A ray of hope has emerged for two historic properties in danger of foreclosure with the pending hire of a housing expert who specializes in evaluating small-scale, affordable units housed in historic buildings.
Great Elms and The Inn, which for nearly 20 years have provided the only state-approved affordable rental apartments in Harvard available to families, could face foreclosure as soon as October, according to a town official involved in negotiations with the mortgage holder. All other state-defined affordable rentals in town are reserved for senior housing.
The consultant, who in 2010 worked on an award-winning historic and affordable restoration in Chelsea, is “in the process” of being hired, Selectman Ron Ricci said on Tuesday. Ricci is the Selectmen liaison to the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, which voted to fund the $10,000 consultant’s fee at its Aug. 8 meeting. The meeting drew an audience of 10 housing supporters, who mobilized after the housing trust, at its June meeting, delayed a vote on the property owner’s request to fund an immediate study.
The owner is an independent subsidiary of the private, non-profit Harvard Conservation Trust, which says it has maintained the nine units on a shoestring for nearly 20 years. The units have been counted on the town’s subsidized housing inventory since the early 1990s.
“We run on volunteers and charity,” said Victor Normand, representing the subsidiary in June, where he made his case for the housing trust to step up to its mission to “create and preserve” affordable housing in the town.
The housing trust said that the consultant’s report must not only specify the renovation needed at the aging properties—already estimated at up to $1.8 million by the non-profit group that owns them—but should also identify “creative” development options and state and federal subsidies that could make the properties at least partially self-sustaining.
“The issue is to not kick the can down the road and leave no reserve to maintain it, to sustain it,” said Bob Mayerson, an abutter and one of the concerned citizens who crowded into the fireplace room at the former library on Aug. 8.
Lack of reserve funding for the properties has been a problem from the start. Rental rates, which generate $75,000 annually, cannot be raised without losing affordable status. And both The Inn, a large white house with dormers and black shutters that sits across from the former library, and Great Elms were secured at below-market rates and in need of attention when they were purchased. The owners have been working for over two years with the Department of Housing and Community Development to find a solution to the problem.
Foreclosure would eliminate nine units from Harvard’s inventory of state-approved affordable housing, reducing the town’s inventory 10 percent, from 4.96 to 4.5 percent. The state mandates that 10 percent of a town’s year-round housing stock be affordable to those earning no more than 80 percent of the region’s median income.
“If something can be done to save and maintain these units, then it should be done. And we owe it to the community,” said Affordable Trust member Bruce Nickerson before the housing trust voted unanimously to fund the consultant.
