“Why should renters not have the same predictability? “

Chair Lewis, Chair Rausch, and Members of the Joint Committee: 

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge a favorable report for S.1447: An Act enabling cities and towns to stabilize rents and protect tenants.

Massachusetts has a lot to offer, but that does little if people can’t afford to live here. The US News & World Report’s annual state rankings put Massachusetts at #47 in affordability. A worker earning minimum wage in Massachusetts would have to work 101 hours a week to afford a modest one-bedroom rental home at market rate. [2] 

Clearly, Massachusetts has an affordable housing crisis. This is unsustainable. It has led to expanding economic inequality, increased homelessness, and damage to our economy, as talented workers often leave the state for less expensive regions. Too many of us know stories of friends, family members, or neighbors being priced out of neighborhood then city then state. 

The crisis in outmigration we face is not billionaires moving to Florida. It is of working people not able to afford the cost of living here. 

Solving this affordable housing crisis will require us to use every tool in the toolbox. That requires zoning reform that encourages the creation of walkable, sustainable, and inclusive communities. It requires public investment. And it requires strengthening tenant protections that ensure that communities can remain affordable, inclusive, and stable.

However, municipalities across Massachusetts are blocked from taking the necessary steps to address the housing crisis. The misguided statewide ban on rent stabilization policies and a stringent home rule system that prevents municipalities from passing their own laws to govern the basic aspects of civil affairs hamstring municipalities.

By enabling our cities and towns to pass rent control ordinances tailored to their local needs, we can stem the displacement that is hitting so many communities.

We cannot build our way out of the crisis alone because the people at the highest risk for displacement will already be pushed out before they can benefit from any medium to long-term reduction in rents.

Rent control is about offering price stability to renters. We know what price stability looks like. It’s what homeowners with mortgages are given. Why should renters not have the same predictability? 

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Collective Testimony: Zero Carbon Renovation Funding in the Environmental Bond Bill

Link to testimony here

July 29, 2025
Senator Becca Rausch, Co-Chair
Representative Christine Barber, Co-Chair
Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources
State House Room 215
Boston, MA 02133
Re: Zero Carbon Renovation Funding in the Environmental Bond Bill


Dear Chair Rausch, Chair Barber, and Members of the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural
Resources:

Thank you for the opportunity to submit this testimony concerning the Mass Ready Act. Our Zero Carbon Renovation Fund Coalition is supportive of this bill and believes it can be strengthened by including additional decarbonization funding for frontline communities. Luckily, H.3577/S.2286, An Act establishing a Zero Carbon Renovation Fund, sponsored by Senator Gomez and Representatives Vargas and Cruz, would do just that.

The Zero Carbon Renovation Fund Coalition has over 200 member organizations representing 80,000 units of affordable housing, and working at the intersection of housing, health, community, and climate. We are united in the idea that equitable building decarbonization is critical for the health, wealth, and safety of our communities long-term.

Decarbonization involves improving a building’s envelope, transitioning it to clean energy sources, adding on-site power generation, and using less energy-intensive building materials. These practices make buildings more resilient in the face of floods, heat waves, and other extreme weather events, while mitigating climate change.

The state has started to invest in decarbonization for affordable housing and other priority sectors through programs at DOER, HLC, and Mass Save. Current and expected decarbonization sources for MA’s affordable housing sector total approximately $500M. But this is not enough.

The cost to decarbonize affordable housing units is currently tracking between $50K-$150K more per unit than a business-as-usual retrofit. Scaled up to over 200,000 units of multifamily affordable housing in MA translates to at least $10B-$30B of investment that will be needed for the affordable housing sector alone to meet our state’s climate goals by 2050.

