Massachusetts AG Healey Expands Abandoned Housing Initiative

Foreclosure State Attorney General

On January 25, Massachusetts AG Maura Healey announced that she was expanding her Abandoned Housing Initiative (AHI) in response to an increasing number of cities and towns seeking assistance to revitalize their neighborhoods. Under the AHI, the AG’s office seeks to have delinquent owners bring their distressed and abandoned residential properties into code compliance. If the owner refuses, a court-approved receiver completes repairs on the property and receives compensation, utilizing funds from the nationwide state-federal settlement over unlawful foreclosures, once the property is sold. According to Helen Zucco, Executive Director at Chelsea Restoration Corporation, the program “gives banks an incentive to approve construction loans, allows funds to be loaned to receivers at very low interest, and creates a streamlined process for receivers to obtain the funds they need to achieve their important role in [the] process.”