Housing Authority Welcomes SAFE Leader

Public Housing Authorities, like the Franklin Municipal Housing Authority, are ‘political bodies that are considered local government organizations under state law’ (and under state supervision) or quasi-municipal.  Tuesday's meeting of the Franklin Municipal Housing Authority, was, as is
usually the case, full of details about the myriad challenges of
providing cost-effective housing options to the town’s residents in
need. But it also included two “people” elements. First, Chair
George Danello, recognizing the recent passing of long-time
commission member Peter L. Brunelli, asked to start the meeting with
a moment of silence. Danello, who said he had been friends with
Brunelli for five decades, also noted that Brunelli constantly gave
back to the community, whenever asked, and noted that he would be
greatly missed.

Then, on a positive note, he welcomed Jennifer Knight-Levine, a
founder of the SAFE Coalition, recently appointed by the town, to her
first meeting as a Commissioner.

Knight-Levine expressed her excitement at having an opportunity to
fill the role and noted that in her human service work in the San
Diego area, she had been responsible for managing group homes, and
thus is familiar with some of the challenges and issues with which
the Housing Authority Deals.

The balance of the meeting was more familiar material, starting with
a report from Sean
Pope, Director of Facilities. Some
of the items included:

• a
  report on the nearly-complete roof replacement at Winter Street
• A
  water line replacement, still ongoing, that is also helping to ID
  the location of other underground utilities
• replacement
  of a circulator pump in the heating system
• Plain
  St heating project at a standstill and residents still dependent on
  space heaters. The ground-based geothermal system has become blocked
  up but the state seems to lack to the staff to deal with the issue,
  which has been ‘up in the air’ for two years. Hoping to be able
  to move to atmospheric heat pumps in the future
• new
  ‘door viewers’ being installed around facilities
• Habitat
  for Humanity built a 12x12 gazebo for residents to provide shelter
  from sun and inclement weather-protected

Minutes
from June 11 were approved and payables and credit card expenses were
approved.

The
Director’s report from Lisa
M. Audette was
next discussing, among other things:

• Upcoming
  training for commissioners + conflict of interest training
• The
  applicant pool for housing recently soared past 23,000
• The
  Authority is maintaining very low vacancy rates, meaning when a
  tenant moves, it is acting quickly to clean, repair, market, and
  fill the unit.
• The
  sole congregate housing unit, often difficult to fill due to the
  personal preferences of tenants, is now fully in use.