DHCD unveils new municipal grant program for housing

The Department of Housing and Community Development has announced the creation of a new municipal grant program to support the production of market-rate and affordable housing.

The Planning Assistance Toward Housing program will make $600,000 in planning grants available to cities and towns across the state. Activities eligible for funding will include locally initiated planning for municipally owned sites, changes to land use and zoning, and other strategies that directly contribute to housing production.

PATH will be administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development and will replace the Priority Development Fund, a similar and successful planning program launched in 2004 and funded by MassHousing. Planning funded by the PDF led to the creation of 19 of the 33 “smart growth” districts in the state, as well as zoning changes in 16 communities and site-specific planning in more than 50 other communities.

Funding for PATH comes from an existing trust at DHCD.

“If we want to produce reasonably priced homes providing residents with public transit to jobs and recreational activities, it starts with communities planning ahead for new housing production and growth,” said Housing and Community Development Undersecretary Aaron Gornstein in a statement.

The grant program supports the administration’s objective of permitting 10,000 multi-family housing units annually through 2020.

According to the DHCD, a notice of funding availability, with guidelines and an application form, will be made available to communities in April at www.mass.gov/dhcd.