Interests of the town at stake
Two of Harvard’s landmark, antique homes—Great Elms on Stow Road and The Inn on Fairbank Street—are heading toward foreclosure, their property taxes in arrears.
Among those who would bear losses in a foreclosure are the home’s occupants and the town of Harvard. Tenants stand to eventually lose their apartments, while Harvard’s inventory of state-approved affordable housing would be reduced from its new, current level of 4.96 percent to 4.5 percent: the state mandates a 10 percent level. Tenants would be eligible for state assistance in finding new quarters, though not necessarily in Harvard.
In fact, the nine apartments at Great Elms and The Inn are the only rental units in Harvard that are both affordable, as defined by the state, and available to young adults and families. Two conventional apartment buildings on Ayer Road—one built in 1992 and the other under construction—offer affordable rentals, but the small units are restricted to elders, with several set aside for the disabled.
The farmhouse at Great Elms, surrounded by acres of conservation land, and The Inn, a rambling white house on the Common with dormers and black shutters, also represent the only examples of the “small and scattered” style of affordable rental housing endorsed by Harvard’s Master Plan. This style emphasizes integration, where affordable units are contained in typical homes that blend seamlessly into the neighborhood.
If the properties go under, it will mark the end of an era for the private, nonprofit Harvard Conservation Trust (HCT), which created the town’s very first state-sanctioned affordable apartments at The Inn and Great Elms more than 20 years ago. It also created a series of separate corporations to own and maintain the two houses, now merged into one entity, the Harvard Trust Non-Profit Properties (HTNPP).
After years of scraping by, HTNPP is nearly tapped out and is looking to Harvard’s newest vehicle for creating and preserving affordable housing, the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, to take an active role in solving the problem. HTNPP President Victor Normand said HTNPP “had always intended to be an interim vehicle” for affordable rentals.
“We have never been able to fund an adequate reserve,” Normand told the Press last week, explaining that the yearly, combined rent of $75,000 is not enough to maintain, let alone renovate, the aging properties. The closest thing to a solution has come by way of a recent recommendation by the Department of Housing and Community Development, which regulates the state’s affordable housing. It advised HTNPP to hire a so-called affordable development consultant. “Our goal is to keep all nine units as affordable housing, so the charge to the consultant is to tell us how to do that, but [to also] offer alternatives,” Normand said.
HTNPP has been working with DHCD, the Mass Housing Partnership and other agencies over several years to identify options.
On Monday, Normand—broker-owner of Acton Realty and a former vice president of community development at MassDevelopment—requested $7,000 to 10,000 from Harvard’s Municipal Affordable Housing Trust (MAHT) to hire the consultant. But instead of voting on that request, MAHT voted on a motion from member Ron Ricci to create an ad hoc committee of real estate and development professionals, officials from the bank holding HTNPP’s mortgage, and interested citizens.
“It does no good to see the Inn vacant and deteriorating, but I don’t want to throw good money after bad,” Ricci said.
“We have no assets. We run on volunteers and charity,” Normand replied, referring to HTNPP. Responding directly to Ricci, Normand said, “Ron, personally I think the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust is in a much better position to be in the lead than HTNPP.”
MAHT Chairman Mort Miller did not share Normand’s opinion and made that plain at Monday’s meeting, as did MAHT members Ron Ricci and Wade Holtzman. Responding later to a reporter’s question, Miller summed up his reservations in an e-mail. “The critical point is the Trust’s fiduciary responsibility to ensure that we invest our money in financially viable projects. Sadly, the Great Elms/Harvard Inn experience does not meet that criterion.”
At the meeting, Holtzman said, “I don’t feel, personally, that we should get involved in bailing them out.” He was later elected to succeed Miller as chairman.
Other members of MAHT, Sherlie LaPierre, Bruce Nickerson, Barbara Brady, and Chris Ready did not directly state their opinions during the meeting. For instance, Nickerson asked how much would be needed to substantially improve both properties, prompting Normand to estimate the cost at $1.5 to $1.8 million figure.
Since its inception in 2001, MAHT has accumulated a grand total of $521,612.42, largely from community preservation funds, with $200,000 of that total committed to the Bowers Brook affordable apartment building (behind the Dunkin’ Donuts). Its mission is to “create and preserve” affordable housing.
Note: The Great Elms property referred to here as being near foreclosure applies only to the 4-acre parcel that includes the home. Conservation land contiguous with this parcel is separately owned and remains unaffected.
