Affordable Housing Trust - Regular Meeting

like 20 seconds on that and then you can

Hello everyone. Thank you so much for coming. Um please feel free to come on in, grab a seat. Um for those of you who don't know me, I am Fiona D. Martino. I am the planning director here for the town of Grafton. Um I will uh I am the one of the primary staff support for the Affordable Housing Trust. Um this evening we have a great agenda for you. Um we're going to start with a um brief presentation about the trust, who they are, some of the roles and responsibilities. I'm going to do some data uh show you some data and then we're going to kick it over to our speakers who we're very very lucky to have. Um, so I at this point, um, thank you again for coming and I'm going to turn it over to Dan, who's our affordable housing trust chair.

Hi everybody. I'm Dan Kush. I'm the chair of the uh, affordable housing trust in Grafton. Uh, and going to talk a little bit about uh, the affordable housing trust. So uh, who are we? Uh the uh so a municipal affordable housing trust is uh something that is set up in state law that uh towns can adopt and uh create their own affordable housing trust. Uh we are seven members. We're appointed by the uh Grafton Select Board. Um one of us is a member of the uh Grafton Select Board. uh we have uh our own council who our own you know attorney who uh specializes in this area of law who can advise us on things. We oversee the uh affordable housing trust fund which is uh a separate pot of money that is dedicated to affordable housing. Uh we recently uh updated our goals at our goals workshop uh earlier this year. Uh that uh I believe can be found on the website. Uh we have some other documents on the website uh as well. The ha we have uh things like uh an affordable housing plan uh housing action plan. Uh most recently aside from the goals, we updated our uh housing production plan uh in 2023. Um, and those all have lots of great information about kind of the the state of housing in town and uh plans for how to improve uh the affordability of housing. Uh so what can affordable housing trusts do? Uh nice long list there. I won't read the whole thing off to you. Uh just some some interesting uh ones I want to highlight. Uh we can solicit and accept grants. We can uh buy and sell properties. Uh we can enter into legal

agreements. We can issue RFPs uh for projects and act as a project partner. Uh and more. There's uh there's a lot of things that the uh state law that sets up affordable housing trust uh allows them to do. Uh so what have we been doing? Uh again, another long list of things. Uh we um are there are things that we kind of continually do like uh trying to get more information out about affordable housing. Uh doing workshops like this one. Uh this is I think kind of the biggest most sophisticated kind of uh workshop we've done and we're hoping to do more of them. Um we uh work on some projects to uh increase affordable housing in town. Uh working with uh developers in some cases. Um and yeah uh so how can you get involved? Uh one really big thing that we can always use a lot more of is uh that top one uh use your voice and uh be supportive of affordable housing in town. Um it uh there's kind of a sense that uh you know your voice doesn't really matter. Uh in local government there your voice is a lot louder so people will hear you. Uh so speak up. um especially uh going to uh meetings in town. Uh town meeting the for those of you who are newer to this stuff, the phrase town meeting refers to the big one uh the big two that we have uh each year where every registered voter in town can vote. Uh that's a great opportunity to come and uh make

your voice heard. Uh there are occasionally uh items on our town meeting agenda that affect uh affordable housing in town. Um and you know attending events like this uh educating yourself uh beyond just this event um and uh there's also plenty of opportunities to get involved on a border committee in town. Uh if you have any questions about that uh there's of course the question and answer part of the end or you know come see one of us and uh we love to share more ways you can get involved. Uh and of course we are also a uh resource for uh housing resources. Um there are uh lots of uh resources available in our area that uh for people who are struggling with uh affording housing and uh the affordable housing trust uh people occasionally reach out and we can direct them to other resources. Um our website has uh you know bunch of uh links that people can access and get more information that way. So I will now Oh, that's fancy. Now hand back over to

you know how fancy we are, Dan. [applause] Okay, so um thank you Dan for the intro. So I'm going to um take uh this time to overview why affordable housing is such a critical need in the town of Grafton. Um affordable housing trusts were uh initially established to as a response to state, local, and regional needs for housing. Um, trusts are tasked, as Dan has um stated previously, um, tasked with creating, preserving, and supporting local housing opportunities to achieve this goal. Sorry. So, this slide is uh the HUD income limits, which establish um the affordability thresholds based on your household size. So you can see here that the medium family income for the Worcester area is $122,000 roughly. Um quite high. So um all of the uh subsequent household sizes and their associated affordability thresholds are based on that medium family income and they're organized between extremely low, very low, and low. um at uh extremely low is if you're make um is 30% of the median family income. So if you are a household of four um your uh your affordability threshold is roughly um $37,000. Um, so this is the table that is used um, uh, for us at the town when we're analyzing affordable needs um, as well as when we're hiring consultants to do things like our housing production plans and what we and what developers um, and other um, affordable housing providers uh, base their um, base their income um, incomes on and their lotteryies and their associated marketing plans. So this is a very very important tool. It's updated every year and it's produced um, by HUD. So this is the benchmark that we

that we use. So and it estab most importantly it establishes who qualifies for affordable housing. So again summarized here at extremely low low and low income um for a uh average household size of four is um what we used to present here. Um, so we wanted to just take the opportunity to kind of show you all the folks who have um t typical jobs that fall within these income ranges. So you can see that it spans the gamut, right? A lot more people than you realize qualify um for affordable housing. Um oftentimes people are working multiple jobs um to make try and make this work and um there's just simply not enough supply. Um you can see here you know um cooks um food prep workers um jani janitorials staff are you typically falling under um kind of 30% and then moving away up as up to physical therapists plumbers lab techs people your neighbors people who you talk to every day um teachers it really so many people qualify and it's really important we would love to underscore the point that um the need for affordable housing um is is so critical at this time. So the affordability challenge which um I know is probably not totally new for a lot of people in this room but you can see that the um median uh single family home sales price is vastly um surpassing um increases in household income. So there's been a marginal increase um over um the past 25 years compared to the extremely stark increase that we're seeing in sales prices. And I'm sure a lot of you if you have um you know an elderly parent or a child coming back from college or you're trying to

downsize yourself or whatever your situation is um the market has become extremely extremely challenging to afford anything. Um and a large part of that um is for a variety of reasons but a large part of it is um zoning um as well as um subsidies and initiative. So the one of the key goals of the trust is how can we offset this stark difference that we are seeing and and seeing getting worse.

