Salem Affordable Housing Trust Fund
Minutes of Meeting
Monday, May 12, 2008
A regular meeting of the Salem Affordable Housing Trust Fund was held on Monday, May 12, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. in Room 313 at 120 Washington Street.
Members present were Jennifer Raitt, Michael Northcutt, Kathleen Burke, Lucy Corchado, Mary Lauby, and Leonette Strout. Also present was Jennifer Kolodziej, City of Salem Housing Coordinator.
Members absent were Mayor Driscoll, Councillor Jean Pelletier, Councillor Matthew A. Veno, Chad Colarusso, and Mary Dennesen. Lynn Goonin Duncan, Director of the Department of Planning and Community Development, was absent as well.
Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the Salem Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board meeting held on March 10, 2008 were presented for approval. Mickey Northcutt moved to approve the draft minutes with no amendments, seconded by Leonette Strout and approved (6-0).
Update on Fair Housing Presentation
Jennifer Kolodziej shared information she obtained from a presentation by the Fair Housing Center of Boston at the North Shore HOME Consortium meeting held on April 30, 2008 at the George Peabody House Museum. The Fair Housing Center conducts research and policy work in addition to dealing with housing discrimination complaints and community education. According to research conducted by the center, in the greater Boston area, African-Americans and Latinos are discriminated against 50% of the time when trying to rent or buy a home. The center also found that families with subsidies were discriminated against nearly two-thirds of the time. Sometimes landlords do not want to rent to families because owners are required by state lead laws to delead any unit in which a child under the age of six
resides. The town of Newton has inserted educational materials for landlords in its water bills. In addition, renters and homebuyers need to be educated so that they know if they are being discriminated against and where to go with a complaint. Mary Lauby asked if the Fair Housing Center’s educational materials included information on the benefits of following fair housing practices for developers, banks, and economic development or downtown revitalization. Jennifer stated that she was not aware of any materials that specifically address the benefits of fair housing in regards to economic development other than that fair housing creates a more diversified workforce and neighborhood.
Also, Jennifer relayed that the North Shore HOME Consortium will be issuing a Request for Proposals for a consultant group to conduct educational sessions on fair housing. Some of these sessions will be geared toward municipal officials and volunteer members of planning, zoning, and affordable housing trust fund boards. Other sessions will be held for real estate agents and rents/homebuyers. The sessions will be held in various locations in Peabody and Salem. Lucy Corchado asked if educational materials will be available at these sessions. Jennifer answered that they would. Leonette Strout requested that Jennifer bring back to the board any available educational materials and links to resources from these sessions.
Business Plan
Jennifer presented an outline of the scope of work for the business plan as requested at the last meeting. Mickey Northcutt moved to release a Request for Proposals (RFPs) for the business plan with the scope of work as presented in Jennifer’s outline, seconded by Kathleen Burke, and approved (6-0). In addition, Mickey moved to form a three to four person subcommittee to review the proposals and bring one recommendation to the full board. Lucy added her support for forming a small working group. Mary Lauby asked if this was allowed under the open meeting rule. Jenny Raitt explained that this is permissible because the members would be allowing a subset of the board to review the proposals and then give the full board an opportunity for input. Mickey’s motion to form a
subcommittee for review of the RFPs was seconded by Mary Lauby and approved (6-0).
Accessory Dwelling Ordinance Components
At the conclusion of the Trust’s April meeting, board members requested that Jennifer write up a list of the decisions that need to be made when drafting an ADO to help facilitate discussion. At this month’s meeting, Jennifer presented a chart of the ordinance’s components with the pros and cons of each decision point and recommendations. Mary Lauby requested that before moving into a discussion of the components, that the board members arrive at a consensus of whether or not they want to go forward with this type of ordinance. Leonette Strout said that she is still on the fence about pursuing an ADO because she sees a gap between the purpose of the ordinance and what she thinks of as affordable housing. Jennifer pointed out that the ordinance would help homeowners who are trying
to meet their housing costs and renters looking for affordable apartments. Kathleen Burke expressed concern that the rental units would not remain affordable once the home and its accessory apartment are sold if an affordability restriction was not incorporated into the ordinance. Jennifer replied that her reasoning for not recommending that an affordability restriction be placed on the units was two fold. First, the restriction may discourage people from taking advantage of the ordinance. Also, since accessory apartments are often restricted to sizes that are smaller than the average apartments on the market, they are usually rented at below market rates. Kathleen said that she does not give people the benefit of the doubt that they would rent the units at below market rate even though the units are small. Leonette stated that in her experience as a realtor, she has seen that apartments that are grossly overpriced for their size tend to remain
empty or unrented.
Mary Lauby added that she would still like to get a sense of whether the political environment is more favorable for an ADO or for Inclusionary Zoning. Leonette agreed. In addition, Mary expressed desire to meet with the Building Inspector to find out why he is opposed to having an ADO in Salem. Jenny Raitt concluded that it sounded like the group would like more information. Mickey Northcutt motioned that the group table the discussion until the next meeting. Leonette moved to amend the motion to include having Councillor Pelletier inform the board of the level of support for an ADO among City Council members at the next meeting. Mickey moved to amend the motion further to include input from the Mayor and Lynn Duncan regarding support for an ADO, seconded by Mary Lauby and approved
(6-0). Also, Mickey requested that Jennifer compile an outline and give a presentation at the next meeting on what an Inclusionary Zoning bylaw would look like.
Adjournment
There being no further business a motion was made by Mickey Northcutt to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Leonette Strout and approved (6-0).
The meeting was adjourned at 10:15 a.m.
Respectfully submitted by:
Jennifer Kolodziej
Jennifer Kolodziej
Housing Coordinator
City of Salem
Department of Planning & Community Development
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