By Journal Staff
The Board of Trustees of the Revere Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) held its regular monthly meeting last Wednesday evening, June 11, in the City Council Chambers. Chair Joseph Gravallese was joined by Treasurer Anayo Osueke and fellow board members Dean Harris, Lori Manzo, Matt Wolfer, Deb Wolfer, and Laila Pietri.
Osueke presented the treasurer’s report. He said the AHTF has a balance in its account of $907,943.33, which is an increase from last month’s balance of $905,420.25.
The meeting began with Gravallese noting that Judy Gosselin, a long-time local realtor, has been nominated by Mayor Patrick Keefe to join the board and is awaiting confirmation by the City Council. He also noted that there is another vacancy on the board to be filled.
Gravallese nominated Wolfer to be vice-chair to succeed Claire Inzerillo, who recently stepped away from the board. There were no other nominations and the members unanimously voted to name Wolfer to that post.
The board then discussed the potential acquisition of properties that presently are deed-restricted, which means that the sellers, who bought their properties pursuant to affordable housing guidelines, now must resell them at affordable rates.
Gravallese said that he had met with Shelly Goring, who works with the Mass. Housing Partnership, which provides advice to AHTF boards throughout the state.
He said Goring had suggested that the AHTF serve as a facilitator for the sale of deed-restricted properties, rather than purchasing the properties itself.
“We as a trust don’t want to really be involved because of liability issues,” added Frank, who made note of various ways that the AHTF can help facilitate transactions.
Gravallese also discussed proposed alterations to the First-Time Homebuyer Downpayment Assistance Program. The AHTF has awarded $10,000 grants to potential first-time homebuyers to be used toward their downpayments, but thus far those prospective purchasers have been unable to find a home that is affordable for them to buy.
“We’ve reached a bit of a logjam in terms of getting all of the funds out the door,” said Gravallese. “We have three spots available and five spots that we’ve been holding for four or five months for folks who are trying to get over the finish line with a purchase and sales agreement.
“We’ve also had a slowdown in applicants because of the high cost of housing in Revere and high interest rates,” Gravallese added. He suggested that the AHTF lift the cap for eligible purchasers from the present 80% of Area Median Income (AMI) to 100% of AMI, which would increase the income limit (from $119,000 to $148,900 for a family of three, for example) and thereby expand the potential pool of eligible home-buyers.
Harris had two questions:
— Whether the state program (which provided the funds and which were doubled by the AHTF from its own funds) limited the AHTF to offering the program only to those with less than 100% AMI and
— If the AHTF assists those at 100% of AMI, whether that would violate the AHTF’s mission statement of assisting those whose income is less than the AMI.
As to the first query, Gravallese noted that there is no explicit income limitation in the state program. As to the second, he said that the trust has some discretion to administer funds that have been given to the AHTF by the state regardless of income limitations.
Harris then made a motion to expand the program to include those with up to 100% of AMI and the board unanimously voted to do so.
Gravallese then discussed the possible implementation of a loan program for homeowners who add an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) to their homes pursuant to the new state law that permits ADUs to be added even in single-family zoning districts. He discussed the program and parameters that have been adopted by the Town of Wellfleet and suggested it could be a model for Revere to follow.
In response to a question from Osueke, Gravallese said that for a loan of $10,000, for example, the loan would be forgiven by $2000 each year over five years, provided that the homeowner rents the unit to those who meet income guidelines.
Gravallese said that the AHTF will be discussing the adoption of an ADU loan program in the coming months.
The board also briefly discussed a workshop for the Senior Citizen Home Repair Program that was scheduled to be held yesterday (Tuesday).
