By Journal Staff
The Board of Trustees of the Revere Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) held its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday evening, March 12, in the City Council Chambers. Chair Joe Gravellese and treasurer Anayo Osueke were on hand for the session, along with fellow board members Lori Manzo, Dean Harris, Matthew Wolfer, and Laila Pietri.
Osueke presented the treasurer’s report. He said the AHTF has a balance in its account of $677,721.71.
The AHTF’s two new subcommittees made reports to the full board.
Wolfer presented the report of the Home Ownership Subcommittee. He said the subcommittee discussed the issues of tax title properties; working with Habitat for Humanity or similar nonprofits; down payment assistance programs; financial incentives for Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) conversions; and looking into market-rate housing conversions.
As to that last issue, Wolfer said the subcommittee discussed the possibility of the trust either directly investing in 2-4 family properties and converting them into affordable condo units or working with private developers to incentivize them to sell one of their units (in a 2-4 unit condo conversion, for example) as a deed-restricted affordable unit.
Gravallese said his initial reaction is that he would favor the latter course of action by setting up a grant program for private developers. He noted that with the typical cost for a triple-decker in Revere in the range of about $1 million, the former course of action is economically infeasible for the AHTF.
Osueke presented the Fundraising Committee’s report. “We talked about partnering with the Community Land Trust (CLT), as well creating an inventory of banks in the area to which we could apply for grants,” said Osueke.
Gravallese spoke about the issue of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), which now are legal across the state pursuant to a new state law that allows a homeowner to construct an ADU of up to 900 sq. ft. in a single-family residential zoning district.
He noted that the City of Boston offers $7500 grants for technical assistance and up to a $50,000 interest-free loan (to be repaid upon the sale of the property) for homeowners who create an ADU. He also pointed out that Boston provides a city employee who provides advice to homeowners about the process and who oversees the project, though he noted that this is not a possibility in Revere, where the Building Dept. does not have the resources to provide that degree of assistance.
“A loan program is something we may want to prioritize,” Gravallese said, “because that could get things moving forward more quickly.”
Gravallese provided updates on other programs with which the AHTF is involved:
— He said that the tax title program, by which the city will transfer tax title properties to the AHTF, which then will send out RFPs to developers either for proposals to construct affordable housing on the properties or to purchase a property without an affordable housing component (with the proceeds going to the AHTF), is moving ahead before the City Council;
— He noted that “applications have been light” for the first-time homebuyer program, which recently received an additional $75,000 infusion from the state. He suggested that the AHTF at its next meeting may want to contribute an additional $5000 to the program to bring the total to $80,000 in order to provide for eight, $10,000 grants.
The city received $25,000 from the state last year to which the AHTF added another $25,000. Five applications have been received for the $10,000 grants, which assist first-time home buyers with their down payments, the high cost of which are the principal barriers to purchasing a home for many; and
— As for the potential of a senior home repair program, which must be approved by the City Council, Gravallese said, “We’re not quite ready to launch this, but we anticipate a huge demand for it.” The objective of a senior citizen home repair program is to improve accessibility for seniors (such as constructing ramps) to allow them to “age in place” in their homes. The program would be operated under the auspices of the AHTF.
The board then adjourned until its next meeting.
