Session Laws

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. As used in this act, the following words shall have the following meanings:-

(a) "Income eligible", when applicable to subsections (a) to (e), inclusive, of section two shall mean having an income, which when combined with the incomes of all other persons residing in the same unit, is eighty percent or less of the median income for the Boston primary metropolitan statistical area as set forth in or determined based upon regulations promulgated from time to time by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development pursuant to Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937 as amended, and calculated pursuant to said regulations.

(b) "Income eligible", when applicable to subsections (a), (b), (d), (e), and (f), of section two shall mean having an income, which when combined with the incomes of all other persons residing in the same unit, is sixty percent or less of the median income for the Boston primary metropolitan statistical area as set forth in or determined based upon regulations promulgated from time to time by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development pursuant to Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937 as amended, and calculated pursuant to said regulations.

(c) "Landlord", the owner of a rental unit, and in the case of an owner which is not a natural person, including without limitation a corporation, trust or partnership, shall include all officers, directors, agents, stockholders, partners, trustees, trust beneficiaries, or other beneficial owners.

SECTION 2. Notwithstanding the provisions of chapter two hundred and eighty-two of the acts of nineteen hundred and ninety-four or any other general or special law to the contrary the town of Brookline may, at any town meeting, appropriate money for providing cash rent subsidies to a tenant, and to the owner of the unit occupied by a tenant, where if the tenant is income eligible pursuant to subsection (a) of section one, satisfies all of the conditions of subsections (a) to (e), inclusive, of section two; or if the tenant is income eligible pursuant to subsection (b) of said section one, satisfies all of the conditions of subsections (a), (b), (d), (e) and (f) as set forth herein;

(a) was income eligible as of January first, nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and has continued thereafter to be and remains income eligible as so defined;

(b) was an occupant on November eighth, nineteen hundred and ninety-four of a covered rental unit, as defined in subsection (c) of section three of chapter two hundred and eighty-two of the acts of nineteen hundred and ninety-four, and has continued thereafter to be and remains an occupant of a rental unit in the town of Brookline;

(c) is a member of a household in which there is and continues to be at least one occupant who was an occupant of a covered rental unit as of November eighth, nineteen hundred and ninety-four, and (i) who had reached the age of sixty-two years on or before November eighth, nineteen hundred and ninety-four, or was physically or mentally disabled on November eighth, nineteen hundred and ninety-four and has continued thereafter to be and remains physically or mentally disabled, or (ii) who is and continues to be a dependent child under the age of eighteen;

(d) is not related by blood or marriage to his landlord;

(e) was found by the Brookline rent control board prior to January first, nineteen hundred and ninety-seven to be an occupant of a covered rental unit, as defined in subsection (c) of said section three; and

(f) is a member of a household in which there is and continues to be at least one occupant who was an occupant of a covered rental unit as of November eighth, nineteen hundred and ninety-four.

SECTION 3. Said town may impose additional restrictions on eligibility for cash rental subsidies in addition to those set forth in section two and in the definitions of section one; and such cash subsidies shall be exempt from the provisions of subsection (b) of section four of chapter forty O of the General Laws, to the extent that such provisions would be applicable and would prohibit such cash subsidies from being provided with respect to rental units owned by a person or entity owning less that ten rental units or with respect to rental units having a fair market rent exceeding four hundred dollars.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect upon its passage.