MODERATE INCOME HOUSING PLANS PROPOSED CHANGES
November 16, 2021
November 16, 2021
There is so much churn going on right now on legislative proposals for land use related topics, it’s hard for me to sort it out and share it in some reasonable manner. But I’ll give it a go, in several different posts by topic.
First, let me give enormous credit to the League and their team (Cam, Justin, Karson, Meg and all the local level folks pitching in) for their work on this stuff. I am stealing blatantly from their materials to give you these updates.
I’ll start with an update on what’s happening with the requirements for Moderate Income Housing Plans (MIHP). As you know, there were some substantive changes made during the last couple of sessions on MIHPs, giving lists of policy options for communities to choose from, and reporting requirements. In both cases, there have been issues with how this works in reality. So, to address these, the League working with local community people and housing advocates is proposing changes which they are calling “MIHP+”.
During the past year, there has been a lot of discussion about what concerns/problems/changes with the MIHP requirements – what’s not working well, what can be done to make addressing housing more effective, etc. The League has summarized the feedback and input that has been given on this with a list of proposals for the upcoming legislative session. In essence, there would be more emphasis on actually implementing housing strategies, reporting improvements to demonstrate all kinds of progress, and tying such progress to preference for state and regional funding programs. You can see the report here.
Still a lot of work to do to finalize these recommendations and actually get a bill prepared, so stay tuned.
Next, I’ll report on proposals discussed by the Land Use Task Force.
