Housing
Present: Susan Worgaftik, Peg Hall, Mary McClintock, Dorothy McIver, Chuck Green, Edie Heinemann, Erin Forbush, Amy Clarke, Louise Amyot, Nikki Garrett, Mike Penn-Strah, Mary McClintock, Amy Cahillane, Anna Oltman, Alyssa Larose, Jen Hale, Andrea Donlon, Judy Atkins
Decisions and areas for further discussion were made are in red.
Updates
Status of 42 Cleveland Street—Alyssa Larose
RDI expects to close on the sale of the property by April 15th.
Asbestos remediation will begin this spring. Construction by Renaissance Builders should begin in May. Construction should take 8 months or so. So a sale in spring 2025 is likely. Applications for the property will be accepted in the fall or winter with a lottery taking place after that. There will be a sign in front informing the neighborhood about what is happening at the site. Community meetings about the site will take place this summer. There is not a sweat equity component in this build out because the home has been abandoned for about 10 years and there were contamination issues that had to be resolved by professionals. The new homeowners will, however, be expected to paint the walls inside.
Status of Green River School—Susan Worgaftik
We still don’t know a lot yet. Susan sent an information request to the superintendent recently, but has not heard anything back.
Hope Street—Nikki Garrett and Anna Oltman
Precincts 5 and 7 are planning an Earth Day clean-up on April 21st. The temporary Fire Station is expected to move to its new quarters by the end of May. There is now a study being done to establish the boundaries of the site. And a grant application has been submitted for the study of the lot. It is expected the study will take 2-6 months and it is concentrating on housing feasibility.
Winter 2024-2025 Shelter Planning—Anna Oltman
The next meeting of the winter 2024-2025 shelter planning group will take place in late April or early May. A draft policy regarding emergency shelter is now being drawn up and will be presented to providers, advocates and those with lived experience at that meeting for review and comment.
Housing Inspection and Registration Committee—Susan Worgaftik
Susan met with Mayor Desorgher on April 8th to discuss the idea that had been developed by the committee. The following proposal was given to the Mayor:
There needs to be one department (perhaps Health?) that coordinates the baseline information (units and addresses) and then, going forward, there would be a routing system to all concerned departments from any department that has an incident or a change to report. That key department would be the repository of all reports of housing inspection needs, proven violations, resolutions, and any court findings. Because of the complexity of the data analysis task, we would not try to do this with historical information. This procedure would begin when there is department agreement and the assignment of an individual in each relevant department to provide information to the key department.
Should another department, let’s say the Assessor’s Office, want information about the number and condition of apartments at a given site, the Assessor’s Office would contact the coordinating office in the key department for the information on file.
The Mayor agreed that this is an interesting approach and will explore its potential. Susan will check back with Mayor Desorgher in May.
156-186 Main Street—Alyssa Larose
Rural Development Inc. is working with property owner, Tim Grader to establish whether it would be possible to build affordable housing on this property by building additional apartments above the storefronts presently there. Historically, those buildings had additional stores. The Community Preservation Committee is supporting that some of their funds should go to this feasibility study. The study would include establishing how many units would be included in this project. This project is part of the Complete Neighborhoods designation that the city received through Massachusetts Housing Partnership and should the project go forward, there may be funding for it through the Complete Neighborhoods program.
Discussions
Greenfield Housing Study—Anna Oltman
The city has contracted with Community Scale LLC to do a housing study of Greenfield. Jeff Sauser is head of the company and lives here so that additional local knowledge should assist with the project. It is expected that the study will take 6-7 months. It will include stakeholder interviews and there will be community meetings to discuss the gaps in housing. This will result in a housing plan which also will be reviewed at a community meeting. The study will focus on all kinds of housing needs with a particular emphasis on middle income housing (80-120% of Area Median Income).
Recognition of Shelter and Outreach Workers—Susan Worgaftik, Louise Amyot
Susan and Louise contacted the Garden Theater, Ice Cream Alley and Shelburne Coffee Roasters to ask if they would be willing to work with us to provide some gift certificates at a discount for the 32 shelter and outreach workers here in Greenfield. The Garden Theater offered us 64 passes at $5 each, Ice Cream Alley offered us 20% off on gift certificates for ice cream, and Shelburne Coffee Roasters offered us gift certificates without a discount. Susan said that there are still funds from the forum that we could use for this purpose and they total just under $500. Considering that the Garden Cinema passes will cost $320 and the $10 gift certificates from Ice Cream Alley will cost $256, we were just a little bit short on funds. Susan said that she would donate the money that is not available through the forum fund. Edie, Dorothy and Louise volunteered to write the thank you notes that will accompany the passes and gift certificates. The notes and certificates will go to Erin, Keleigh and to Wildflower Alliance at the end of April.
Mary asked if there would be a press release around these gifts. Erin thought that might be okay. Susan asked Erin and Keleigh to think about it to make sure that that such a release would be okay among the workers. We do not want them to think that this is a publicity effort designed to make us look good and make them feel somewhat embarrassed. Erin said that she would discuss this with Keleigh and others at ServiceNet to let us know. If we do want to do a press release, Mary said she would be happy to help to write it.
Short Term Rental—Andrea Donlon, Buckland Planning Board
Andrea presented the ideas and thinking that the Buckland Planning Board has done around the question of short-term rentals like Airbnb. The slides can be found in the recording of our meeting April 8th Housing Greenfield Meeting.
Buckland will be voting on this question at their next Town Meeting. Andrea will let us know what happened. The Planning Board did a great deal of work on this and that may prove beneficial for other towns and Greenfield.
Reports
Wells Street—Susan Worgaftik
Keleigh was unable to attend our meeting tonight due to last minute issues that came up.
Family Shelter at the Family Inn and the Days Inn—Erin Forbush
Erin stated that there are still 45 families at the Days Inn. 2 are scheduled to move in the next month. Erin said that she is seeking landlords who would be interested in housing residents of the shelters. There are some financial incentives that go with housing the migrants in the Days Inn. If folks know of landlords who might be interested, please let Erin know.
With the warmer weather, ServiceNet is seeking to create an outdoor space for folks living in the Days Inn. They have also been developing programs with the library and the schools.
Announcements
The Coop is doing a follow-up event to the housing affordability forum. This will involve Rosa Tobin, who made a presentation at our last meeting. It will concentrate on tenants rights and supports. It will be called Housing 101 and will take place on May 8th at 6:30-7:30 pm via zoom. More information to come.
Rural Development Inc is working with the town of Erving to develop senior and multi-generational housing. There will be a discussion about the project at the Erving Senior Center on April 30th at 6:30 pm