Boston Housing Committee Advances Home Rule Petition to Strengthen Linkage Fees and IDP

Uncategorized 2026-07-22 clip6144 · Meeting of July 22, 2026

BOSTON — Massachusetts Housing Committee votes unanimously to advance Boston affordable housing home rule petition. The Joint Committee on Housing reported favorably on House Bill 4115 at a July 22 hearing, a Boston home rule petition that would allow the city to independently adjust linkage fees on large commercial developments and permanently embed its Inclusionary Development Policy into the city's zoning code. Mayor Martin Walsh, who cited more than $4 billion in Boston development approved in 2019 alone, told the panel, "Our poor people have no place to go," and said the bill is essential to capturing development value for affordable housing and job training.

Councilor Lydia Edwards, who sponsored the bill at the Boston City Council where it passed unanimously, told lawmakers that Boston is the only municipality in Massachusetts that cannot require affordable housing through its zoning code under MGL Chapter 40A Section 9. Amy Nishman of the Job Training Alliance, representing 25 nonprofit providers, testified that linkage-funded job training graduates earn an average of $15.37 an hour and that program participation correlates with a 70 percent drop in public assistance use.

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Source: the Uncategorized 2026-07-22 clip6144 meeting of July 22, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.