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Franklin County HRA urges program changes as rural housing development lags
Summary
The Franklin County Regional Housing & Redevelopment Authority said federal and state program designs and eligibility gaps leave rural communities disadvantaged and requested changes including a rural LIHTC set‑aside, better QAP treatment and access to economic-distress boosts.
Gina Gavoni, executive director of the Franklin County Regional Housing & Redevelopment Authority (HRA) and its nonprofit affiliate Rural Development, Inc. (RDI), told the committee that rural Western Massachusetts faces high renter cost burdens, low vacancy rates and programmatic exclusions that impede development.
Gavoni said HRA serves 26 mostly rural towns and functions as a "one-stop shop" for housing search, first‑time homebuyer education, RAFT and other services. HRA described a 40% proposed cut to the state's Housing Consumer Education Center line item as devastating for outreach and homebuying counseling. She said HRA manages state public housing in places lacking federal public housing authorities and that state operating subsidies remain at roughly half the federal level for comparable units.
Gavoni said rural projects require greater gap subsidy because lower rents and limited local resources reduce debt capacity. She asked for a permanent rural set‑aside within the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP), codification of the 30% credit boost for economically distressed rural communities, and a review of the state's Housing Choice program eligibility. Gavoni said RDI has developed more than 100 homeownership units and 50 rental units and manages 150 state public units; two rental projects (32 units) were in the current funding round pipeline.
The witness asked the committee to address geographic inequities in program eligibility and to make rural-targeted program design changes so non-entitlement and low-capacity towns can compete for funds and deliver projects.