Yes. So for those in the back, Grafton's median home sale price is $728,000. So not reflected here. So um continuing on um regarding the affordability challenge. So this is another way to kind of summarize the data um in a succinct way. So between 2017 and 2022, there's been an 18% um increase in incomes compared to um a 29% increase in home values, 15% um increase in gross uh median gross rent and um gross rent as a percentage of your household income has increased 31%. So the bottom line says it all. affordability is worsening and people are being disproportionately affected by um these challenging trends. So this slide is in the same vein of kind of what I was speaking to earlier. People in town need housing. The supply um the demand is vastly um surpassing the supply. It's folks um local firefighters, police officers, people like myself and Amber and everyone else who works at the town. Um you know this is an average this slide is um a summary of this was uh data from our um town accountant uh that summarizes and the average um salaries that uh staff are making. Um and just putting that into perspective when trying to find a home, I can tell you from firsthand experience, I just stopped looking. So, um, you know, it's been it's it's very challenging and again this the the um discrepancies are stark. Um, one thing that I did want to highlight here is Grafton um does offer a um local preference policy. So, if anybody is um looking for affordable

housing opportunities, um if you are a Grafton resident or work in the town, you are prioritized through the local preference policy for housing units. So, if you're applying through the lottery process, um you do get um you are looked upon favorably. So, that is um a nice thing that we do offer in town here. So, I just wanted to um I'm a planner so uh maps. Um so, I wanted to just highlight um this map. So, it's symbolized in the following way. Um the more density uh the darker the color. So you can see that Grafton is not uh there's not a lot of purple and blue. Um the uh dispersion of units per acre in town. Um it's it's really it's not reflective of the needs as we've seen. Um most of the town has uh four or less um units per acre on average um across lot boundaries. So this was a map that was uh prepared by uh one of our planning board members using um mass GIS data and uh Grafton assessor's data um to highlight really we have a lot of work to do um and we can be significantly improving obviously our core nodes um the center of town and along kind of our key corridors 140 and 122 um we are seeing um a little bit more attention but I think we can be significantly improving. I mean a lot of this is in part due to um not having some available infrastructure which we understand but um but really you know it's there is a lot of work that we need to do as a town. So and that's why the trust is here to help with that. So um this slide is um summarizing some statistics from our um subsidized

housing inventory. So, for those folks who don't know, um the SHI, subsidized housing inventory is a um compiled um listing of affordable units that is uh maintained by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. They track um and add update units to the SHI um as they become available. So, there's certain thresholds um that qualify um units for being eligible uh for inclusion on the SHI. Um, one thing that I did want to note before, um, kind of delving into the numbers here is if you do, if a developer develops a rental project in town and they have inclusionary zoning or a certain percentage uh, of the rental units in particular are affordable, the entire count. So if a um developer is proposing a 100 unitit development and 25% affordability, there's only 25 uh units are affordable, but all 100 are counted toward the shi. So it's actually not really reflective of how um many affordable units are available in town. So with that being said, um there's 723 units on the SHI um as of the most current data. Um that is uh out of the seven roughly 7,700 year round housing units um that we have in town bringing us to 9.3%. So Grafton has been kind of skirting back and forth um above and uh slightly below 10% for a few years now as we're kind of continuing to develop units and build out the inventory. But um you can see here four only 489 of the 723 units are actually affordable um which is not uh really where the where we need to be um in order to be providing um actual

opportunities for folks. Um additionally 275 of these units are not completed. So they're in the pipeline. What that means is you get a permit through the town, the units become eligible for inclusion on the list, then they're on a timeline. So, you need to be producing and developing these units within a certain time frame so that you can pull your building permits and submit them to the state so they stay on the um so they stay on the SHI. And then there's another um time frame that follows once building permits are issued where certificates of occupancy then need to be submitted to the state to keep the units on. So that's what accounts for some of the the fluctuation that the town is seeing um uh oftentimes. So um again uh you know SHI is a sliding scale. Units are subject to inclusion and removal um contingent upon meeting deadlines. So uh that's just basically a summary of what I just said. Um, with that being said, Grafton did produce um a a certain number of units to secure safe harbor status through February of 2026. Um, so with the recent um development um that was permitted and um is underway, uh we do have um safe harbor protections. However, I do always like to caution folks and say, you know, never really 100% bank on that and rely on it. you know, it's really is it is a sliding scale and the town is always trying to continue to produce to make sure that we are obviously meeting our um you know, trying to reach that 10% and exceed it um just because of what we're what we should be doing, but also really we really need to be continuing to produce for the people in this town. That's the main goal and that's the most important thing. So, um I know that's this is a bit highly technical, so we just got a um one-on-one on some housing

stats. So, um, and again, you know, we will have a Q&A session at the end of, uh, the presentations, um, so we can talk through, um, what, uh, some of the information that I've shared with you, um, kind of what the trust is doing to help, um, get our our numbers up and just provide affordable housing opportunities. So, thank you again for coming and at this time, I'm going to turn it over to MHP. So, we do have two amazing speakers with us this evening who have so graciously um come out here to um to present. So, um our first uh speaker is um Shelley Goring. So, Shelley is a senior program manager on MHP's community assistance team. She supports cities and towns across the state that already have an affordable housing trust or are looking to establish one. um helping to build their effectiveness in creating and preserving affordable housing. Um and I uh also will introduce Ellen as well because I believe they'll be presenting um together. So, Ellen uh Maria is a is the research manager at MHP Center for Housing Data where she contributes to original analysis, helps develop and maintain the cent's public data sites, and overseas management of projects and resources to improve housing policy at all levels of Massachusetts government. She lives in Southboro where she's where she serves on the town's affordable housing trust fund and community preservation committee. So, I will turn it over to them. Thank you all.

