Housing Greenfield Meeting Notes – 11/04/2024

Present: Susan Worgaftik, Anna Oltman, Charity Day, Amy Cahillane, Ella Condon, Mike Penn-Strah, Louise Amyot, Nikki Garrett, Edie Heinemann, Nancy Hazard, Andrea Donlon, Al Norman, Peg Hall, Mitch Speight, Joan Marie Jackson, Dorothy McIver, John Garrett, Bob Williford, Alyssa Larose, Jen Hale, Sara Brown, Nuri Sherif, Patty O’Neill, Carol Letson, Erin Forbush, Megan McDonough

DISCUSSIONS
     Distressed Properties — Amy Cahillane made a very thorough presentation of how distressed or abandoned properties are handled by the City of Greenfield.  The attached slides provide the key points of her presentation.  A few definitions for those of you unfamiliar with bureaucratic alphabet soup:

• HPG—Housing Preservation Grant (US Dept. of Agriculture)
• CDBG—Community Development Block Grants (Federal funds that come to the city through the Commonwealth)
• GSB—Greenfield Savings Bank

 A couple of notes that were not in the slides:

• Community Action runs the Greenfield Housing Rehabilitation program for the city.  The city administers it.  If you are interested in this program, contact the city’s Department of Community and Economic Development for an application
• It is often difficult to find developers who are willing to take on smaller repair jobs.  If non-profits or community groups are interested in encouraging such work, the Department of Community and Economic Development would be happy to work with them to move through the process.

      The Accessory Dwelling Unit Petition — A petition including more than 100 signatures was submitted to the City Council.  It will be considered by the Council in November.  The wording of the petition is:

 As part of the site plan review, the Planning Board shall determine that the total land area of a parcel submitted for the addition of an Accessory Dwelling Unit shall not be less than one half (.5) acre.  The new acreage of total land in a parcel, minus all dwellings, including all proposed Accessory Dwelling Units, internal roads or driveways, or other buildings or developments, shall be considered open space, and shall comprise at least 50% of the parcel.  All Accessory Dwelling Units shall meet the minimum setback requirements for the district in which it is located.  ADUs shall not be used for short term rentals.

Al Norman, Mitch Speight and Joan Marie Jackson made presentations in support of this petition.  Their presentations are attached to these notes.  Following the presentation there was a question-and-answer period and then a discussion of what position, if any, that Housing Greenfield should take on the matter.  One question that came up was whether an increase in housing would cause rents to rise.  Anna provided the following information to demonstrate that this would not be the case.  https://commonweathbeacon.org/housing/study-says-boosting-housing-production-tempres-rents/

After much discussion, the membership agreed through a vote to submit testimony to the joint public hearing of the City Council Economic Development Committee and the Greenfield Planning Board on November 7^th.  This attached statement to go before this public hearing reflects the discussion.

     Request for a letter of support
Megan McDonough of Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity presented their plans for developing a small, affordable single family home for people at 60% of the Area Median Income at 5 Birch Street in Greenfield.  This project is presently before the Greenfield Community Preservation Committee for funding.  A vote was taken and it was agreed that Susan will write a letter of support to be submitted as part of the proposal to the CPC.

UPDATES

     Rural Development Inc. — Alyssa Larose
The 42 Cleveland Street receivership project has received its certificate of occupancy from the city.  The Greenfield Tree Committee has planted 2 trees in the front of the house.  A lottery for the property was held.  There were 30 applicants and 11 were deemed eligible.  Names were picked in the lottery and the chosen applicant has been notified.  If, for some reason, that person is unable or unwilling to take occupancy of the house, the next applicant in the lottery will be notified.
     This receivership project was an experiment that generally has been successful although it was very expensive and did require grant funding for completion.  The Affordable Homes Act (Housing Bond Bill) did make some changes that make it easier for non-profits to be involved in the receivership program.
     RDI is looking at a second project in Montague and also looking at some other sites in Greenfield.

The 156-182 Main Street development has received funds from Mass Development’s site readiness funds.  Alyssa hopes to provide more information about this project at our December meeting.

Winter 2024-2025 — Anna Oltman

• The warming center will be at the Salvation Army.  Staffing will be through the Medical Reserve Corps.
• The Greenfield shelter is planning to move its guests to the temporary shelter site during the month of November.  The specific dates are not clear.

CONTACTS AND PLANS
     Rental Housing Survey Planning — Susan reported that she has talked to folks at GCC about this project and they are going to assist us in finding a student who will receive a stipend for assisting in the survey.  The student will also receive academic credit.  The original plan was for three students to work for a couple of weeks to get the data.  GCC suggested that working with a single student for a semester would be more effective and we agreed to go in that direction.

     Contacts — Because none of the rural/Western Massachusetts supported amendments to the Housing Bond Bill were included in the final Affordable Homes Act, Susan was concerned about how the “regional equity” statements would actually be accomplished in a political atmosphere where there will be great pressure to get as many units of housing built is as short a period of time as possible.  Toward that end, Susan has spoken with Kathleen Bitetti, State Auditor’s Office; James Fuccione, Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative, and the CHAPA legislative team.  More to come on this.

NEXT MEETING — It was agreed that our next meeting will be Monday, December 9^th at 6:30 over zoom       (Yes, we are back to our regularly scheduled second Monday.)