Affordable Housing Trust Committee meeting notes: 24.04.09
A Quincy Votes! member attended this meeting. While care has been taken in their creation, these notes are not official meeting minutes and may contain errors or omissions.
The meeting was held via Zoom, and it seems that that is typical for this Committee.
James Fatseas, chair, led the meeting.
The first item of business involved a request for $50,000 funding for Spear Street. This is a project to restore 45 and 47/49 Spear Street and construct 8 units of affordable housing with 14 bedrooms. Two units will be wheelchair accessible. The property was bought for $2.1 million in September. The project is hoping to obtain money from the historic preservation fund, but needs some additional money for schematic design, building code review, and related activities. It was noted by the chair that the mayor wants the project to move forward quickly. The resolution was passed.
The second order of business was to allow a tenant in one of the affordable units to stay despite an increase in income. I was struck that the discussion was very thoughtful and the members were cognizant that sometimes a person can have a small increase in income that puts them over the limit, but then penalizes them with higher rent. The request was granted.
A discussion was also held about requiring developers to include affordable units in their buildings rather than paying into a fund. The fund allows the city to be flexible in meeting the housing needs by building larger projects (such as the one in Germantown) and some single-family homes. The Housing Trust has provided about 600 units in the last 20 years (30 per year).
From some financial information that was presented, Ashlar Park (Whitwell Street) will pay $4,121,577 into the fund. The development has 465 units, so they should be paying the value of 10% of the units, which is 46 units. (Dividing what they’re paying into the fund by 46, that works out to about $90,000 per unit.)
The next meeting is scheduled for May 14, 2024, at 3 pm.
