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BELMONT HOUSING TRUST
Although the challenge of creating affordable housing opportunities for Belmont residents still seems to be a distant vision, the Belmont Housing Trust has seen some progress toward that goal. The work that has been done by the Trust, the Fair Housing Committee, the Office of Community Development, and other affordable housing advocates over the last few years is finally bearing fruit. This year Belmont was awarded nearly $97,000 in federal funding that can be used for any affordable housing program or project that the town sees fit. These funds are administered through the H.O.M.E. Consortium, which Belmont joined two years ago. We can expect to receive additional funding of approximately the same amount each year for the next four years. In an addition to this revenue source, the O'Neill project is expected to bring
another $475,000 for the benefit of affordable housing programs. That's the good news.
On the negative side, our high hopes for passage of the Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance this past year were dashed when Town Meeting narrowly defeated its passage in a vote requiring two-thirds approval. Members of the Trust had worked long and hard in conjunction with the Fair Housing Committee the Office of Community Development and the Planning Board to draft an Inclusionary Zoning article that could help to address the serious affordable housing shortage that Belmont faces. It is our hope that we can work together to address the legitimate concerns that were raised at Town Meeting and bring a revised article back this year that will gain overwhelming support of Town Meeting. In addition to that bad news, we have recently learned that, despite the resolution of the long-standing litigation over the McLean deal, new issues
have arisen with respect to the affordability requirements imposed by the town in relation to the senior assisted living project schedule to be developed on that site. It seems apparent that the developers position on that matter will ultimately lead to further litigation and delay in the development of the thirty units of affordable housing units for seniors that was negotiated in the deal, as well as a delay in the transfer of the 1.34 acres of land slated for additional affordable housing and parking for the Housing Authority complex adjacent to it. In yet another disappointing turn of events, the agreement reached between Belmont, Lexington and Waltham several years ago that would have created more affordable housing opportunities for Belmont residents on the Metropolitan State Hospital land seems to be meeting with some political roadblocks. We will have to be vigilant in ensuring that the commitments that were made then by all three communities as well as by the
State of Massachusetts are kept.
Despite these setbacks the Housing Trust shall continue to work towards our ultimate goal of actually producing affordable housing units in the very near future. Presently we are working to establish the Housing Trust as a 501 C-3 nonprofit organization, which will allow the Trust to raise funds privately to benefit our affordable housing projects. We're also developing a proposal to acquire one of the Town's surplus parcels of land for the development of one or two units of affordable housing to benefit Town employees. It is our hope that our efforts in this area will pay off with the actual construction of the units commencing before we submit our next annual report.
We would like to thank the Board of Selectmen, the Office of Community Development, the Fair Housing Committee and the many affordable housing advocates who have demonstrated their strong support for our work over the past year.
On one more very sad note, we report the passing of our colleague, Bill Holmes this past January. We express our heartfelt sympathy to his family and extended our gratitude to them for Bill's long-standing commitment to affordable housing issues and his many contributions to our Town.
Respectfully submitted,
Art Heron, Chair
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