Friday, April 10, 2015

A New Player In Town



The Amherst Municipal Affordable Housing Trust Board of Trustees had their groundbreaking meeting last night, hearing a brief presentation by Rita Farrell of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership on all the possibilities relating to affordable housing that lay ahead for this new entity.

Town Meeting approved the formation of the Housing Trust last year (after rejecting the idea back in 2008) and the Select Board only recently appointed the seven members:  


The first test for the Trust comes next month when Town Meeting votes the Community Preservation Act Committee recommendations of $846,633 in projects which includes $25,000 in "due diligence" money for the Trust. Originally they requested $50,000 but without a committee membership yet in place the CPAC was hesitant to fully fund the request.

There was some discussion last night as to whether the term "due diligence" is broad enough for the committee to invest in a wide variety of start up activities. 

The Trust will be allowed to accept grants, private donations (of money or property) or payments from developers due to Inclusionary Zoning requirements, but the bulk of their funding is expected to be Community Preservation Act funds. 

Since Amherst voters recently approved doubling the surcharge up to the maximum 3% the CPA fund has a significantly expanded bottom line with a projected surplus of $1.3 million after Town Meeting approval of this year's ($846,633) projects.

The fledgling committee hopes the Trust becomes both well-funded and credible to allow for more nimble deal making with affordable housing developers.   Currently the town is just over the 10% threshold  on the state Subsidized Housing Inventory thus insulating us from a Ch40B development.

Although the Trust could themselves take on the roll of developer, but with all the requirements imposed on a public agency (prevailing wage for one) it's highly unlikely.

Because of a strangling of supply over the past generation Amherst has become ever increasingly unaffordable.  And not just to low-income residents, but middle-income families as well.

The two most recent taxpayer funded housing studies clearly indicate that additional housing is desperatily needed across the entire economic spectrum.

My vote for the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust logo


Perhaps by benefit of the halo non-profit entities get to wear the Affordable Housing Trust will have better luck overcoming the stigma attached to anyone who tries to do housing development in this town, where NIMBYs are nothing if not formidable.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

So this is for students, right? They need affordable housing.

Larry Kelley said...

No, the way the state calculates things they would not count.

Anonymous said...

This is so cool, I am looking forward to everyone being housed affordably, but more importantly, seeing Amherst government grow to its appropriate size.

Anonymous said...

I got the sarcasm, Anon 9:04 p.m.

Everyone wants smaller government, until, of course, they want something from government.

Anonymous said...

Just what the town needs, more Ameaucracy. Now we can have even more multiple hour long meetings that solve nothing, do nothing, and basically keep the gears of Amherst clogged.

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:48

Most people are willing to sacrifice any level of other peoples' existences for any level of gain personally. You used to have to hide your actions as you screw people, now we just call it Government.

And that is not Only in Amherst.

That is human nature, pretend to care about others, throw them under the bus if someone offers you a quarter.

Amherst has perfected the art of pretending to care and making the problem worse by trying to solve it collectively. And then pretending they solved the problem.

Anonymous said...

Another program designed to solve to problems created by the last program.

I wonder what they are going to do to solve the problems created by this program.

Perhaps another program that will require two more programs to rectify.

This is why it pays to be in government. The demand for your services never seems to end. It's like the glassmaker's son breaking windows every night. Did you see the glassmakers new car?

Anonymous said...

The Amherst schools are prisons.
Anyone care to guess which of our illustrious School Committee members said this?

Anonymous said...

Amherst Schools are not prisons, use of them is completely voluntary.

It would be more accurate to say the owning or renting a home in Amherst (and many towns) makes you an indentured servant, because kid or not, funding the schools is anything but voluntary.