WASHINGTON — Members of the Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to urge lawmakers to fund affordable housing projects in the region.
Their message? Since 2015, the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity received $775,000 from the federal HOME Investment Partnerships Program, a program that provides grants so communities can build and rehabilitate affordable housing, often with the help of nonprofits. In that time, Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity built five homes, but it wants to do more. It said it would ask lawmakers to fund the program with $2.4 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, according to a press release announcing the trip.
The local group joined other Habitat for Humanity members from around the country in the nation’s capitol. They had other policy moves in mind, too, such as the passage of the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, a bipartisan bill, according to the statement from the Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity.
The local chapter’s executive director, Aimee Giroux, said, in the 14 years she’s worked at Habitat for Humanity, “this is the worst I’ve ever seen housing. This situation is dire.”
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the average annual income needed for a Massachusetts family to afford a two-bedroom home at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s fair market rent rate of $86,613.
Most families in Western Massachusetts bring in much less, at a median of $65,707. And, as is the case in many parts of the country, there is also another problem in the region: a deficit in affordable housing.
Data in a report done by the National Low Income Housing Coalition found that the state needs to build over 175,000 affordable rental homes for there to be enough available houses for extremely low-income renters.
In one case in Holyoke, Giroux said it took $300,000 to develop a home, but the family who was going to live there could only afford to pay $150,000 on the mortgage.
“The funding will help us fill the gap between the cost of developing a house and the amount a family can afford on the mortgage,” she said.
The local Habitat for Humanity chapter has successfully received funding from the federal government in the past.
“With some of the funding we’ve gotten in previous years, we were able to help five families from Holyoke and Springfield become homeowners,” Giroux said.
The group has repaired 56 homes and built 73 others in Hampden County since 1987.
Previous years’ funding has also aided in veterans’ housing projects through Housing and Urban Development and rural projects through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Now that it’s the start of a new session, Giroux said her team has scheduled meetings with members of Massachusetts’ delegation: U.S. Sens. Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren, and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal.
“It takes time to reach legislators, so we make sure to do it early,” she said.
Giroux said that sometimes it can be hard to get money to the western part of the state, but that Habitat for Humanity works with the Western Massachusetts Housing Coalition and Way Finders to help move more funding from Boston to Western Massachusetts.
“We often get forgotten about,” she said.
The organization, along with other chapters across the country, has been advocating for funding over the last five years. During the pandemic, that outreach was done virtually.
“It was hard to just be tiny faces on a screen,” Giroux said. “It’s better now that we can be in person — I think there’s more impact that way.”
