2008: Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) amends local preferences for housing projects

The Massachusetts DHCD now stipulates that cities and towns can only specify local preferences for up to 70% of affordable units. Preferences include:

• current residents
• municipal/school department employees
• employees of local businesses 

Additional requirements include:

• communities must demonstrate the need for local preferences and demonstrate that they will not have a disparate impact on protected classes
• the subsidizing agency must approve of the local preference scheme
• durational residential preferences are not permitted
• advertising cannot include any local preferences