The inclusion of H.3577/S.2286 will provide funding to catalyze an equitable transition to a clean energy future that simultaneously advances climate resiliency and improves physical and financial security for frontline communities. It will prioritize Environmental Justice communities, Gateway Cities, low-and moderate-income housing, municipal buildings, and minority-and women-owned businesses. As existing buildings in Massachusetts contribute nearly one third of all carbon emissions, a focus on making this clean energy transition is essential if we are to create a sustainable and resilient future for
our children. While H.3577/S.2286 allocates $300 million in funding for these retrofits, we believe that $50 million would be an adequate investment to start this crucial work.

We encourage you to include this language in the version of the Environmental Bond Bill that this Committee reports, so we can move a step closer to the clean and resilient energy future our communities and neighbors deserve. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to ZCRF Committee Chair Emily Jones at ejones@lisc.org. Thank you for this opportunity to testify.


Sincerely,
The Zero Carbon Renovation Fund Coalition Members:
● 2Life Communities
● 350 Mass Berkshires
● 350 Central Mass
● 350 Mass
● Abacus Architects
● Abode Energy Management
● Acadia Center
● ACEDONE
● Action for Equity
● Acton Climate Coalition
● AIA Massachusetts
● Alliance of Cambridge Tenants (ACT)
● Allston Brighton Community
Development Corporation
● Allume Energy
● Alternatives for Community and
Environment (ACE)
● Andover Working to Educate Climate
Action Now (WECAN)
● Anti-Racism & Earth Ministry Teams of
First Church Amherst, UCC
● Asian American Civic Association
● Asian Community Development
Corporation (ACDC)
● AURORA Architects + Builders Co.
● B’nai B’rith Housing
● Beacon Climate Innovations
● Beacon Communities
● Berkshire Environmental Action Team
● Birchwood Sustainable Development
● BlocPower
● BlueHub Capital
Page 3 of 5
● Boston Catholic Climate Movement
● Boston Center for Independent Living
● Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN)
● Boston Housing Authority
● Boston Impact Initiative
● Boston Metal
● Breathe Clean North Shore
● Bright Power
● Brookhaven Residents Climate Change
Committee
● Brookline Community Development
Corporation
● Browning the Green Space (BGS)
● Building A Better Wellesley
● Building Electrification Accelerator
(BEA)
● Building Evolution Corporation
● Built Environment Plus (BE+)
● Byggmeister Design Build
● Cambridge Housing Authority (CHA)
● Capstone Communities LLC
● Cascap Inc.
● Castle Square Tenants Organization
● Center for EcoTechnology
● Chatham Climate Action Network
● Citizens’ Climate Lobby – Boston Metro
West
● Citizens’ Housing and Planning
Association (CHAPA)
● Clean Energy Group (CEG)
● Clean Water Action
● Climate Action Now, Western Mass
(CAN)
● Climate Code Blue
● Coalition for a Better Acre
● Codman Square NDC
● Commonwealth Community
Developers, LLC
● Community Action Agency of
Somerville, Inc. (CAAS)
● Community Action Works Campaigns
● Community Economic Development
Center of Southeastern Massachusetts
(CEDC)
● Community Square Associates
● Conservation Law Foundation (CLF)
● Construct
● Dorchester Bay Economic Development
Corporation
● East Boston CDC (EBCDC)
● Eisenberg Consulting LLC
● Elders Climate Action Mass.
● Embue
● Emerald Cities Collaborative
● Energy Allies
● enviENERGY Studio
● Environmental League of
Massachusetts (ELM)
● Fairmount Indigo CDC Collaborative
● Fenway CDC
● Franklin County CDC
● Grand Banks Building Products
● Greater Boston Physicians for Social
Responsibility
● Greater Springfield Habitat for
Humanity
● GreenerU
● Greening Greenfield
● Green Energy Consumers Alliance
● Green Newton
● GreenRoots
● Greenvest
● HallKeen Management
