Milton committee set to begin work on affordable housing report
Milton’s ad hoc committee on affordable housing is set to begin work on its report and recommendations to council.
The committee heard the last of four presentations by affordable housing providers/developers as part of its background work at its Aug. 22 meeting. The committee is due to meet again Thursday, Sept. 19, to begin its deliberations on a report that is due to council by Monday, Nov. 4.
The Aug. 22 meeting featured a presentation from David Moore, CEO of Milford Housing Development Corporation.
Started in 1977, Milford Housing Development Corporation has grown to have $100 million in assets with 2,400 homes across 42 complexes. Moore said the corporation’s mission is to provide decent, safe, affordable housing solutions to people of modest means. The corporation provides programs that include home repair, mostly for seniors, and either building or buying a home, he said.
Much of the challenges in affordable housing have to do with financing, both for clients and developers. Moore said even for-profit developers have had to begin providing affordable units in their developments because rank-and-file workers have nowhere to live, particularly down in the Cape Region.
“As interest rates have streamed up – it used to be, ‘Well, I can afford $300,000, now I can afford $150,000’ – affordable housing is about creative financing,” Moore said.
Among that creative financing, he said, is what Moore called sweat equity, which helps drive down the amount of money that needs to be borrowed and through federal home loan banks.
The committee has been holding meetings since February as it works toward its task of shaping policy around affordable housing. The committee’s goal is to develop an equitable and sustainable method to implement affordable housing without negative impacts. The concept of affordable housing is part of the town’s comprehensive development plan.
The committee, chaired by planning and zoning Commissioner Lynn Ekelund with Councilman Tom Arkinson as council liaison, has met with state and county officials, private developers and nonprofits during its fact-gathering stage.
