House, No. 1293

By Martin J. Walsh (D):
Joint Committee on Housing (JHO)

Status
03/01/2006– Joint Committee on Housing

History
01/10/07– H Filed
01/10/07 – H Referred to Joint Committee on Housing

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE PROMOTION OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING THROUGH THE PROMOTION OF MANUFACTURED HOUSING IN THE COMMONWEALTH .

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court
assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Section 1.
Notwithstanding any provision in the laws and regulations of the
Commonwealth to the contrary, rent control in the Commonwealth shall not be
extended to any communities which have not enacted such laws.

(a.)For those cities and towns that do have rent control, the provisions
thereof shall be amended as follows:

(i.) From the date of enactment of this Act, rent control shall
only apply to those individuals who can demonstrate by
credible evidence provided to that city or town that such
individual is not able to pay rent established by the
owner/operator of the Manufactured Housing Community,
giving effect to that individual's entire net worth; in the event
that such individual demonstrates such inability to pay, then
the rent then in effect shall continue at that amount for a
period of twelve (12) months, after which such individual
must re-establish her/his/their inability to pay market rents.
The provision for rent stabilization for such individuals shall
phase out over a period of three (3) years from the date of
enactment of this bill;

(ii.) Such individuals must submit their verified financial
information to officials of the town/city in which they live in
order to qualify for such rent protection, and if they cannot so
qualify, then such individuals are subject to eviction for failing
to pay the then going rent rates in such community; provided,
further that the financial test applied for such rent protection
for any such individual(s) shall be the same standard as
applied in that particular community for subsidized housing by
its council of aging with that person's net worth added to the
calculation as provided above; and

(iii.) Rent control in the Commonwealth for Manufactured
Housing shall cease and be of no further force or effect on the
third anniversary of the enactment of this bill.

(c.)(b.) Residents in privately owned manufactured
housing communities shall be entitled to seek
government grants and/or low cost loans (like those
individuals who reside in resident-owned
manufactured housing communities) to defray the
cost of capital improvements that are passed onto
them by the owner/operator in all non-rent control
manufactured housing communities.

Section 2. For any Manufactured Housing Community in existence prior
to January 1, 2006, for purposes of calculating design flows under 310 CMR
16.00 et seq. and 3.24 CMR 5.00, each septic system which has been installed
shall be considered a separate and distinct facility.

Section 3. For the safety and welfare of residents in Manufactured
Housing Communities in the Commonwealth, each resident shall receive a tax
credit up to the sum of $1,500 in order to remove oil tank(s) owned by them that
are above ground and need replacement due to the health and safety of said
residency; such replacement must be according to Massachusetts guidelines.

Section 4. In order to assist with assuring that all residents residing in
Manufactured Housing are treated equally, water sub-metering may be required
by the owner/operator of any Manufactured Housing Community in the
Commonwealth; in the event that such owner/operator elects to do this, each and
every resident shall be required to share equally in any and all costs
associated with such sub-metering and provided, further, that notwithstanding
that this is a capital cost, this cost may be recouped by the owner/operator at the time of installation of the sub-metering and shall not collected as though it were
a capital cost.

Section 5. In connection with selling a manufactured home in a
Manufactured Housing Community, it is the best interest of all parties that the
prospective purchaser undergoes a financial/criminal background search; and in
connection therewith, the applicant for residency for that Manufactured Housing
Community shall be responsible for reimbursing the owner/operator of that
Manufactured Housing Community the actual cost of acquiring that information.


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