[applause]

Okay, thanks so much. Can everyone hear me? Okay, great. Uh, so I'm Ellen Maria. I'm the research manager at MHP's Center for Housing Data here with my colleague Shelley and just wanted to um first of all thank Fiona and Amber, everyone at the town um for having us out here tonight to speak with you. Um, and we uh, yeah, are looking forward to digging in a little bit more. um and my side on on some of the data pieces and then Shelley's going to talk more about the work that she does to support housing trusts. So, I'll start with just a little bit of an overview of what we do at MHP um and then dig into some more data on the housing crisis that we're facing um as a commonwealth, talk a little bit more about what that looks like in Grafton and in some of your neighboring communities. Um, and then end with why housing affordability matters, why this is something that we care about at MHP, and why it's great to see so many people out here who care about that as well. Um, but just why why we think this is so important. So MHP is a public uh nonprofit quasi public agency um that has been serving Massachusetts for the past 40 years. This is our 40th anniversary. And so um we work really closely with other parts of state government um and serve kind of four core functions. So we have our community assistance team um that Shel's a part of that provides technical assistance and support um so far in 335 communities around the state. So just a few more left to get to. Um we also do uh rental housing development. Um so through financing and through leveraging um additional funds um to the tune of 1.6 billion over the last 40 years that supported the creation of about 34,000 rental homes across the Commonwealth. We also offer support for low and moderate

income firsttime home buyers um in the form of our uh one mortgage program or one plus mortgage program. Um and that so far has reached about 26,000 households across the state. And then we also have our data and policy team um which is where I work. So that includes our center for housing data, our policy folks, our communications team as well. Um and we work on collecting, analyzing, sharing that really helps inform what we hope is better housing policy conversations, housing policy outcomes again really at all levels um of state and local government. So I'm sure many of us have heard in the news and some of our daily conversations have felt um that Massachusetts is in a housing crisis. And there are a lot of different ways to think about this, to measure this. So, we'll just um go through a few of the the numbers that we look at at MHP um to help put this into context. So, first, when we're thinking about housing supply, um we're really just building far fewer homes now in Massachusetts than we used to. Um so the uh the state housing plan that's um come out and was a really huge lift. The first time that we've had a statewide housing plan um was is looking at the need for 222,000 homes over the next 10 years. So we can see with some quick math that works out to about 22,000 homes a year. Um and that would be you know well in line with what we used to be building in the 60s7s and 80s. Um but we've really fallen off that pace um since the 1990s. Um and so we're just left in both um our single family housing, our multif family housing, um there just not nearly enough of the housing that we need. And so when we're also looking at other places across the country, uh we can see

how little Massachusetts is producing. Um, so the nationwide rate that we're looking at, so the number of housing permits issued per 10,000 people, um, is kind of a way to normalize things across places that obviously have very different populations and densities. So, um, in the past year, uh, nationwide, we're permitting about 4.3 homes for every 10,000 people. Um, in Massachusetts, we're less than half of that. Um, and so we are 46th out of the 50 states in DC. So we just have a couple of our New England neighbors, um, Illinois, Alaska, Pennsylvania in there as well. Um, so we're really well below the pace of what other folks around the country are building. And so what that gives us um is really low vacancy rates. Anyone who's out there looking for a place to live um, knows what this feels like. So, when we're looking at our our home ownership vacancy rate, um again, nationwide, it's about 1% of the homes out there um are are vacant for new folks to come in and buy. Um and what's considered a a healthy um vacancy rate is around 2%. Um so, that's kind of what gives people the ability to move in and out, to follow the jobs that they want. That's kind of what we're looking for at a nationwide level. um we're about half that uh for the country right now and half that in Massachusetts. So, it's a really tight market. Um just one of many ways to look at that. And when we look at the rental side, it's a really similar story. Um again, we're seeing this the same sort of market tightness um for folks who are out there looking for a new apartment to rent. Um our rate in Massachusetts 3.2% 2% rental vacancy rate again well below

both um the US vacancy rate and the 6% that's considered a healthy rate. So this is really limiting people's choices their ability to move forward where they want to um and is having a a really difficult effect on prices. So we also wanted to um kind of zoom back in a bit from the state view um to where we are here. So looking at Wester County. So we can see that there's a lot of variation um in the different counties across the state. So this is now looking at over the past five years. Um and so you know what they're building in Nantucket and in Dukes is probably also not what we're looking for um in terms of affordable housing. Um and so what we can see is that um over the last five years our um overall permitting rate 2.3 a little bit higher than what we're at right now at two. and Worcester County is really right about at that pace. Um so we've got some of these outliers up there and then um Wester County is kind of right in the middle. And then when we get down to the municipal level, um our center for housing data team is always really interested in looking at this because the permit data that we have is honestly pretty bad. Um and so we don't really have a centralized way in the state of gathering this data. everything goes to the Census Bureau um with various levels of completeness um from every community that's submitting this. So, we always like to take a look at this and test it out if this resonates with people. Um so, we spend a lot of time working with um planners, planning boards, folks in different communities to help them pull together some of this data and it helps us have a great conversation around, you know, these numbers that are being reported look nothing like our reality on the ground. Um so this is what the census reports for Grafton and we looked at some of the similar communities in

terms of um population size and median income um around Worcester County. So by this measure, Grafton's doing pretty well. Um so if we're looking at the again the the mass average um of about 2.3, Grafton's been permitting um at a higher rate than that over the last five years. So, another piece that's important to look at, and this is just a slightly different way to look at some of the uh similar numbers that Fiona was showing. So here when we're looking at home values um we can see that in Grafton in the dark orange color and in those same similar communities in just the past five years when we've seen this overall low level of building um even though Grafton is a is a bright spot in there um we're seeing that our home values are up about 50% in just those five years and so this creates issues not only for folks trying to buy in Grafton whether they're renting here looking to move up or looking to move in from somewhere else. But home values that are going up this fast, this quickly are also a really big problem for folks who are on fixed incomes. Um people whose real estate taxes are going to be going up because these values are going up so much um and might not be able to afford to stay in their house any longer um with a value that's going up this fast. So, I wanted to speak a little bit again about um why housing affordability matters, why this is something that that we care about so much. Um, and so with house prices and rents so high, buildings so low, um, and really high competition, folks are spending a really unaffordable amount of their income on their housing costs. So when we look at, um, a breakout by different, um, household income levels, we see that for folks spending less than $50,000 or folks earning less than $50,000 a year, they're almost universally cost burdened. So cost burden is the level

