A recomposed committee to oversee Southborough’s Affordable Housing Trust was officially appointed this month. The “Board of Trustees of the Affordable Housing Trust (AHT)” will meet for the second time tonight (in person only).
At the Special Town Meeting in September, voters approved eliminating SHOPC (the Southborough Housing Opportunity Partnership Committee) and revamping the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Committee (AHTFC).
The intent was to consolidate efforts and streamline the process for planning and funding affordable housing projects. But the Town needed approval from the state to move forward.
That came through this winter. The Select Board discussed the changes at their January 7th meeting. They voted to appoint four members who had been serving on SHOPC — Doug Manz, Paul Desmond, Jesse Stein, and Al Hamilton. Hamilton, a Select Board member, is the only member who had also served on the AHTFC (which had included all Select Board members).
On January 16th, the new board organized, voting to make Manz the Chair.
This week, the Select Board filled the final seat. They appointed Ellen Marya, a resident who described her extensive work experience related to affordable housing consulting and policy. Marya has been serving on the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) as an at-large member. The new post means that she will have to step down from that position. That leaves another CPC vacancy the Select Board will need to fill.
But, on Tuesday night, the Select Board also approved replacing the defunct SHOPC seat on the CPC with a representative from the AHT board.
Marya confirmed that she is interested in that seat. But, based on another vote at Special Town Meeting (and approved by the Attorney General’s office), appointments for committee representatives are no longer decided by the Select Board.
After upset over the Select Board’s refusal to appoint CPC members that committees voted to support as their representative, the CPC asked Town Meeting to specify that committees appoint their own representatives.
The appointment to the CPC isn’t on tonight’s Board of ATH agenda. But Hamilton previewed that he believes the board is trying to schedule another meeting next week, to sit down with Habitat for Humanity.)
During Marya’s interview on Tuesday, she was asked about her view on whether the CPC should transfer to the AHD funds from the Community Preservation Act fund bucket that are designated for affordable housing projects.
Marya said that she believed the new board needs to first go through a planning process:
coinciding with Southborough’s Housing Production Plan expiring in 2025. I think this is a great opportunity for the trust to spend some time thinking about what the goals would be what the strategy should be.
She followed that she believed that would lead to an application to the CPC for funding. She noted that CPC’s past hesitancy to transfer money to the AHT (as had been urged by the Select Board and AHTFC) was lack of clear communication from the ATHFC of their vision for how the funds would be used.
She stated that she wants the money to make “as great an impact as we can” and that the trustees need a collective agreement on what that impact should be. She noted that there are many options, including buying single family homes, buying down rent payments, and using funds to leverage much larger projects in concert with a non-profit developer or state.
Select Board member Sam Stivers said he was excited about that last possibility and using Marya’s expertise to help facilitate that. He opined that the money could help as a sweetener to entice developers of a larger project.
According to Hamilton, the new board will be discussing “it’s vision of a mission” at tonight’s meeting. But he made clear that he oppose the new board
engaging “in a lengthy analysis process”.
Hamilton has publicly expressed frustration with lack of progress on affordable housing project by SHOPC and the CPC. And he has been a vocal advocate for the CPC to transfer affordable housing funds to the trust so that the committee/board can act quickly on opportunities without going through Town Meeting.
On that note, the new board’s response to CPC’s “Request of Additional Information” on its application for CPA funds, is also on tonight’s agenda.
On Tuesday, Hamilton reiterated that after 10 or more years of “talking about doing something and accomplishing actually nothing” he wants to start doing something based on “opportunities that are in front of us today”. He indicated that he couldn’t say more.
Tonight’s open meeting agenda is followed by a closed Executive Session “to discuss potential property acquisition”. The open portion will begin at 7:00 pm (on January 21st) in the Town House Hearing Room. (Click here for the agenda.)
