Marion Affordable Housing Trust member Susan Miller learned a lot during her participation in a recent South Coast Affordable Housing forum, as expressed during the June 13 public meeting of the AHT.
“This was an eye-opener,” said Miller, seeing that the City of New Bedford is a focal point of ARPA funding.
New Bedford was to receive $63,000,000 that the city would use to create a building coordinator to look at new properties. The aim is to buy up old buildings, including former factories to be converted into residential buildings.
“They said, if we get this housing, then we’re not going to deal with the homeless problem. They were very clear about that with the New Bedford group,” said Miller.
The state held up Brewster Woods’ 30 affordable rental apartments on Cape Cod and the development’s “whole community approach” as a model for other communities.
“You see that with this one development, that they got money from all different sources,” said Miller, adding that the focus there is on helping people with disabilities. “Also, that was the first group that I heard anyone saying they want to help out the veterans.”
A supportive housing development for the elderly in Plympton has also been held up as an example for communities.
Miller came away from the forum with the distinct impression that the Town of Marion needs a full-time grant writer. “It’s a big task,” she said.
Major municipal construction projects facing the town have experienced grant writers on staff preoccupied.
Miller’s research on Community Preservation proposals yielded information on communities that give a discount or help, including nearby Middleborough, which offers a discount to ages 65 and over (as does Cambridge.) However, said Miller, the other towns rely on federal, low-income housing grants. “You have to be within the federal-poverty guidelines,” she said.
The state Association for Community Action assistance helps eligible households pay water and sewer bills. “They break it down, the household, the income, gross income for the month and if you can qualify,” said Miller, then it becomes another means of assistance.
Miller also spoke about green energy and the Great American Rain Barrel program. She said the Mattapoisett Agricultural Commission held a now-completed program for residences (including those in Marion and Rochester.)
AHT member Nancy McFadden said she became more cognizant at Town Meeting as to what the Community Preservation Committee does.
AHT member Norm Hills explained that the Community Preservation Act is funded by a 2% tax that the town voted long before he lived in Marion, then the program expanded and has funded many projects with CPA funds.
Chairperson Terri Santos noted that the AHT has $8,000 in its budget.
An April 24 letter from former Select Board member John Waterman on the Affordable/Inclusionary Zoning Bylaw was discussed.
“A lot of this is not accurate,” said Santos of Waterman’s letter. Santos said she is “on the same page” as Hills, who disagrees with Waterman’s criticisms of the 20-year bylaw.
Hills pointed out that no permit has been pulled for the Heron Cove Estates development, so the town only has conditional protection to refuse a developer’s 40B application until it’s pulled. Eileen Marum, attending the meeting, said that without that permit pulled, Marion is not in a “safe harbor.”
Hills encouraged the trust to work with the Planning Board, and Santos suggested the trust will want to speak for itself in its response to Waterman’s letter.
The next meeting of the Marion Affordable Housing Trust is scheduled for Tuesday, July 11, at 6:00 pm.
Marion Affordable Housing Trust
By Mick Colageo