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Important Changes

Important Changes  Updates to the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP)

Date: 04/16/2026
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Notice to MRVP Participants

Dear MRVP Participant:

This letter is for households with a Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP) voucher administered by a local housing authority or regional administering agency.  MRVP is overseen by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (HLC).

To meet the goal of keeping all families housed during a time of rising rental costs, HLC is making changes to MRVP that may increase your portion of the rent over the next year or two.  Note your housing authority or regional administering agency will recertify your income every year instead of every two years.  Some of the policies we are changing are:

  • No longer paying for a security deposit at new lease up.
  • Removing a deduction that doesn’t count ½ of the earned income of household members 18-20 years old.
  • Removing two small deductions for certain expenses for disabled household members.  There is no change to medical deductions.
  • Applying payment standard changes at recertification instead of in the future.
  • No longer paying utility reimbursements, which some households with little to no income receive.

Additionally, we would like to remind you of some of your obligations under your MRVP voucher.  It is extremely important that you comply with these obligations as non-compliance may be grounds for termination.  These obligations include:

  • Paying your portion of the rent on time. 
  • Reporting every income change within 30 days. This includes when your income goes up or down.
  • Reporting any changes to who lives with you and asking permission before adding adults to your household.
  • Providing information requested as part of your recertification right away.
  • Complying with your lease.

We understand that changing these policies may increase costs for households.  We are also making changes to limit rents that property owners can receive.  We made these choices to ensure that MRVP can continue to serve as many households as possible given limited funding.

If you have questions about your voucher, your obligations, or how changes may affect your household, please contact the housing agency administering your voucher.  This is the agency that informs you of the amount of rent you must pay your landlord. If you have additional concerns about MRVP overall, please feel free to reach out to HLC at EOHLCmrvp@mass.gov.

Sincerely,

Danielle Bastarache 
Undersecretary, Division of Public Housing and Rental Assistance

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