Tell Your State Senator: Fight for Economic Justice in the Economic Development Bill

Two weeks ago, the MA House passed its economic development bill, a policy and spending grab-bag bill that included some wins for affordable housing.

The Senate is voting on their bill this Wednesday and Thursday. The economic development bill, as a “must-pass” bill each session, becomes a critical vehicle for passing policy. Between now and Wednesday, take a minute to call or email your state senator in support of these three amendments:

  • Amendment #12: Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), filed by Sen. Jehlen, which would enable tenants to band together to purchase their building when it goes on the market
  • Amendment #14: Countering Fiscal Uncertainty, filed by Sen. Jason Lewis, which would repeal the state’s harmful and outdated investment cap​
  • Amendment #193: Data Centers, filed by Sen. Vanna Howard, which would ensure that data centers cover their energy needs with clean energy and do not increase water and electric bills
  • Amendment #511: Requiring Automated Criminal Record Sealing, filed by Sen. Cindy Friedman, which would take away unnecessary bureaucracy in the criminal record sealing process

What Passed in the MA House’s Economic Development Bill?

The MA House voted on Wednesday for its economic development bill, a bill that every two years can become a catch-all bill for various policy priorities and earmarks.

The House went through 688 amendments in the non-transparent Consolidated Amendment process. House Leadership grouped these 688 amendments into five categories to create five Consolidated Amendments, but little, if anything, of the content of most of these amendments remained. Rather than rejecting amendments (by voice or recorded vote) or having lead sponsors withdraw amendments, the House has increasingly taken to this strategy, which reduces the ability for the public to see what is happening and pushes even more discussion behind closed doors.

Consolidated amendments also erase opportunities for accountability by bundling measures together rather than allowing for clear up or down votes on individual priorities.

One of the amendments that we had supported did, however, make it in: the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), which would allow cities and towns a local option to provide tenants in multi-family buildings the right to match a third-party offer when their homes are being sold.

TOPA passed the Legislature more than five years ago, vetoed by Republican Governor Charlie Baker when the legislative session had run out and there was no time for veto overrides. Two years ago, the House passed it as part of the housing bond bill, but it did not survive final negotiations. Let’s make it the session it finally happens.

The House’s bill also took other steps to address the housing crisis, such as authorizing municipalities to adopt commercial conversion zoning to transform underutilized commercial properties into housing and mixed-use developments through streamlined local approvals and allowing multifamily housing as of right on qualifying land owned by religious institutions, with a requirement that at least 20% of units be affordable.

The MA House and MA Senate Are Voting on Key Bills This Week. Here’s What They Should Hear from You.

In the last month sprint of the formal legislative session, expect to see an increased pace of action in the MA State House.

Today, the MA House is voting on its economic development bill, and tomorrow, the MA Senate is voting on a bill to address addictive design from social media companies.

Read on for more information about what your state rep and state senator should be hearing from you.

Tell Your State Rep: Support Amendments to Expand Economic Opportunity and Access to Affordable Housing

The MA House is voting TODAY on its economic development bill. Our allies are supporting a number of amendments to strengthen the bill in ways that promote economic opportunity and increase access to affordable housing.

Email Your State Rep

Email your state rep to urge them to support amendments that strengthen the bill.

  • Amendment #25, which would eliminate the requirement that a household provide a notice to quit or utility shutoff notice for a household to be eligible for Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT), removing a significant barrier to accessing this critical homelessness prevention resource
  • Amendment #71, which would allow cities and towns a local option to provide tenants in multi-family buildings the right to match a third-party offer when their homes are being sold
  • Amendment #136, which would ensure worker-owned businesses are recognized in economic development program selection criteria, helping broaden access to state economic development tools for cooperative and shared-ownership models
  • Amendment #155, which would allow qualified, job-ready people to fully participate in the workforce by automating the CORI-sealing process to seal records that are already eligible after the required waiting periods
  • Amendment #226, which would provide $15,000,000 in bonding authorizations for a pilot program to fund the construction of small to medium sized (1-25 unit) permanently affordable home ownership developments
  • Amendment # 438, which would ensure that the executive order-created Office of Access and Opportunity is codified into Massachusetts statutes to uphold the Governor’s commitment to language access in our state agencies
  • Amendment #636, which would ease access to Massachusetts IDs for people experiencing homelessness by waiving the $25 fee for standard Mass IDs and easing residency verification requirements for youth and adults experiencing homelessness

The MA Senate Is Voting on a Bill to Regulate Teen Social Media Use. Here’s How It Can Be Better.

A couple months ago, the MA House advanced a harmful bill that would ban minors from social media, force social media platforms to enable parental surveillance of teenagers’ online activity, and subject everyone to privacy-invading online ID checks in order to access information or speak out online. We joined groups from across the state in opposing this language.

