Report Excerpt:The Select Board recognizes and concurs with much of the spirit of this Article. In summary, the Article asserts that the resources of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (“AHTF”) recently established at the November 2020 Special Town Meeting should be focused on those Arlington residents of greater needs – who have incomes at or lower than 60 % of the so-called “Area Median Income” (“AMI”). However, as was debated and discussed in developing the bylaw for the AHTF Board of Trustees at the November 2020 Town Meeting, many potential funding sources, partners, and worthy recipients, including the Community Preservation Act, Community Development Block Grants employ AMI standards with greater flexibility. To that point, AHTF funds are highly likely to be used to leverage further state, federal and private resources. Restricting yet to be appointed Trustees’ ability to fund projects that are eligible for those other resources could be counter-productive in unintended ways.
Furthermore, one of the first tasks for the AHTF Board of Trustees will be developing a “Trust Action Plan” and identifying housing needs and priorities in Arlington through a process that will invite community engagement. In the Select Board’s experience, committees and commissions in these arenas prioritize funds well. Indeed the overwhelming majority, if not the all of affordable housing grants provided the Select Board and the Community Preservation Act Committee (through CDBG and CPA funds respectively) have been provided to projects supporting 60% or lower AMI residents as a matter of the choices of those respective bodies rather than a bylaw directing their priorities. The Select Board believes that we should afford the AHTF Board of Trustees the same discretion to formulate priorities and plans before the Town seeks to revise their charter bylaw only approved at the November Special Town Meeting.