that we look at to understand um if folks are spending as much on housing as they can kind of reasonably do in order to afford everything else that we need to afford in life. So above 30% um of your your income on housing is considered a moderate burden. Above 50% is considered a severe ver burden. So for folks earning less than $50,000 um it's you know 80%. It's basically everybody is spending more than that affordable level. If you look um just one step higher 50 to 100,000 and we can think about in some of the numbers that Fiona showed who in town is earning that much. Um again it's you know almost half of folks who are then facing those cost burdens. And so again why does this matter? So, um, we often hear the expression, um, that the rent eats first or the mortgage eats first. And when you're spending that much money on your housing cost, there's not enough to spend on all of the other things that we need. So, if we think about um the median low-income household um, and if they're a homeowner, after they pay for their their mortgage, their utilities, um, they have just over $600 left um, to pay for everything else per month that they need. Um, and so we can think about how far $600 would get us. That's if they're living in um, a housing unit that they can afford. If they're facing housing cost burdens, that $600 goes down to about $200. And so there's really, really wiggle room in a household budget. Um, and so what they end up doing is spending half as much as they would if they were unburdened on food, on health care, on retirement savings. And if we're thinking about our current climate as well and the loss of the the safety net, um this puts folks in a really challenging position. Um and so this is why we care so much about housing

affordability that the the housing piece is crucial for households that are thriving, for communities that are thriving, but this is really um what households need to be able to survive. So, with that with that note, um I'm going to turn it over to Shelley who's going to be talking a little bit more about um the work that our our team does to support um housing trusts and we'll have more time at the end for any questions. So, thank you. [applause]

Hi, I'm wondering if we want to pause for any questions for Ellen right now. I thought great presentation, Ellen. So, I'm Shelley and I uh work at MHP with Ellen, but I'm on the community assistance team. And I probably should have chatted with Dan about what he was going to cover because I'm going to be a little bit duplicative, but I'll go a little bit quickly. I wanted to talk just more specifically about affordable housing trust funds and um a little bit of the basics about them, what they trust can be supporting. So you have some examples locally, but we'll touch on some other examples across the state. And then just some resources. MHP has a ton of resources and a lot of them are are online and easily accessible. We also, my team specifically, we work in communities helping to build the local capacity to support affordable housing. So, our team specifically wants to continue to support you um here in Grafton. So, just some basics, the trust statute is chapter 44, section 55C, and this was in Dan's slides. The um it's created by your local legislative body, so it's just a majority vote. For those who maybe are not as familiar, it's it's led by the board of trustees which Dan and his um colleagues are a part of and they're appointed by the select board as he mentioned because it's a public entity like your other boards. It is subject to public procurement, designer selection, conflict of interest, and public meeting laws just like all of your other municipal boards because it is a municipal. It's a part of the municipality. The purpose in the statute is actually a little bit narrow. It's to provide for the creation and preservation of affordable housing in municipalities for the benefit of low and moderate income households. So, it's not every income or mixed income, it's low and moderate income. And for the funding of community housing as defined in accordance with

the Community Preservation Act. Several years ago, there was a modification to the trust statute to allow for all of the eligible uses under CPA to be eligible for trusts as well. And it really comes down to, if you're familiar with the Community Preservation Act, the support verb in um CPA, which is specifically for housing. And it hadn't originally been in the trust purpose, and that was a challenge in some communities. Town councils didn't think that trusts could then do support activities. So now everything that's eligible under CPA for community housing is eligible are eligible activities for trusts. Very very broadly, trusts can address affordable housing needs. They can support local control of housing initiatives, engage in real estate real estate activities. So the trust could buy and sell real estate. They can make timely decisions. So unlike the community preservation committee which makes recommendations for spending and then that is reviewed by the select board and then goes before town meeting, the trust does not have to go to town meeting. So that's part of the benefit is the trust can potentially be more nimble and respond more quickly for opportunities in the market or if a developer is trying to go to the state for state and federal resources for a development then the trust can move a little bit quick more quickly than having to go through town meeting schedule and then the trust as a municipal board can be collecting funding from a variety of sources including donations. the trustees. The statute is very short. The trust statute is very short and it's not overly prescriptive. It just says a minimum of five members. It must include the chief executive officer. So, in a town with select board, that's one select board member. It's appointed by the select board in a town, two-year terms, and then that the trustees are public agents like your other boards.

And the note is to read your bylaw because your bylaw is more specific. So you have seven members and it might have more guidance about who should sit on the board. Uh a little bit more there might be a little bit more there than what's in the state statute. And then the board powers which Dan touched on there are 16 that are allowed in the statute the state statute. Again you want to read your bylaw because in some cases a community might modify a power or even add to the powers which the statute does allow. And then one thing that we are seeing in more recent years that communities are getting a bit more creative about how they're funding their affordable housing trust funds. So we're seeing a lot of different resources. CPA is um definitely one of the most common sources. Over 80% of our trust communities also have the community preservation act in their community. Although we do have a a handful that do not have CPA and they're finding funding elsewhere. But these are a lot of the different ways. So CPA inclusionary zoning, some inclusionary zoning bylaws have a in lie of payment that is allowed with some developments and in some cases those funds are sent to the housing trust. We have um some communities that have transferred free cash to their trust. So Brookline, Truro are communities that do done that. Um we have one community that's done a tax override or leans on the Cape has a $275,000 tax override. that is an annual tax override. So, they're the only trust that I know of that has a um line of credit with a bank because they have this steady income year. And we have one Medfield that has a municipal bond. They voted to allow their trust to bond up to a million dollars to fund their um trust. They don't have CPA in that community, so they needed another funding source. So, that's what they did there. There may be special bylaws or