The Senate’s bill (S.3164), which will be voted on this Thursday, takes a smarter approach, targeting addictive design.

Our friends at Fight for the Future are urging senators to support several amendments that would protect privacy, protect youth, and help the bill better accomplish its stated goals  (read more about them here).

Email Your State Senator

  • Amendment #2, which closes a loophole in the definition of “user” that would have allowed platforms to continue providing addictive features to minors so long as the minor does not use an account to access the platform
  • Amendment #3, which updates the definition of social media so that it would cover Snapchat and exclude sites like GitHub and Wikipedia that have valuable educational purposes
  • Amendment #4, which clarifies that the attorney general will be regulating interoperability of age signals and not mandating that all operating systems implement age signals
  • Amendment #19, which prevents companies from manipulating users into using addictive features
  • Amendment #24, which voids the privacy and security issues that come with obtaining parental consent, while increasing the protections for minors
  • Amendment #25, which clarifies that platforms can use interaction data to generate feeds when that data functions to allow users to control the amount and types of content they receive from users they subscribe to
  • Amendment #27, which expands the ban on tech companies’ ability to use design tactics, such as repeated nudges and grouping of settings controls, to manipulate users into choosing less protective settings
  • Amendment #29, which adds important protections to minors’ data by requiring the attorney general to address issues of re-identification that could expose minors’ personal information to the public

Testimony: MA Needs Action on Our Housing Crisis

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Chair Cyr, Chair Haggerty, and Members of the Joint Committee on Housing. 

I am submitting testimony on behalf of Progressive Massachusetts. PM is a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic. 

We see it all the time in polls, we hear it on the doors, and we see it in the data: Massachusetts has a housing crisis. More and more residents are unable to afford to live in our commonwealth anymore, priced out from one community to another and then out entirely, or face severe housing instability. 

We need a comprehensive approach to the housing crisis, and strong protections for tenants must be a part of it. We urge you to give a favorable report to H.2328: An Act enabling cities and towns to stabilize rents and protect tenants, H.1544 / S.998: An Act to guarantee a tenant’s first right of refusal, and S.968: An Act promoting access to counsel and housing stability in Massachusetts.

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 housing affordability. [1] A worker earning minimum wage in Massachusetts would have to work 91 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.

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.

There is a lot of fear-mongering around rent control, but I want to make a simple point. If you don’t think a landlord should be able to double or triple someone’s rent in a year after doing no work on the property, you believe in rent control, and the question is just a matter of percentages and exemptions.

On too many issues, Massachusetts is haunted by the ghosts of ill-advised ballot initiatives past. It’s 2023, and we need to act like it.

Empowering cities and towns to respond to our housing crisis also requires passing the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA). The TOPA bill, which is similarly an enabling bill, recognizes that we need to preserve our affordable housing stock. Too often, when large landlords sell a building, a mass eviction or rent hike follows for the tenants. TOPA shows that there is another way: as has been a proven success in DC for decades, we could enable tenants to come together to purchase the building—and be granted the right of first refusal in doing so. It’s a common-sense policy for community stability and affordable housing at no cost to the state.

Finally, the Legislature has made a commitment to access to counsel in the most recent budget cycle. However, we need to make this permanent in statute. S.968 bill would provide legal representation for low-income tenants and low-income owner-occupants in eviction proceedings. The eviction moratorium that the Legislature passed earlier in the pandemic was a vital lifeline for so many, but eviction filings have now been climbing past what they were in 2019, pre-pandemic. Tenants enter such eviction proceedings at a major disadvantage: according to FY2024 Trial Court data, while 90% of landlords are represented, less than 5% of tenants are represented. Tenants facing eviction are disproportionately poor, female, and BIPOC, and evictions can have lasting negative impacts on physical and mental health.

Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Washington have already passed Right to Counsel policies, and Massachusetts should join them. 

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director 

Progressive Massachusetts

Testimony: MA Needs Right to Counsel

Wednesday, October 22, 2025 

Chair Day, Chair Edwards, and Members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary: 

I am submitting testimony on behalf of Progressive Massachusetts. PM is a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic. 

We see it all the time in polls, we hear it on the doors, and we see it in the data: Massachusetts has a housing crisis. More and more residents are unable to afford to live in our commonwealth anymore, priced out from one community to another and then out entirely, or face severe housing instability. 

We need a comprehensive approach to the housing crisis, and strong protections for tenants must be a part of it. We urge you to give a favorable report to H.1952: An Act promoting access to counsel and housing stability in Massachusetts.

