In 2017, the Trump Administration and the Republican Congress were threatening devastating cuts to Section 8, public housing, and other affordable housing programs. Crawford Strategies was hired by the Citizens’ Housing And Planning Association (CHAPA) to help the New England Housing Network, a broad coalition of housing and community development organizations representing each of the six New England states, organize against these cuts in a coordinated manner.

Our work began with the organization of a major rally in front of Faneuil Hall, where Congresswoman Katherine Clark, Mayor Martin J. Walsh, and hundreds of residents, housing advocates, and policymakers rallied in support of federal investments in affordable homes and our communities.

When US House Republicans released the first draft of their tax cut package in 2017, it contained several provisions that would have had devastating impacts on affordable housing throughout New England. The original proposal eliminated several tax credits and exemptions that are used to finance the creation of affordable housing in Massachusetts and other states.

Crawford Strategies worked with CHAPA and other members of the New England Housing Network to oppose these elements of the tax bill. Through earned media and messaging support to local groups in all six New England states, we were able to highlight the impact of the tax bill on affordable housing, and ultimately, both the Senate’s version of the bill and the final bill that was signed into law preserved a number of programs that are critical to affordable housing and community development.

The federal tax bill was still a net loss for affordable housing production, and we used earned media to highlight the need for Massachusetts and other New England states to pass their own statewide housing bond bills to finance additional affordable housing production in the absence of federal investment. As a result, in 2018, Massachusetts passed a five-year, $1.8 billion housing bond bill – the largest in the state’s history. We were also successful at using the public conversation around Amazon’s headquarters search to make the argument that Massachusetts needs to invest more in affordable housing if we want to compete with other regions of the country and ensure equitable economic growth.

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WWLP Ch. 22, Amazon HQ2 could impact Massachusetts housing market

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