ordinances, um, developer negotiated fees. You have to be really careful doing this. You don't want to cross the line, break any laws. But we do have um some examples like in Norfol several years ago they had what they call a friendly 40B home ownership development and the developer contributed like $10,000 of the profit of the for-profit unit, I'm sorry, of the market rate units to the town and then the town directed that to their trust as a a a really nice income. We have some communities that are using that are directing short-term rental fees to their trust. So Gloucester is a community that's doing that and some on the Cape. Um there may you maybe know about the legislation to try to allow real estate transfer fees in Massachusetts. We have individual communities that are trying to do that and then we have a a statewide bill that's trying to work towards that to fund trust specifically. So there are a lot of different ways that communities are trying to raise additional funds to support their affordable housing work and specifically their trusts. CPA is one of the biggest, but it's not the only and it's in most communities, it's not s really sustainable to only rely on CPA. So, communities are trying to find other ways. And then I'm going to go through a variety of different kind of projects, developments that communities have invested in. Some of the examples might technically have the funding might technically have come from the community preservation committee, but all of these are projects that could be funded by either the CPC or the trust. And I'm using the verbs of CPA acquire, create, preserve, support because these statutes are very closely aligned. So when you see in the bottom, it's it's because of it comes from CPA. So acquire funds can be used to help an affordable housing developer acquire existing housing and create affordable housing from that, add

restrictions or um affordability requirements on the housing. So this is an example Barnstable where this development was purchased by a nonprofit developer using a half a million dollars of local funds and now almost all of these 124 units are affordable. A few are still market rate because they didn't want to. There were some people originally who were not income qualified and they didn't want to displace anyone. But with just a half a million dollars of local funds, the developer was able to acquire other resources to buy the entire development and now most of them are affordable in perpetuity. We also have quite a few well some a few at least a handful of trusts around the state that have some kind of buy down program. So, it's helping uh incomequalified families purchase an existing home in town. And they're structured um a variety of different ways, but it's um helping an income qualified family buy an existing home in the town, typically a more modest home in the town. And then the trust puts in um subsidy to make it possible for someone at 80% or 100% of the area at median income. Again, they're structured differently in in different communities, but typically with these kind of programs, the subsidy per unit is quite high, particularly depending on the community, but it can help people become a homeowner in town. It can spread the affordability around the town. And it can also help to preserve the more naturally affordable housing in town, particularly in communities that have a tear down issue like a Sudbury or some of these communities where the modest homes are oftentimes torn down to build a much more a much bigger home. And then we're seeing more and more of trusts engaged in helping to support the creation of new affordable housing around the state. And sometimes this is even the community transferring uh land

to the trust. Not always, but sometimes. So, these are a few examples of um trusts that have helped support development in Beverly. This development is 77 units of rental housing. A nonprofit developer created this. It just came online. This well was in two phases and part of it just came online this year. Um this also was this area was zoned for those of you who are into kind of zoning. It was zoned a 40R district which is a special designation with the state to encourage multifamily development that includes some affordability and the state actually um then pays the community uh money per unit that actually is permitted and then or uh that it was zoned for and then when the units are actually built the town gets additional funds or the city gets additional funds. So there was an added um incentive for the city to work with this developer to reszone this area 40R and now they have 77 new units of affordable housing in Brewster. This was um housing authority land that was considered surplus and the town actively supported it and helped to apply for a mass works grant funding to do some infrastructure work. So um uh road access to the development as well as connecting the site to sewer. But it was really the town that worked closely with the housing authority to bring this these additional resources to um make it feasible. And then in Hudson, this was uh a site of a past it was a had been a police station and then the town had voted it surplus and actually transferred it to their trust and the trust released the the request for proposals. A nonprofit developer, Metro West Collaborative, responded and was chosen. And this just came online earlier this year and I was able to tour it. It's very beautiful. 40 units of rental housing and the I I guess I skipped over but you can see the the

local contributions. So in Hudson it was $650,000 plus the land. And it was it's that those contributions that then the developer is able to take to the state and show local um interest and local support which the state looks for in funding developments. And then the state um allocated millions of dollars of um uh low-inccome housing tax credits and other resources so that the developer could build this. In Brewster, you see it's 550,000 and then Beverly it was 1.4 million. In Beverly, that's the trust and the CPC contribution to the to the development. And then we also see redevelopment of buildings across the state. And sometimes there's a historic component with these and some they're not. Um, in Middleboro, this was a smaller project. It had been a shoe factory and a couple nonprofits were able to partner and redevelop it into 25 units of rental housing. The local contribution is really small, $25,000. The community at the time was a brand new CPA community. They didn't have that many resources, but the state still still saw that as meaningful because they gave what they were able to at the time. And the the the nonprofit team was still able to put together the resources to build that out. Williamstown was with a um a for-profit developer and it had been a um um I think it had been a mill and they redeveloped it into 42 units of rental housing with a a small local contribution. And then the two bottom uh developments are schools. We see a lot of schools being redeveloped into housing. Sometimes market rate, sometimes affordable. These two are affordable. And what you can see in the Auburn photo, but not so much in the Swamcott, is that both of these actually the developer had to add an addition to it to bring in enough have it um the

project be large enough for them to really access the resources that they needed to make it financially feasible, but they were able to maintain the the school and to renovate it to make it beautiful and add housing in the community. And you likely know that sometimes redeveloping an existing building can be less controversial when you're adding units, bringing a building online that's underutilized. So, it can be a really nice way to um to build housing and also just to address a building that's underutilized or um being used for something else, needs to be used for something else. Yes. total units.

So these are actually these are the the the developments that I'm showing you are actually all affordable 100% affordable developments. So all the ones that I'm showing you are actually 100% affordable. They might there are different typically different area median incomes. So the development might have these were funded with low-income housing tax credits. And so that is typically means that the the ceiling will be 60% of the area at median income. Sometimes those even those developments sometimes might have a few that are higher, but it's typically 60% and 30% of the area median income. Um, and then you can see that the school these two schools developments are age restricted. So, I didn't double check, but the they're probably 60 age 62 and above because they would have low-inccome housing tax credits. Yeah. Any other questions? I'm happy to to pause. So, a couple when we talk about preserving affordable housing, it's under CPA as well as with trust. It's oftentimes preserving the affordability, the long-term affordability of developments. We have a um we do have developments where you might hear the the term expiring use where the affordability is set to expire. So with some financing tools, they only ex they only require 15 years affordability or 20 or or 25 maybe 30. They're not all in perpetuity. So one thing that trusts can be engaged in is helping to pay attention to the affordable units that you have in town and any restrictions that might be expiring. In Ammerst, this is an example where they have this large development. 41 of the units are affordable, but it only had 15year. the financing only required a 15-year restriction and the community was concerned about losing these 41 units. The the owner at the time did not

