Housing Trust Reelects Officers, Hears of Metacomet's Affordable Efforts

Above, Metacomet President Lisa Mosczynski

The Franklin Municipal Affordable Housing Trust board met virtually Tuesdsay morning with a first order of business of electing officers. The same existing slate, Chris Vericker, Chairman, Susan Younis, Vice Chair, and Maxine Kinhart,  Clerk was reelected unanimously.

The balance of the meeting was almost entirely taken up with a report from Metacomet Land Trust on its ongoing efforts in the area of affordable housing led by Metacomet President Lisa Mosczynski, who lives in Douglas with Treasurer: Susan Speers, who resides in Franklin.

Not long after the Land Trust was established, in the early 1990s it began to get involved in supporting affordable housing in Franklin, primarily by acquire land and leasing it at a below-market-rate to homeowners.  It was a new model for development, pioneered at that time in cooperation with the town's community development office. 

The program involved seven owner-occupied properties that were rehabilitated with the help of state grants plus "sweat equity." The homes are permanently affordable due to a restrictive agreement which limits the annual appreciation in value.

The Franklin program has been a victim of its success in that six of the units are still still occupied by the same families after some 30 years, with much of the 99-year ground lease yet to go.  The owner of the seventh unit ran into severe financial turbulence after the 2008 recession and the house was eventually foreclosed.  At that point, Metacomet worked with town officials and others to get that home and its underlying land into the hands of the town's Housing Authority.

But the other six are still problematic, according to Mosczynski.

By the time the 99-year leases expire, the Land Trust may not even exist. And there is no incentive for families to sell, which is the only way the favorable terms of the ground lease can be renegotiated.

Vericker and others on the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust speculated on whether there might be a way to supply incentives that could bring more turnover and allow the properties to flow to new home buyers.

In the end, everyone agreed to keep the program in mind and try to think of ways to amend the too-successful program so that in can benefit more individuals.