At Tuesday night’s meeting, the Board of Selectmen voted to approve an increase in the asset limit for the age-restricted affordable housing at Trail Ridge, a project of 52 units being built on Littleton County Road. The project is split between age-restricted units and family units, and like all 40B projects, 25 percent of the units will be designated as affordable. Applicants for affordable housing work with the Citizens Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA), the organization that acts as the monitoring agent for the sale of affordable units.
Mark O’Hagan, co-owner of the Massachusetts Housing Opportunity Corporation (MHOC), has been working with the Harvard Housing Partnership to determine whether the current asset limits would unduly limit the number of Harvard residents who would be eligible for the age-restricted units. At a previous meeting, Selectman Lucy Wallace had explained the Housing Partnership’s concerns that under the current guidelines, most Harvard residents would not be eligible for the age-restricted affordable housing due to current market conditions.
Under the current guidelines, such applicants are limited to $150,000 in assets from the sale of property, plus $50,000 in other sources of income. The Housing Partnership has recommended that the town request that CHAPA allow a maximum combined asset level of $400,000, double the current limit.
Wallace reported that a fellow member of the Housing Partnership, who is also a realtor, did some research to find out how many houses in Harvard have been sold under $400,000 in the past 18 months. They found that six houses in that range have sold, and eight more are currently on the market. Based on that information, they concluded that the number of town residents who would have assets from a home sale within the stated limits would be very small.
After a brief discussion, Wallace, Tim Clark, and Bob Eubank voted to approve the increase in asset limits, with Randy Dean abstaining due to a lack of data. Selectman Bill Marinelli was not present at the meeting. From here, CHAPA will pass the request on to the state, which may or may not approve the increase in asset limits. According to CHAPA Director Aaron Gornstein, it is rare that such requests are approved because it defeats the purpose of offering the housing to a pool of people who have more reduced circumstances.