want to extend the affordability. They reached out to MHP and one of my colleagues worked with them and they decided to reach out to a a whole different um developer who has a lot of experience in chapter 40B and affordable housing and multif family housing, Beacon Communities. And Beacon reached out to the previous owner and negotiated to purchase the development. And what the community did is they decided to bond $1.25 million of CPA funds. So a trust wouldn't be able to bond. The CPA was, but the trust can be actively engaged in this and working with the CPA and the community to make sure that these units are preserved. So Beacon purchased the development. They bonded $1.25 $25 million and now they have these 41 units that are affordable in perpetuity owned by a developer who's committed to mixed income to affordable housing for 40B and has a lot of experience in the space. Another way that we can look at preserving is um housing that is at risk of not being livable. So it's it's not just renovation, it's more it's a higher bar. But this is an example where in Gloucester they had the housing authority had a building where one of the units was already not livable and they had others that were at risk of not being livable because of a leaking roof. So they coupled CPA funds, a small amount of CPA funds with the supplemental state modernization formula funding and then they were able to replace the roof to preserve the units long term so that they were all livable. And then under support, the idea of support, which is really a CPA concept, the kinds of things that have been seen as eligible under support are one predevelopment. So if the community has some municipal land that you're interested in considering for affordable housing, there could be uh either with CPA funds or with trust resources, they could fund some pre-development work and feasibility work to determine whether the municipal site is a good space for affordable housing.

They can help use resources to update your housing plans, your housing production plan. And it's explicit in the CPA statute that rental h um I'm sorry, rent assistance is an allowable use of funds. And during the pandemic, it was really multiple housing trusts that actually initiated emergency rent assistance um using this as uh under the idea of support supporting affordable housing. So that was um actually really um really nice to see in many communities. We have a lot of different resources online and some of these are the ones that websites that Ellen helps to update data town and and then we have our housing toolbox. We have some trainings coming up in December that I just put up there in case you're interested. They're virtual at noon on different topics that are um particular to trusts and CPAs and we are always wanting to be a resource for communities when you're trying to do more affordable housing work when you're trying to build your capacity locally. So we would um welcome you to reach out at any time any of you. So that's [applause] Alrighty. Thank you, Ellen and uh Shelley. That was uh great. Those are great presentations. Um very insightful. Um and looking forward to connecting further with MHP. Um so at this point um so we were um going to have another speaker. Unfortunately um there was a last minute change. So, we are now going to open it up for Q&A. So, um please, you know, I have the mic. I can pass it around, but the acoustics are pretty good in here. So, I think, um, uh, should be heard unless GCTV tells me otherwise. So,

Phil, wave your hands if you can't hear. Um, so, um, you know, feel free, you know, this is a really an open forum. Um, happy to discuss. I, you know, I am happy to answer town specific questions. um and and if any questions that you have for MHP, I'll hand it over to them. So, yeah. Yes. Hey, so thank you very much for everybody being here. And is this are these presentations going to be sent out to those of us who registered?

Yes, we can absolutely do that. Um we do um did we um have a contact sheet? Um we'll we'll be posting all of the resources online and then I'm happy to connect um with you as well and I can individually send them. Okay. Oh, in the event bright. Okay. Yes.

Yes. I did see the primary fun. I'm curious to know what other funding mechanisms have currently in that trust that money process I know that the trust is separate from it own separate How do we account for the money?

So, I don't know if any of the trust members want to respond to that. Um but I will say um the uh accounting so the town accountant um provides uh the assistance and the support on the town side for monitoring um tr uh uh municipal affordable housing trust funds um and does regular reporting. Um the trust also does um report to um the CPC um regularly um whenever they're requesting funding and as part of their requirements under um state law. Um I don't there's been um a variety of funding mechanisms over time predominantly CPA as um as was discussed and there's also been um developer contributions over time um for various projects um in the form of actual finances as well as um uh lots as well that have been um um given over to the trust. Um Dan, do you want to add anything else in terms of the Yeah, for the most part it is it is CPA.

So how much money is in there now? Uh I believe we are at um just over a million. Thank you, Colleen. Just over a million. Yes. [laughter]

Okay. So I missed So there's just over a million. Just over a million. Yes. PREC's financial account.

Yes. Colleen, did you want to elaborate a little bit more on that? Okay. So, there is audit,

right? under townual audit,000. So we instead guess also to know the trustees at the same Just want to make sure that the money's around. Yeah. That's not about all

that does 25%. 25%. So, we've done a lot of I've never

122. will count how many to will be only 20 25% will actually be affordable but 122 will ultimately end up on the shi yeah right thank you other questions yes

questionense zoning a year and a half ago,000. Anybody changed the cost to build a single family home by000 again. I'm not against that either. Somebody's going to be talking the stretch code.

Yeah. Nobody's anybody discussing these two things together as opposed to you guys working on one side on the other side of I'm sure that there is but I I I'm sorry I can't speak specifically to that and I don't think that Ellen would be able to either. So I I'm I'm sorry I can't spec specifically address that. We talk about all the time and because these costs are also put and we need subs just to make it.

Yeah. So it's not just for market rate. I mean it's it impacts all development. So it does get talked about and the the competition for subsidy and like it's always on the table. The labor costs and all of that what's happening with tariffs like it's it's very much a part of the conversation. But I I can't speak specifically to you with the stretch code specifically. Sorry, Bill. One thing I've learned is my understanding is that generally speaking Only one out of three people actually. So what that means people My question is

there anything else So, um, a couple things. One, we would always make sure that people know about the most affordable mortgage products in the state. And so, MHP has what we believe is the most affordable, which is the one mortgage program. So it has a lower down payment and it has a low interest rate fixed interest rate and then there's some additional subsidy for households earning less than 80%. So that's that's one is just to make sure that that folks are aware of the most affordable mortgages in the state. The second thing is down payment assistance. And it's a little bit tricky because of the way that the trust statute is written that it's the purpose is to create and preserve affordable housing for low and moderate income households. And down payment assistance usually isn't enough to also um get a an affordability restriction. So, it's not really creating affordable housing. It's just making housing more like home ownership more accessible. And some people see that as acquiring which would require a restriction, a longer term restriction. So it's a little bit tricky, but we do have communities that are um because it's

longer. Well, so if the units are already restricted in perpetuity, then that's not a problem. But a lot of down payment assistance is helping people access market rate homes. Affordable. Okay. Yep. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not saying this is good, but I don't think that that's unique to Grafton. I think that that's unfortunate. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the the community could have a down payment assistance program to help people and it could be down payment and closing costs program to help folks access them. They could do that and there are multiple around the state in cities and in towns and I think the Westboro is trying to roll out one. So one of your neighbors and it's their trust that's initiating it. So it is a possibility. Yes. Yep. It's implemented on the local level.

