In recent months, Harvard has been the recipient of several high-profile applications filed under provisions of the state’s affordable housing law, Chapter 40B. Because only 2.8 percent of Harvard’s current housing qualifies as affordable under state guidelines—instead of the 10 percent mandated by the state for Massachusetts municipalities—the town must relax its protective (zoning) bylaw for developers who agree to make 25 percent of any housing projects they build here affordable. Although some residents are just now tuning in to the issue of affordable housing and its mandates, several local groups have long worked to create and sustain diverse housing here, and another, the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust Fund, has recently started to operate in town.
Harvard Conservation Trust: Offering affordable rentals since the ’80s
Many residents know the Harvard Conservation Trust (HCT), a charitable nonprofit group founded in 1973 to buy open land, either on its own, or to hold it until the town comes up with money to buy it. By its own account, the group has preserved more than 600 acres of land by protection and acquisition, and maintains, with the Conservation Commission, an extensive system of hiking trails.
Less well known, perhaps, are HCT’s pioneering efforts to address Harvard’s need for diverse housing.
For nearly 20 years, HCT has owned and managed nine rental units, all affordable. Four are in the old Harvard Inn––the big, old, white, clapboard building with black shutters that sits near the Common. In addition, there are five units at Great Elms on Stow Road in a farmhouse and barn purchased by HCT in the mid-’80s. Though the trust isn’t currently pursuing affordable housing projects, it remains committed to the cause, according to HCT Executive Secretary Audrey Ball.
“A goal of the trust is to work with town agencies or organizations to support senior and affordable housing,” Ball said, and explained how the conservation trust handles rental units. The trust, she said, owns and manages the units through Harvard Trust Nonprofit Properties. A volunteer committee provides oversight, but paid property managers fill the landlord role. After securing federal funds to renovate the units, the trust employed an independent contractor to ensure compliance with state regulations: verifying incomes, monitoring safety, and guarding against discriminatory rental practices.
Reflecting on the success of HCT’s affordable rentals, founding trust member Larry Finnegan recalled with a chuckle his group’s serendipitous entry into the market. “For years, [longtime Harvard resident, realtor, and former fire chief] Peter Warren had run the Inn as a good place for seniors, so when he had to sell it, he first offered it to the selectmen. When they didn’t want to run the place, we said, ‘Why not?’ ”
Housing Authority: Plans for senior apartments
The Harvard Housing Authority exists to create and manage affordable homes for low-income families and seniors. Its current goal, in the works for several years, is to build 12 apartments on a town-owned lot at the corner of Bolton Road and Mass. Avenue, across from the Bromfield House. The 12 one-bedroom apartments would be restricted to low-income seniors. All 12 apartments would contribute to Harvard’s inventory of affordable housing, referred to by one authority member as “a lot of bang for the buck.”
In an interview in December, Housing Authority Chairman Robert Lerner commented on what he said was a desperate need for affordable senior homes. “There are some older folks in town who live month-to-month,” he said, “in increasingly reduced circumstances, and they deserve a place to settle.”
According to authority member Bruce Nickerson, the project is progressing steadily. The group used seed money from the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) to commission a feasibility study, and now awaits the results of two independent cost estimates for site work and construction, he said. The authority is exploring the option of modular construction, and has visited a modular factory and a site where such units were going up, he said, adding that traditional construction has not been ruled out.
Based on the preliminary estimates, Nickerson said that he is optimistic about the project’s future, voicing confidence in fellow volunteers and singling out Lerner for recognition. “He has been the driving force, without whom this wouldn’t have gotten off the ground.”
The authority requested $50,000 from the CPC for this year. According to Lerner, half the money would pay for a grant writer, while the rest would pay for final specifications and site work.
Harvard Housing Partnership: 40B applications and accessory apartments
With several projects on the horizon, evaluating incoming 40B housing proposals is currently a consuming task for the Harvard Housing Partnership. With the selectmen, it decides whether a project might be a friendly 40B and whether it interferes with or advances Harvard’s 10-year housing plan. In fact, the partnership creates that strategic plan, which identifies needs, sets goals, and details Harvard’s strategy for meeting its 10 percent-affordable quota. The plan is posted on the town’s website.
The group’s mission, though, isn’t limited to affordable housing, notes partnership member and Selectman Lucy Wallace. Housing diversity is also a goal. Over-housed empty-nesters, seniors on fixed incomes, younger people returning to their home town for graduate school or to raise children––the partnership looks for solutions to all these needs, she said. Wallace cited the recently amended accessory apartment bylaw as an example of the partnership’s attempt to promote diverse housing. The bylaw began as a well-intentioned regulation, but its permitting process was clouded as in-law apartments evolved into rental units. The more comprehensive amended regulation advances two goals of the partnership, according to Wallace: to promote diverse housing, and to find a low-impact, inexpensive way to increase stocks of affordable housing.
Wallace cited the case of an older couple who wanted to rent their “in-law” to a graduate student (not a family member) who was willing to help with yard work. Before the amendment, the arrangement might have been disallowed.
The same bylaw presents another opportunity to diversify and increase Harvard’s living units, but with complications that the Planning Board discussed intermittently throughout 2006. The state encourages towns to include accessory apartments in its subsidized inventory, but doesn’t offer a mechanism for small towns to find and certify the units.
HHP and Planning Board member Barbara Brady is working on a solution, and has found two bylaws enacted in Provincetown that install a certification process and offer tax incentives to landlords who rent affordable apartments. According to Provincetown’s Assistant Town Manager Michelle Jarusiewicz, her community has met with some success with the bylaw combination. “We’ve counted some toward our inventory, but it’s part of our laundry list of strategies for maintaining affordable housing,” she said. Brady said that some ambiguities remain about the petition’s applicability to Harvard, and she is working with the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, town counsel, and other town boards to answer lingering questions.
Municipal Affordable Housing Trust: Funding our own affordable housing
The newly created Municipal Affordable Housing Trust Fund (MAHT) is a seven-member town board that is allowed by state law to acquire and sustain low cost housing. When a town wants to use Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds for low cost housing, the trust can secure the funds and buy the property on the town’s behalf. Its “declaration of trust,” a legal document governing the trust’s operation, is on file at the Registry of Deeds.
This year, MAHT asked the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) for $250,000 as part of its quest to raise $1 million over the next four years, according to Steve Rowse, a CPC member and trustee of MAHT. The amount would allow the trust to act quickly if a suitable property became available, Rowse said. The trust will receive the $250,000 only if the CPC places the request on the warrant and it is approved by voters at Town Meeting.
The CPA, a state law, makes it all possible. Harvard earns community preservation funds through its collection of a 1.1 percent tax on real property, which it can do because residents passed the act in 2001. According to the law, preservation funds can be used only to acquire, preserve, or restore historic resources, open space, land for recreation, and community housing. The preservation committee takes requests for CPA money and chooses which requests go before voters at town meeting. If voters approve, the committee directs the Finance Committee to disburse the funds.
For now, the trust is prepare its case for Town Meeting, refining its policies, and working on a database of potentially affordable homes.
Existing and Proposed 40Bs
