LENOX — When commercial developers and a hotel tried to build on an empty lot in Lenox in 2009, residents and town officials pushed back — and turned the fight into an opportunity to address the town’s growing need for workforce housing.
And so, the first affordable housing trust in Berkshire County was formed.
“We had a need for affordable housing in town, and we looked at that site for that use,” said Kate McNulty-Vaughn, chair of Lenox’s affordable housing trust.
Sixteen years later, North Adams just became the ninth municipality in Berkshire County to start an affordable housing trust, joining the growing list of towns and cities across the commonwealth working to tackle the housing crisis in their respective towns.
But what, if anything, can these trusts do to help create affordable housing — and where does the money come from?
In brief, affordable housing trusts are formed to help disperse funds that support affordable housing projects, grants and programs. Most of their funds come from the Community Preservation Act, per trust members in various towns.
The state allows the formation of trusts through general law chapter 44, section 55C. Among other things it outlines the power of a trust, the makeup of it and its purpose, which is to provide for “the creation and preservation of affordable housing in municipalities for the benefit of low and moderate income households and for the funding of community housing,” per the Massachusetts State Legislature.
In 2009, McNulty-Vaughn and other residents fended off the attempts to develop, and the town agreed, wanting to use the lot for a different purpose. After the town conducted a demographics study, looking at populations and housing needs, “the trust was formed,” she said.
Williamstown was next, forming in 2011 after flooding from Tropical Storm Irene devastated a mobile home community there.
Then the other seven trusts formed, with the latest being North Adams in October.
There’s strength in numbers, when it comes to these trusts, officials say. There were even annual meetings for a time, according to Tom Sheldon, a member of Williamstown’s affordable housing trust.
“There is a collaborative nature, even though the funding for each town and the sort of mandate for each town is strictly within our borders,” said Fred Clark, co-chair of the Great Barrington affordable housing trust.
WHAT DO TRUSTS DO?
Affordable housing trusts “look for opportunities to bring in new households,” McNulty-Vaughn said.
“It basically creates and maintains the housing stock,” McNulty-Vaughn added. “The worst thing that can happen to a person is to not have housing.”
Affordable housing trusts are meant to make housing easier to access, and each town’s approach to this goal is different.
For Great Barrington, “we do that by developing programs, but in essence, we’re not developers,” Clark said. “We basically develop programs and provide grants that leverage affordable housing.”
Some programs are more universal than others. Lenox, Williamstown and Great Barrington all have a form of a down-payment assistance program that helps potential homebuyers with one of the hardest parts of the process.
While the specifics and eligibility requirements of the programs are different, each gives zero-interest loans to qualified homebuyers, and the trusts say the program is very successful.
“More than two dozen grants have been given through that program,” Sheldon said. “Those folks have tended to stay in those houses. There hasn’t been turnover.”
Home rehabilitation is an important tool in the trust’s arsenal too, McNulty-Vaughn said, pointing out that the Lenox trust has helped restore nine homes, with repairs being up to $70,000.
“That was $630,000, potentially, that came into town to maintain our housing and to help particular households be able to be safe and secure in their home,” McNulty-Vaughn said.
Another function of the trust is partnering with community organizations, Clark said, and the partners “are so important because they often can point people toward programs that they were unaware of or that they qualify for.”
Terrace 592 in Pittsfield is near completion, with final inspections on the horizon for the 41 affordable housing apartments. Pittsfield formed its affordable housing trust in 2022.
HOW ARE TRUSTS FUNDED?
According to Sheldon, anywhere from 90 to 98 percent of trusts’ money comes from the Community Preservation Act, which is a program that gets funds from real estate transactions. The state preservation act is voluntary, with each municipality having to opt in.
The state also matches a portion of the funds earned from the transactions depending on the percentage added to the real estate transactions.
These funds are tied to the municipality they are generated from, and 10 percent of funds must be used for each of the following: open space or recreation, historic preservation and community housing.
“Some towns have elected to basically give 80 percent to housing,” Sheldon said.
This isn’t the only form of funding trusts receive — as Lenox’s trust gets a portion of the town’s earnings off of short-term rental funding — but it is the majority of funding for most towns.
The homes at 8 Hynes St., right, and 10 Hynes St., left, in Lenox were sold via lottery to income-eligible first-time homebuyers through Lenox’s Affordable Housing Trust in 2022.
CREATIVE SOLUTIONS
As trusts become better equipped to handle Berkshire County’s housing crisis, they’re also developing new tools to have at their disposal.
The affordable housing trust in Great Barrington is developing plans for building a set of affordable homes.
Lenox is looking to continue their home rehabilitation program and find more ways to open up housing to residents.
Williamstown is continuing to help people afford a down-payment on homes.
However, there is always room to improve.
“I think there’s a potential for more collaboration,” Clark said. “And it’s something that I talked to Hearthway about, and I’d like to see that we can do that.”
“We will probably forever continue to talk about where can we get more resources and what are the needs,” Sheldon said. ”Are the needs the same as they were 10 years ago? Are there new types of need?”