Sorry. So, um, in terms of whether you use CPA funds or not, we do have communities that have some sort of down payment assistance and they use CPA funds because we're our position as a quasi state agency. I just bring up concerns that for some um down payment assistance is acquiring which would require a restriction and most down payment assistance programs don't require a restriction but if the housing is already restricted it's affordable housing then that um likely covers that concern

two things one of the biggest reasons that a lot of those lottery a vast market value.

So as you saw on that slide that's still $90,000. So you know that's affordable technically but in reality it's still very large $7,000. Uh actually has some precedent for it just not with affordable housing. I'm the chair of the housing authority and we have the Jim Gallagher rental assistance program because that same thing is happening to people in our public housing where a family finally gets to the top of the waiting list and they don't have enough money first they either are going to get kicked down to the bottom ling program that can cover that already otherwise turned get into our public housing. So there is precedent for some sort of a down payment assistance program. It just comes down to having specific funding and actually getting together.

Thank you. Yes. affordable housing.

So, I can speak to um something recently. So, we uh the trust was um given three lots at the High Point uh subdivision um that uh we are currently working with um the state on a um we received some funding from them to to begin um doing feasibility studies for those three lots. So um hoping to develop the trust is hoping to develop um either single family or or duplex options there. Um that's the most um current. Um obviously Colleen spoke earlier to um the grant agreement um that uh was done with uh 17 and 27 Upton Street. Uh that will um eventually um be coming to fruition. Um the trust has done uh 25 Worcester Street is another project um that is uh going to be going through um the 40B process um in the upcoming years. Um the financing and some of that kind of pre-development due diligence that we've been talking about here is still underway um that's slated for um affordable senior housing on that lot and that was um gifted to the trust of town meeting. I think it's 2017 2020 I'm sorry. Those are the three um main projects um in the pipeline for them at the moment.

I was wondering if you could explain your views.

Sure.

Sure. So um so um I mentioned previously so the uh Grafton is in Safe Harbor um for developing um a certain percentage of units over um a calendar year. Um Safe Harbor uh we are in it until February 2026. Um we do need to continue to produce housing um at or above 10 10% of our year- round housing uh supply. So, we need to we're currently at 9.3 u based on the most recent numbers, but um we uh yeah, we're obviously trying to keep our eye on on that um and kind of continue to produce. But, um I suppose if my I guess maybe can you elaborate on?

So, yeah. obligations.

Sure. Yeah. So, um the ZBA has a lot more control over a 40B project that does come in um uh uh for their review. Um I don't want to uh they have they the ZBA has the has a lot more local Z sorry yes the zoning board of appeals. Sorry, I talk in acronyms a lot. Just tell me to Yeah. So, the ZBA has um more control over a project and has the ability um really to they they could have the ability um to to deny the project. Um I mean, we have a very good ZBA here that is u always willing to work with developers. Um I don't want to put anyone on the spot, but I don't know if Bill you wanted to elaborate on anything I was saying. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Sure.

Yeah. So, when we're in safe harbor, um, so there's two ways to be in safe harbor. there's uh if you develop I think it's uh like a half a percent. Okay. Yeah. So so the thing is as ress.

So it the big thing is that it gives uh the zoning board uh the ability to turn down 40B projects which is also uh kind of secondary to that is leverage. So the town can then use that to uh take a a 4 tob project that uh is not ideal but could could be good um and make uh some requests of the developer and have them uh make you know some uh adjustments and then approve that adjusted uh version. So it gives a lot more control back to uh the ZBA. Um, and there's another pathway uh for a 4DB called the local initiative uh project that goes first to the select board and the select board can uh you know make some requests and and adjustments and and then uh give their approval and then it goes to the ZBA with that uh you know that letter of approval from the select board. though it it gives a lot more input uh on the local level and it does ultimately give the zoning board the ability to uh to turn down projects that they feel are not beneficial to the community. Um I think the uh it is you know something that people kind of there's sort of like an assumption that a lot of people have that uh these developments are always bad but uh building affordable housing is a benefit to the community. Um having uh you know the the demand for housing being so far above the supply means that when we increase the supply even those market rate units are a benefit to the community because they make Grafton more affordable. Um, so the, uh, and I can I can safely say I

don't know what specific project we're talking about here. Uh, but generally speaking, um, I I would hope that the ZBA and the select board will, you know, take that value of, uh, housing and affordable housing into account when these projects come up.

In general, my objection project is seems to be the ability to saying some of the details being said, not so far. deny projects say more conditions permit conditions You can build this, but we want you want expensive cheap

$100,000. St. Lucility on is always issue with St. Thanks, Bill. And and just another elaboration. So 40B allows developers to override typical zoning. So

yeah. Yes. impact.

The Matt Mass Ready Act. curious how that money I'm just wondering I I can only speak to the bond bill that was already passed last summer. So I I don't I haven't read through this.

Yeah. So, I'm sorry I haven't read through it yet. What I can say is that we're doing more work around ADUs. So, I don't know if that's some um accessory dwelling units. So, I don't know if that's something that's talked about in town. And there will be a um a ADU incentive program that MHP is going to be managing that will come out. So, it will help support the development of that. But that stems from last year's bill. So, I'm sorry I haven't read through this one. Can't can't speak specifically. I'm just trying to see. No, but I'll look it up and I will send it to Fiona. Is there anything in particular that you found under the Mass Ready Act like to discuss? Sure.

