Once again, an effort to eliminate housing cooperatives in Massachusetts has been revived. Though rejected by the Joint Committee on Housing in March 2012, similar language was adopted, without any debate or even a vote, in the FY13 Senate budget, and is at risk of becoming law if no further action is taken. In its current form, the language (Outside Sections 90B & C of the FY13 Senate Budget) would make co-ops the only form of housing in the Commonwealth forced to sell to any applicant that simply meets financial eligibility standards, fundamentally altering the principles of cooperative living as we know them. It also requires housing co-ops organized as “communities of interest” to amend their by-laws to define their communal purpose, a costly legal expense that will only serve to hurt affordable housing and artist co-ops. This provision is now before a conference committee of House and Senate members appointed to work out the differences between the two branch’s budgets. Your advocacy is needed to keep this provision out of the final budget.

Please take a moment to contact members of the Legislature’s conference committee to ask them to oppose inclusion of Section 90B & C of the Senate budget, language altering eligibility for housing corporations, in the final FY13 budget.