Housing Trust Wants to Do More

Above, Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, with Town Manager Jamie Hellen making a  point.

The Municipal Affordable Housing Trust met on Tuesday, January 10 at 10 am via the Zoom platform, with a fairly light agenda.

The first item, approval of the minutes of the Nov. 8 meeting, went quickly.

The second item, setting goals, became a free form, and at times passionate discussion.

Chair Chris Vericker noted that those needing housing face a kind of patchwork system that not only often has too few resources but is almost always hard to navigate. He speculated about whether the Trust could function in some way as a clearing house to help individuals and families find the assistance they need. A suggestion was also made that the Trust make available funds for emergencies, though concerns about how to determine who should get the money and even questions of whether that could be done by the Trust were raised and discussed. Additionally, member Chris Feeley noted that some funding sources don't allow money to go to individuals.

One concrete suggestion was convening the players including the Fire Chief, Police Chief, and Senior Center social worker, Saint Vincent De Paul, and the Interfaith Council – both to inform the Trust and to help ensure cooperation amongs players.

As the meeting was frequently made difficult by noise and static, there was interest expressed in meeting in person in the future – and the Chair commented that there were some members of the Trust he had never met in person. Town Administrator Jamie Hellen noted that the Training Room at the Municipal Building is usually available.

One other action that came out of the meeting was a member’s request to go into executive session at the next meeting to discuss a specific property matter.