RETF would be applied to a local affordable housing trust to be used to provide lower cost housing within that community. Recognizing the power of such a provision, more than a dozen Massachusetts communities already support this effort (Please do not confuse the RETF legislation with the MBTA Communities Act that Arlington passed last year.).

As a resident of Arlington for almost 40 years who is concerned about maintaining Arlington as an affordable and family-oriented community and as a member of The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization’s (GBIO) working to fight the housing crisis through its Housing Justice Campaign, I have urged our state Representatives and Senators to make sure the Reals Estate Transfer Fee remains a part of this year’s bond bill and I urge Arlington residents to reach out to their legislators to let them know of their support for this act.