● Harborlight Homes
● Hargidon Architecture + Design
● Hebrew SeniorLife
● Health Resources in Action (HRiA)
● Hilltown CDC
● Home City Development, Inc.
● Housing Corporation of Arlington
● Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC)
● Housing Greenfield
● Housing Nantucket
Page 4 of 5
● Homeowner’s Rehab, Inc. (HRI)
● ICON Architecture
● Indivisible Acton Area
● Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA
Boston)
● Island Housing Trust
● Jamaica Plain Neighborhood
Development Corporation
● Jewish Alliance for Law and Social
Action
● Jewish Climate Action Network
● Jonathan Rose Companies
● Jones Whitsett Architects (JWA)
● Just A Start
● Kim Lundgren Associates, Inc.
● Latino Support Network (LSN)
● Lawrence CommunityWorks
● League of Conservation Voters
● LEAN Green Building, Inc.
● Lexington Climate Action Network
● LivableStreets Alliance (LSA)
● Local Initiatives Support Corporation
(LISC) Massachusetts
● Longmeadow Pipeline Awareness
Group
● Madison Park Development
Corporation (MPDC)
● Main South CDC
● Maloney Properties, Inc.
● Massachusetts Affordable
Homeownership Alliance (MAHA)
● Massachusetts Association of
Community Development Corporations
(MACDC)
● Massachusetts Association of Housing
Cooperatives
● Massachusetts Climate Action Network
(MCAN)
● Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light
● Mass Power Forward Coalition (MPF)
● Mass Renews Alliance
● Massachusetts Sierra Club
● Metropolitan Area Planning Council
(MAPC)
● Metro West Collaborative Development
● Montague Housing Authority
● Mothers Out Front Massachusetts
● Munkenbeck Consulting
● Mystic River Watershed Association
● Nectar Community Investments
● Neighborhood of Affordable Housing
(NOAH)
● Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts
(N2N)
● NeighborWorks Housing Solutions
● New Ecology, Inc.
● NewVue Communities
● No Fracked Gas in Mass
● No Pipeline Westborough
● North Shore CDC (NSCDC)
● Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC)
● Northeast Sustainable Energy
Association
● Nuestra Comunidad Development
Corporation
● Onion Flats Architecture
● Our Climate
● Passive House Massachusetts
● The Property & Casualty Initiative (PCI)
● Peabody Properties
● Petersen Engineering, Inc.
● Pine Street Inn
● Placetailor Co-op LLC
● Planning Office for Urban Affairs
(POUA)
● PowerOptions
● Preservation of Affordable Housing
(POAH)
● Progressive Democrats of
Massachusetts
● Progressive Mass
● Public Health Institute of Western
Massachusetts
● Quincy Geneva New Vision CDC (QGNV)
Page 5 of 5
● R.W. Kern Center at Hampshire College
● RCC Center for Smart Building
Technology
● Rethinking Power Management (RPM)
● Resonant Energy
● Revitalize Community Development
Corporation
● RMI
● Slipstream
● Somerville Community Corporation
● South Boston Neighborhood
Development Corporation (SBNDC)
● Southwest Boston CDC
● Sparhawk Group
● St. Francis House
● Stanton Home
● Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (SWA)
● Steveworks LLC
● Sustainable Comfort, Inc
● Sustainable Wellesley
● The Caleb Group
● The Community Builders (TCB)
● The Green Engineer, Inc.
● The Neighborhood Developers (TND)
● The Passive House Network
● The Schochet Companies
● Town of Hudson Conservation
Commission
● TSK Energy Solutions LLC
● UHM Properties
● UU Mass Action
● U.S. Green Building Council
● UndauntedK12
● Urban Edge
● Valley CDC
● Vermont Energy Investment
Corporation (VEIC)
● Veterans Benefits Clearinghouse
Development Corporation (VBCDC)
● Vietnamese American Initiative for
Development, Inc. (VietAID)
● Vote Solar
● Waterfront Historic Area League
(WHALE)
● Way Finders
● Western Massachusetts Dayenu Circle
● WinnCompanies
● Worcester Common Ground (WCG)
● Worcester Congregations for Climate
and Environmental Justice
● Worcester HEART Partnership
● Worcester Housing Authority
● ZeroCarbonMA