Sorry. I I mean my I'm one a civil engineer, so it has impacts on what I do in a as a profession, but I'm also in the conservation commission. within the bond bill, there's a lot of implications to permitting and the process of getting housing approved, which you know, more quickly streamline single stop to sort of thing. So, it's like and there's and it's fairly early, but there's a lot of changes and there's a lot of power behind it. So, I'm just curious if if you're kind of following it at all. And

I am dialed into it too much. Oh, it is. Well, that's that's one of the big questions and but but it's also a lot of money and I'm just wondering if there's anything. Yeah. Yeah. I I uh I definitely need to be brushing up on it more. I mean, I know a little bit, but

thank you. It was a great question. Other questions? Yes.

You're talking about single family homes. You're talking about buying down down down payments for specific transactions. How is what happens to those you know what happens? Is there any recourse in the future or are you just buying it down one time versus doing something into perpetuity? Sorry. So, if you say you're building affordable units, those are going to be affordable for ever, right? They're supposed to be.

But if you're helping someone buy a single family home, or in the case we were talking about earlier, helping somebody put a down payment on a home, what happens to that money? Is that just a is there recourse to get that money back if they move a year later? How does that work? affordable home ownership. With affordable home ownership, there would be a restriction on the unit so that it would be affordable for the next so it would have to be sold to an income qualified person as well. So the you don't get the funds back as much as the unit remains affordable.

It it we now use deed restrictions that are that survive foreclosure that are it's it's you know forever. It's the idea is forever. Yeah. So, it's but I mean to your point that we need to be monitoring those units. So, there needs to when you have units that are home ownership, you want to make sure that there's an entity and if the community is contributing funds, you want to make sure that the town is also paying attention to make sure that they when they are put up for sale that there it's done correctly, that it's sold correctly, and it would be in the deed. Um, and I don't know with 40B developments where they're much larger that it's that's really different when it's individual homes. Then you just want to make sure that there's an entity that's paying attention that's named in the deed that's helping to um make sure that when they that when they're sold that it's sold to an income qualified um buyer.

Yes. So that's separate and that's a decision if the community wants to have a program like that and wants to support a program. So, if it's down payment assistance, that money oftentimes comes back. It will oftentimes at like refinancing or at resale or Yes. Or you could have it um forgiven over a certain number of years. So, some programs might give $5,000 and it's forgiven $1,000 a year over five years. If you leave before that, it's prrated. You pay it back. If you sell afterwards, then you don't have to return it. So, that's also a way that some of those programs are structured. similar who monitors the rental units?

So, rental unit monitoring is in really large developments, the developer may um it's it's done differently. In some communities, the the town is involved in monitoring. In some communities, there's a regional housing service office. There's we have a few of those in the state where it's an it's an office that provides those kind of monitoring services for a town and the town pays for it. with large developments, there's some monitoring that happens by the um developer and MHP finances affordable housing, rental housing, and we have an entity that also does some monitoring. But if the town is contributing resources, you want to make sure that you're paying attention and that you're doing a degree of monitoring as well and that there's reporting back to the town because you want to make sure that your interests are looked after. So with affordable housing there are there's oftentimes a lot of eyes on the project but if the town's contributing money you just want to make sure that you're also somehow and it's different in every community but that you're getting report back that you're doing your due diligence and your monitoring to make sure that your interests are being um followed.

So this is really for the affordable housing trust. So I am so typically um as Shelley mentioned so um Grafton does not have um staff capacity to monitor these units. Um what typically will happen is the uh monitoring agent will be designated in the regulatory agreement and as well as in the deed paperwork. it's typically EOHLC or Mass Housing or one of these um entities uh that they will report to us and usually you know we we work with them as needed on the town side for Upton Street. Um I believe it's EOHLC is the mon is is going to be handling the monitoring will come to you.

Yes. CSA will coordinate with me but I am not doing any direct monitoring of um you know vetting um incomes and and who qualifies and and whatnot. So thank you. Any other questions? Yes. often. system.

That's a great question. Um, Shiny no longer.

Sure. I don't speak for the trust, but

uh so in the time I've been on the trust, we haven't looked into that. Before I got on, uh the trust did consider that with a particular property and what I've been told is that it it turned out to be wildly expensive to do that. Um and it would take uh a lot of the trust resources. Um I it's probably worth looking into again. Um I there's also there were a lot of um things that uh were presented uh by our speakers tonight that are things that the trust has not done and as far as I'm aware has not considered. So um there are things like that that I think uh the trust should be taking a look at in uh you know the next few months. I'm the chair. So, like I we will be we'll we will take a look. Um and uh yeah, I think that the starter home like home ownership starter home I feel like is something that's uh hasn't gotten a lot of attention um from the affordable housing trust. So, yeah, I think that's something to to look into a little more.

I just want to add that the the idea and the concept is is so fantastic and it gets brought up a lot in communities. The challenge of a municipal of a public entity doing development is that it it increased the cost significantly because of procurement. So it's it's not like a private person they can just hire whoever they want. It with it's the trust. It's it's more complicated. So the idea is great and it sounds like such a great niche but it can be really complicated for a a public board. Also it's a volunteer board so it's not like it it's not staffed in the same way. Fiona's amazing but is not going to be able to manage that. So, um I just want to put that out there to support them in the analysis that it could it can just be um at the end of the day it can be a great idea that's really hard to implement. Yes.

Yes. Yes. The trust does um actively seek out partners to to work with. And just to uh your comment earlier, um I really appreciated it and our housing production plan does have a recommendations in it to kind of diversify the house um the housing that we are uh the trust rather is um providing and thinking of creative ways to kind of provide housing for kind of the the kind of call it kind of missing middle type of housing that's in between you know the standard you know big lot single family homes as well as the very dense and multif family uh style developments that Grafton has been seeing a lot of as of late. So, thank you. Any other questions? These are good ones. My goodness. I'm going to go home and do my homework on the the Mass Ready Act. [laughter] All righty. Awesome. Well, thank you all so very much for coming. Really [applause] appreciate it. Thank you the trust for doing all the work in assembling this and to Amber for um all of her hard work. You're the best.