WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The board of the town's Affordable Housing Trust last month agreed to seek legal guidance on an issue it has been batting around for a couple of years.

 

The question is whether Community Preservation Act money can be used to fund a critical repair program for income-qualified homeowners to help them stay in their residences.

 

The CPA, which identifies "community housing" as one of its three favored categories for funding, largely has been used in town to support home purchases by income-qualified first-home buyers and the creation of income-sensitive housing in town, like the apartments in the former St. Raphael's Church at the corner of Cole Avenue and Church Street or the homes that the Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity homes that the trustees have supported.

 

The trust, which has run a successful mortgage assistance program for more than 10 years, also during the COVID-19 pandemic created programs to help assist with mortgage and rental payments in emergencies.

 

But, from time to time, Trustees have discussed finding a way to use some of its funds — which primarily have come from the CPA — to help residents in need make needed repairs to leaky roofs or dilapidated porches in order to stay in their homes.

 

The Trustees have never gotten a definitive answer on whether that's an allowable use of the CPA money, generated locally by a 2 percent surcharge on property taxes (with the first $100,000 of a property's value exempted) and partially supplemented by revenue raised by the commonwealth from fees on transactions at the Registry of Deeds.

 

Guidance on the website of the state's Community Preservation Coalition (a non-profit that supports local Community Preservation Committees) indicates that the repair issue is, to put it mildly, complicated.

 

"It can often be difficult to determine if repairs to existing affordable housing units are an allowable use of CPA funds," the coalition's website reads. "The determining factor is if the work can best be described as ‘preservation,' which is allowable, or 'rehabilitation,' which is generally not allowed. For the project to qualify as 'preservation,' it must protect real property, such as a building, from 'injury, harm or destruction.' Making such a determination can be a challenge."

 

The trust board is particularly interested in the issue this fall as it prepares to submit its annual application for funding to the Community Preservation Committee, the gatekeeper that reviews applications and sends grant requests to the annual town meeting for funding each spring.

 

In recent years, the CPC has approved, essentially, unrestricted grants to the Affordable Housing Trust, relying on the Trustees to appropriate the funds in a timely manner without having to wait until the next town meeting for a new grant.

 

While the funds largely have been unrestricted, the Trustees have made a practice of explaining in their application how funds might be used. And if a critical repair program is a possibility, it likely would be included in the committee's fiscal year 2028 application that will be heard by the CPC this winter.

 

At its Oct. 21 meeting, the AHT board agreed to have member Cheryl Shanks send a letter to the town manager asking that he seek an opinion from town counsel about the applicability of CPA funds for critical repairs.

 

"Critical repairs are not obviously a use of CPA funds," Shanks said at one point. "If we were to [create a program], we may have to look elsewhere for funds, including, possibly, town funds."

 

In other words, such a program could be raised through general taxation if the CPA is not an option. Past iterations of the Affordable Housing Trust board have explored private funding sources like foundations and found that to be an unlikely avenue for the town.

 

In other business at its Oct. 21 meeting, the trust board voted unanimously to approve its most recent grant under the DeMayo Mortgage Assistance Program. The board authorized up to $20,000 to support the purchase of a home in town by a first-time homebuyer who has worked in town for nine years and who has an income below 100 percent of the Area Median Income.

 

"Ultimately, what is happening is this [grant] is what's making the person be able to qualify for the mortgage itself," Daniel Gura explained. "It is what is driving down either the front end or back end equation that will meet the underwriting requirements.

 

"Say someone can afford a $180,000 mortgage at 7 percent, but the sales price is $200,000. A down payment assistance grant like this will take the first mortgage down to $180,000. Now, that person qualifies."

 

The Trustees last month also authorized member Deb Chaulk to work on a guide for the board's operations that can help streamline its activities and orient new members. And it discussed recruitment of a seventh member to fill out its roster. Thomas Sheldon told his colleagues that he has reached out to a potential recruit but does not have an answer from that person about serving on the body.

 

The board began its meeting with an update from a staff member at the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission on a Housing Production Plan the board commissioned from the BRPC.

 

Brett Roberts told the Trustees that he was leaving the Pittsfield-based agency at the end of the month but another staffer would take over the project, which will be moving into its public engagement phase.

 

Roberts said the "bulk" of Williamstown's plan is completed in terms of data gathering. The engagement plan will be a two-phase process involving focus groups from which a townwide survey will be developed, Roberts said.

 

Roberts also informed the Trustees of a Seasonal Communities Grant from the state that was announced the day before the Oct. 21 meeting. Roberts said the grant application written by the BRPC specified the funds will be used to support Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity's planned four-home subdivision off Summer Street.