SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1599        FILED ON: 1/14/2009

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 648

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act to promote 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.