Town Meeting provided overwhelming support for a pair of affordable housing articles, approving more than $6 million in funding to support separate projects for the Charles River Center and the Needham Housing Authority during its four-hour session on May 7.
Both articles were proposed by the Community Preservation Committee, which uses funds derived from a 2% surcharge on the town’s property taxes. In recent years this charge has yielded a bit more than $4 million in annual funds that the CPC can apply only in support of projects related to preserving open space, historic preservation, community housing or outdoor recreation.
Over the years, the CPC has built up a reserve fund as it does not always approve projects that fully utilize the funds available. The CPC approved six projects in this year’s funding cycle worth a total of $6.5 million, a higher than usual commitment that would draw down nearly all of the committee’s funding reserves if all the projects were to be approved. That impact was one of the rationales cited by the Finance Committee in its 5-3 vote to oppose the Charles River Center article, the only one of the six CPC articles it opposed.
The FinCom also expressed considerable concern over the Charles River Center award being given as a grant as opposed to its preferred option that it be structured as a loan. That structure was not favored by the Select Board, which unanimously supported the article and said the town currently has no mechanism in place to provide a loan.
Select Board member Cathy Dowd presented the Select Board’s position on the article and noted the town’s $2.84 million contribution could potentially leverage more than $47 million in state and other funds.
“These are funds the state will give to someone, it would be nice if they would give it here to something that will benefit us,” said Dowd, noting that a local commitment to housing projects is a key requirement the state looks at in its funding decisions.
Dowd and other supporters also noted that the town’s funds would be conveyed only if the project were to receive the other required funding and proceed to construction. “The way it works with CPA grants is we are on a reimbursement model. We only reimburse once they are actually spending the money to construct the project,” Dowd said.
In extended debate on the issue on Wednesday evening, a handful of Town Meeting members and registered voters echoed the FinCom’s concerns but they were outnumbered by supporters of the proposal.
“The CPC is not a bank,” said Amanda Berman, a Town Meeting member from Precinct G and an urban planner with a specialty in affordable housing. “I’m surprised we’re even talking about a loan. Period.”
Precinct H member Dick Reilly, a former longtime FinCom member, asked if there were any meaningful distinction between the project being supported by a loan or a grant. “If it’s a loan, won’t those funds be encumbered?”
FinCom member John Connelly responded to Reilly, saying “You are right. Whether it’s a loan or a grant, it would take from the encumbered funds in the CPC and bring it down to zero.”
After more than an hour of presentations and debate, the article was put to a voice vote and approved with only a smattering of “nay” votes.
The Charles River Center and its development partner, the Planning Office for Urban Affairs of the Archdiocese of Boston, can now put the $2.84 million toward its $50 million plan to build an integrated housing and education complex for adults with intellectual disabilities.
This project would create 86 new units of affordable housing, with approximately half of the units set aside for people with autism and intellectual/developmental disabilities. Five units would provide for workforce housing for CRC staff and the balance would be available to the general public as traditional affordable housing units.
The Charles River Center article was followed by a much briefer series of presentations on behalf of the NHA’s request for $3.2 million in CPC funding to support its $20.5 million plan to preserve the 46 affordable public housing units at its Seabeds Way property.
Built in 1982, the Seabeds property has not undergone any significant upgrades and the warrant article said “CPA funds will be used for critical upgrades including building envelope, replacement of windows, roofs, siding, and outmoded building systems that affect tenant safety.”
Both the Select Board and Finance Committee voted to support the award and, after brief discussion, Town Meeting passed the article without a single dissenting voice vote.
Even with the town funding in hand, both projects face a highly competitive funding environment. In fact, the NHA and Charles River may find themselves in competition for the same funding sources, which include low-income housing tax credits and a number of programs created under last year’s state Affordable Homes Act which authorized more than $5 billion in spending over the next five years.
Town Meeting later gave its approval to a third CPC article, a $300,000 request to fund the design of an action sports park and pickleball courts in and around Claxton Park off Central Avenue and across from the Recycling and Transfer Station.
The funds will allow the Park & Recreation Department to proceed with the design phase as early as this summer. No funding has been approved for eventual construction.
At Monday’s opening session, the other three CPC articles had been passed by unanimous consent.
The town’s Conservation Department and the Conservation Commission are jointly in line to receive $104,000 for improvements in trail signage and other amenities along the 25 miles of town trails at 11 locations.
Town Meeting also awarded $69,960 jointly to Park & Rec and the Department of Public Works for design costs associated with the renovation of the Eliot Elementary School fields and playground. The study will seek solutions for the field, playground, basketball court and walkways at the Eliot.
And a final grant of $46,712 will go to the Needham History Center & Museum “to pay for heavy-duty modular shelving, racks and cases to increase storage capacity, dehumidification equipment for its basement storage area, shipping, assembly and disposal of materials.”
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