Affordable Housing Trust Is a Step in Right Direction
Dear Editor,
As the Revere Journal reported, to our great delight, the City Council recently took a critical first step towards addressing the housing crisis in Revere by unanimously approving the establishment of an Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) and the Mayor’s request to add $100,000 in seed money to the new fund. Many members of the Revere Housing Coalition (RHC), a Revere resident-led voluntary group of housing advocates, testified in person or submitted written comments in support of these measures.
As residents of Revere, we see our working class city facing rising rents and property values that are unaffordable, which force valued neighbors to move out of our community. We fear that more of our neighbors will be displaced in the near future, since more than half of our city’s households are low-income, but only 15% of them currently have access to affordable housing.
We supported the AHTF, because it can provide a flexible source of funding that can be used to support a variety of affordable housing activities. Because it was created and will be administered at the city level, the fund is not subject to the restrictions of state and federal subsidy programs and therefore can be designed specifically to address local priorities and needs.
However, this is just the beginning. In the weeks and months, the RHC will be working with the City Council to find ways to raise funding for the AHTF, since without such funds it will not be able to address the housing crisis. To this end, we will support policies such inclusionary zoning, linkage fees, and affordable housing overlay district as recently considered by the City Council. Please join us in these efforts. The future of our City depends on it.
Fatou Drammeh on behalf of the Revere Housing Coalition
