Westport Board of Selectmen Seeks Candidates for Affordable Housing Trust, Announces Public Forum

Submitted by Betty Slade

Thursday, December 31, 2009

 

Westport - The Westport Board of Selectmen invites qualified residents to apply to become Trustees for the new five member board of Trustees for the Westport Affordable Housing Trust established at the Town Meeting in May 2009.  People who have expertise in housing issues, real estate development and relevant law, or banking and finance, as well as representatives of the Town’s housing authority and other housing related bodies are encouraged to apply. Interested applicants might wish to consult the Town website at: www.westport-ma.com and go to Community Preservation Committee (under Departments) and click on “Municipal Affordable Housing Trust.”   Applications should be sent to the Board of Selectmen, Town Hall, 816 Main Road, Westport, Ma. 02790.

 

People who are interested in becoming a Trustee, as well as the general public, are invited to learn about affordable housing trusts at the upcoming informational public forum that will be held on January 14, 6-7:30 PM at the Town Hall. Sponsored by the Board of Selectmen and the Community Preservation Committee (CPC), the workshop will be held in the Selectmen’s Office and will be conducted by Jennifer Goldson, an expert in Affordable Housing Trusts. The workshop will introduce Affordable Housing Trusts, what they are and how they work and how they are financed.  This meeting will be videotaped for Channel 15.   

 

Affordable Housing Trusts are relatively new in Massachusetts, and are a new mechanism established by the legislature to help communities create and preserve affordable housing. Approximately 30 communities across the state have already established their Affordable Housing Trusts, under the provisions of Mass General Law c 44 S.55C.

 

This Trust allows Westport to collect funds for affordable housing, segregate them out of the general municipal budget into a trust fund, and use the funds for local initiatives to create and preserve affordable housing.  Financing for the trust includes Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds, inclusionary zoning payments by developers, negotiated developer fees, the town’s general fund, and private donations. Many CPA communities appropriate CPA funds to the local housing trust to meet or exceed the 10 percent minimum annual expenditure for community housing required by the CPA statute. CPA funds therefore constitute the vast majority of funds in most Massachusetts CPA communities. 

 

The Board of Trustees under Westport’s bylaw has seventeen specified powers to meet its goals.  But the first goal, in cooperation with other town bodies, and public input, would be create a vision of what the Trust hopes to accomplish – to provide a road map. The Board of Selectmen has received funds from the CPC to hire Ms. Goldson who will aid them through this process while providing education to the public.

 

Article 29 - Town Meeting Warrant May 2009

 

To see if the Town will vote to accept the provisions of G.L. c. 44, s. 55C, establishing a trust to be known as the Westport Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and authorize the Board of Selectmen or Board of Trustees of said Trust to execute any documents or instruments or take any other action necessary to carry out the purposes of this article; and further to amend the General By-laws of the Town by inserting a new Article, Article LVI, to be entitled “Westport Affordable Housing Trust Fund” as follows, or take any other action relative thereto: Article LVI

 

Westport Affordable Housing Trust Fund

 

5601. The purpose of the Westport Affordable Housing Trust Fund (the “Trust”) shall be to provide for the creation and preservation of affordable housing in the Town for the benefit of low and moderate-income households.

 

A.    There shall be a Board of Trustees for the Trust, comprised of five members, at least one of whom shall be a Selectman. The Board of Selectmen shall appoint the Board of Trustees for rotating terms not to exceed two years. Vacancies shall be filled by the Board of Selectmen for the remainder of the unexpired term. Any member of the Board of Trustees may be removed for cause after the opportunity for a hearing.

 

B.    The powers of the Board of Trustees, all of which shall be carried on in furtherance of the purposes set forth in G.L. c. 44, §55C, shall include the following:

 

  1. To accept and receive real property, personal property or money, by gift, grant, contribution, devise or transfer from any person, firm, corporation or other public or private entity, including but not limited to money, grants of funds or other property tendered to the trust in connection with any ordinance or by-law or any general or special law or any other source, including money from chapter 44B;

 

  1. To purchase and retain real or personal property, including without restriction investments that yield a high rate of income or no income;

 

  1. To sell, lease, exchange, transfer or convey any personal, mixed, or real property at public auction or by private contract for such consideration and on such terms as to credit or otherwise, and to make such contracts and enter into such undertaking relative to trust property as the board deems advisable notwithstanding the length of any such lease or contract;

 

  1. To execute, acknowledge and deliver deeds, assignments, transfers, pledges, leases, covenants, contracts, promissory notes, releases and other instruments sealed or unsealed, necessary, proper or incident to any transaction in which the board engages for the accomplishment of the purposes of the trust;

 

  1. To employ advisors and agents, such as accountants, appraisers and lawyers as the board deems necessary;

 

  1. To pay reasonable compensation and expenses to all advisors and agents and to apportion such compensation between income and principal as the board deems advisable;

 

  1. To apportion receipts and charges between incomes and principal as the board deems advisable, to amortize premiums and establish sinking funds for such purpose, and to create reserves for depreciation depletion or otherwise;

 

  1. To participate in any reorganization, re-capitalization, merger or similar transactions; and to give proxies or powers of attorney with or without power of substitution to vote any securities or certificates of interest; and to consent to any contract, lease, mortgage, purchase or sale of property, by or between any corporation and any other corporation or person;

 

  1. To deposit any security with any protective reorganization committee, and to delegate to such committee such powers and authority with relation thereto as the board may deem proper and to pay, out of trust property, such portion of expenses and compensation of such committee as the board may deem necessary and appropriate;

 

  1. To carry property for accounting purposes other than acquisition date values;

 

  1. To borrow money on such terms and conditions and from such sources as the board deems advisable, to mortgage and pledge trust assets as collateral;

 

  1. To make distributions or divisions of principal in kind;

 

  1. To comprise, attribute, defend, enforce, release, settle or otherwise adjust claims in favor or against the trust, including claims for taxes, and to accept any property, either in total or partial satisfaction of any indebtedness or other obligation, and subject to the provisions of this act, to continue to hold the same for such period of time as the board may deem appropriate;

 

  1. To manage or improve real property; and to abandon any property which the board determined not to be worth retaining;

 

  1. To hold all or part of the trust property uninvested for such purposes and for such time as the board may deem appropriate; and

 

  1. To extend the time for payment of any obligation to the trust.

 

  1. To adopt any regulations the Board of Trustees may deem necessary to conduct the business of the Board and to administer the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

 

C.    The Board of Trustees shall provide for an annual audit of the books and records of the Trust. Such audit shall be performed by an independent auditor in accordance with accepted accounting practices. Upon receipt of the audit by the Board of Trustees, a copy shall be provided forthwith to the Board of Selectmen.

 

D.    In accordance with G.L. c.44, §55C, all moneys paid to the Trust in accordance with any Zoning or General By-Law, exaction fee, or private contributions shall be paid directly into the Trust and need not be appropriated or accepted and approved into the Trust. Funds appropriated into the Trust by the Town shall become Trust property, and to be expended these funds need not be further appropriated. All moneys remaining in the Trust at the end of any fiscal year, whether or not expended by the Trustees within 1 year of the date they were appropriated into the Trust, remain Trust property.

 

Planning Board

 

Motion and second to accept the provisions of Article 29. Voted: The Moderator declared Article 29 carried by a 2/3 vote. A bylaw establishing the Westport Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

 

 

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