These bills would provide legal representation for low-income tenants and low-income owner-occupants in eviction proceedings. The eviction moratorium that the Legislature passed earlier in the pandemic was a vital lifeline for so many, but eviction filings have now been climbing past what they were in 2019, pre-pandemic. Tenants enter such eviction proceedings at a major disadvantage: according to FY2024 Trial Court data, while 90% of landlords are represented, less than 5% of tenants are represented. Tenants facing eviction are disproportionately poor, female, and BIPOC, and evictions can have lasting negative impacts on physical and mental health.

Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Washington have already passed Right to Counsel policies, and Massachusetts should join them. 

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director 

Progressive Massachusetts 

Testimony: The Solution to Homelessness is Homes, Not Criminalization

Wednesday, October 22, 2025 

Chair Livingstone, Chair Kennedy, and Members of the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities: 

I am submitting testimony on behalf of Progressive Massachusetts. PM is a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic. 

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.274: An Act establishing a bill of rights for individuals experiencing homelessness.

The solution to homelessness is clear: giving people homes. But too often, municipalities see the solution as criminalization and punishment instead, worsening the underlying problems and forcing individuals into vicious cycles of incarceration and housing instability.

As rents and housing prices skyrocket in Massachusetts, an increasing number of families face housing instability, experiencing short-term or long-term homelessness. We desperately need comprehensive action to address our housing crisis and to secure housing for those currently without it. However, we also need to ensure that misguided and archaic laws do not make it more difficult for individuals to obtain housing.

These bills would rectify this status quo by extending anti-discrimination protections to persons experiencing homelessness, including protections when seeking employment, housing, voter registration, and access to public spaces and places of public accommodation. They would also ensure that individuals experiencing homelessness are not being criminalized for existing in public space, protecting their right to rest, seek shelter from the elements, occupy a legally parked car, pray, eat, and avoid needless harassment in public spaces.

H.274 is essential to ensuring Massachusetts is a state that treats all residents with dignity and respect, and we urge you to give it your support.

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director 

Progressive Massachusetts 

Real Estate Transfer Fees Are a Critical Tool for Addressing Our Housing Crisis

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Chair Eldridge, Chair Madaro, and Members of the Joint Committee on Revenue:

I am writing on behalf of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide, member-based grassroots advocacy organization fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.1937/H.3056: An Act granting a local option for a real estate transfer fee to fund affordable housing, filed by Sen. Jo Comerford and Reps. Mike Connolly and Carmine Gentile.

Massachusetts has a housing crisis. We see it in every survey of top issues among residents. We see it in the rising home prices and the number of communities where the median home sale has passed $1 million. We see it in the way that growth in rents has outpaced growth in wages. And we see it in the number of young families or long-term residents who decide to move out of state because they simply can’t afford the high cost of housing in Massachusetts.

Our cities and towns need every tool in the toolbox to address our state’s housing crisis, and a real estate transfer fee would provide a crucial one. By imposing a small fee on high-end real estate transactions, communities will be able to provide much-needed funding to affordable housing trusts so that we can preserve and expand affordable housing stock. These bills recognize that each community’s housing situation is different and thus enable cities and towns to craft the proposal that best fits their community’s needs.

Cities and towns from across the Commonwealth have already filed home rule petitions to do this. When our cities and towns want to become places where people can afford to live at every stage of life, the State Legislature should support them, not get in the way.

Thank you for your work on the hearing, and again we urge a favorable report on S.1937 and H.3056.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

“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

Let Your Legislators Know: MA Wants Rent Control

Massachusetts has a housing crisis, and we need every tool in the toolbox.

Too many working-class individuals and families are being priced out of their communities and the Commonwealth entirely due to ever-growing rents. But Beacon Hill can take action.

Join Homes for All Massachusetts tomorrow for a rally in the State House (Grand Staircase) the State House at 11:30 am before the 1 pm hearing on rent control at 1 pm in Gardner Auditorium.

Here’s what you need to prepare:

  1. RSVP for rally here
  2. Find the testimony guide here
  3. Email written testimony here: jointcommittee.municipalities&regionalgovernment@malegislature.gov
  4. Email your state rep and state senator in support.

Healey Wants to Spend $360 Million on a New Prison. Tell Her No Way. For years, our friends at Families for Justice as Healing have been organizing against a proposed $50 million new women’s prison to replace MCI-Framingham. How has Governor Maura Healey responded? By proposing a $360 million new women’s prison. Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and girls have been clear: what we need is not a new prison, but greater programming for those currently incarcerated, better reentry programs for people when they return to community, and greater community investments in housing, health care, education, and economic security and opportunity. Think of how much that $360 million could do if it went instead to keeping communities safe and ending cycles of incarceration and harm. Join FJaH in telling Governor Healey to stop the $360 million new women’s prison with the action toolkit at bit.ly/FreeHerMA.

