MassAccess Set-Up and Maintenance

Set-Up

All affordable units (not just accessible ones) have to be posted on MassAccess. If you have any questions about this, you need to contact CHAPA at 617-742-0820 and ask to speak to their current MassAccess administrator.

www.massaccesshousingregistry.org

You will first need to set up an account with MassAccess. You need to register before you can post listings and you will need to contact CHAPA to register. You can then post both the affordable units and the market rate units through the same development profile. You then complete the fields they ask. You should attempt to differentiate between the affordable and market rate units by posting in the “Other Lease Terms” section: “Applicants for the affordable units must have income below the following income limits:” and then fill in the income limits for new applicants for your property as found in your most recent SEB Info Packet.

For the “Application Download”, during the period prior to the lottery, you will want to upload the 40B/SEB application (as that is the first step in the process for applicants at that time). After the lottery, you will want to change this to the Waiting List Application (as getting put on the Waiting List is the first step in the process for applicants on a go-forward basis) .

You will then need to click on Manage Unit Information. That is where you will be able to list the rents of both market and affordable units. You will have to list how many Accessible, Ground, and Barrier units you have for your affordable units: Access means accessible/adaptable; Ground means Ground Floor or Elevator Access; Barriers means the unit has barriers or stairs

Studio Waiting List
1BR Waiting List
2BR Waiting List
3BR Waiting List
TBD Disabled-Accessible Waiting Lists

Maintenance

Basically, as long as you are leasing units on a first-come, first-served basis AND are accepting households onto your waiting list, you should always have at least one unit listed under “Available Units” for each bedroom size.

For Disabled-Accessible Unit availability: The most important part of posting these units is that you post all availabilities for units for the disabled or hearing impaired and you do not offer them to anyone that doesn’t need to features for at least 15 days after they have been posted. Additionally, the new guidelines also reference a statute that requires the owner or other person having the right of ownership to give timely notice that a wheelchair accessible unit is vacant or will become vacant to a person who has, within the past 12 months, notified the owner or person or person having the right of ownership that such person is in need of a wheelchair accessible unit. As you should be keeping a separate Waiting List for your accessible units, you may already be doing this. Just make sure that you keep households who inquire about the units on the disabled-accessible Waiting List for at least 12 months and then when a DA unit is available, you will guarantee compliance with this guideline.