Call daily between 9am and 5pm only – (617) 725-4005 Email any time using this form: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/email-the-governors-office Sample Email/Script: “Hello, my name is _________________ and I am your constituent. I oppose your plan to build a $360 million women’s prison. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on prison construction is not investing in people’s wellbeing and will not make our communities safer. Our communities need this money for housing, healing, healthcare, treatment and more. We could actually make Massachusetts a model for the rest of the country by releasing many more women and implementing alternatives to incarceration rather than building yet another prison.” Share Your Fair Share Story On November 8, 2022, Massachusetts voters passed Question 1: the Fair Share Amendment. We chose a fairer tax system, guaranteeing that the richest one percent will pay more to fund our public schools, colleges, roads, bridges, and public transit. Now, Fair Share is at work, already funding more than $6 billion in transportation and public education investments—with more to come. See a list of Fair Share investments to date at fairsharema.com. How is the Fair Share Amendment positively impacting your life, family or work? Are your children receiving free school meals, or learning in a newly-renovated school building? Are you riding a regional transit authority bus for free, or paying a reduced fare on the MBTA? Are you attending tuition-community college, or receiving state financial aid to make public college more affordable? Are you driving on newly paved roads, or riding on subway trains that are faster? Are you receiving child care financial assistance, or sending your child to a child care program that’s benefitted from new grants to child care providers? Is your city or town receiving more money for local roads and schools? (hint: if you live in Massachusetts, the answer is YES!) Raise Up Massachusetts is collecting stories about the many ways the Fair Share Amendment is making a difference in the lives of Massachusetts residents. If you have a story about how Fair Share is positively impacting your life, family or work, please share it with us here.
SHARE YOUR STORY
Progressive Mass’s New “Power Lunch” Series What comes after calling your state rep and state senator? Getting others to do so as well. Join Progressive Mass for our “Power Lunch” phone bank series (Thursdays at noon), where we will be building our collective power in service of a better Commonwealth for all.

In solidarity,
Jonathan Cohn
Policy Director
Progressive Massachusetts

MA Passed a Budget on Time. What’s in It?

Let’s start out with the ugly, and then the good and the bad.

The UGLY: Yesterday, the US Senate passed a horror show of a budget to take away health care access and food assistance in order to fund tax cuts for the mega-rich and large corporations, and to create a police state in the US by increasing ICE’s budget several times over. If passed, it will be a disaster for the country and for Massachusetts. If you have friends in other states who have Republican Senators or Representatives, ask them to make a phone call in opposition to the Big Ugly Bill.

THE GOOD: On Monday, the Massachusetts State House did something it hasn’t done since 2016: it passed a budget before the end of the fiscal year.

There are some major victories in this budget to celebrate:

  • Banning tenant-paid broker’s fees
  • $2.5 million in continued funding for an access to counsel program, which provides legal representation to low-income tenants facing eviction
  • $5 million for an immigrant legal defense fund
  • Permanently fare-free regional transit authorities
  • Increased funding for our public schools

THE BAD: But there were also disappointments in the budget:

  • Only $1 million in dedicated funding for No Cost Calls implementation
  • Less funding for local aid
  • Insufficient funding for housing safety net programs
  • Insufficient funds for SNAP case workers

Read more about the state budget here, here, and here.

Write to your legislator to express your support for the budget wins and your disappointment with what was left out.

Email Your Legislators

Healey Wants to Spend $360 Million on a New Prison. Tell Her No Way.

For years, our friends at Families for Justice as Healing have been organizing against a proposed $50 million new women’s prison to replace MCI-Framingham.

How has Governor Maura Healey responded? By proposing a $360 million new women’s prison.

Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and girls have been clear: what we need is not a new prison, but greater programming for those currently incarcerated, better reentry programs for people when they return to community, and greater community investments in housing, health care, education, and economic security and opportunity.

Think of how much that $360 million could do if it went instead to keeping communities safe and ending cycles of incarceration and harm.

Join FJaH in telling Governor Healey to stop the $360 million new women’s prison with the action toolkit at bit.ly/FreeHerMA.

Call daily between 9am and 5pm only – (617) 725-4005

Email any time using this form: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/email-the-governors-office Sample Email/Script:

“Hello, my name is _________________ and I am your constituent. I oppose your plan to build a $360 million women’s prison. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on prison construction is not investing in people’s wellbeing and will not make our communities safer. Our communities need this money for housing, healing, healthcare, treatment and more. We could actually make Massachusetts a model for the rest of the country by releasing many more women and implementing alternatives to incarceration rather than building yet another prison.”

Another Budget Takeaway: Fair Share Delivers

One major budget takeaway: The Fair Share Amendment has been delivering even more than expected, and it has proven essential. The Fair Share Amendment has been producing even more revenue than projected, and it has made possible critical new investments in education and transportation. Learn more about its $6 billion in positive impact so far at https://www.fairsharema.com/.