Address the housing crisis
Ten years ago, we lost a big piece of our town.
The Spruces flooded, damaging many of the dwellings there. In exchange for effectively condemning the property we took six million dollars from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and 335 of our own people lost their homes. We promised to replace them, but we never did. Ten years later, fewer than ten of them live in Williamstown. Over that same period, Williams College has expanded, torn down whole neighborhoods, and the second homes market has brought floods of cash from out of town buyers that has bid housing prices up out of the reach of our working families. We have implemented several successful developer driven multiunit housing projects that provide affordable rental housing for some, but at the cost of draining public financing in the form of perpetual subsidies.
A huge piece is missing: Owner occupied, owner financed homes that contribute to the tax base, encourage a stable population that builds strong neighborhoods, strong relationships and provides pride of place. I will propose three specific new approaches to affordable home ownership that have worked in other towns and enabled people with limited incomes to buy or retain ownership in an inflationary market that threatens to price them out of their homes. We have not explored these ideas. If I am elected to the Planning Board on May 11, we will.
Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) incentivized with property tax abatement. Empower homeowners to build a rental accessory dwelling unit, creating affordable housing and providing economic security for homeowners.
Housing buydown. Enable town agencies to support local residents that are priced out of homeownership, by bridging the gap between market rate and affordability.
Owner-occupied subdivision. Learn from residents of Aspen, Colorado who created an highly successful and affordable housing subdivision, Aspen Village, after skyrocketing housing costs pushed them out of their homes.
For a more in depth look at at these three affordable home ownership models you can watch this video of a presentation I made for the Greylock Together group.
There is no single silver bullet to solve the housing crisis here in Williamstown. But by making good use of a variety of strategies that work in tandem, I know we can keep our beautiful town, and its good people while welcoming new arrivals with limited means. And that will safeguard the diversity of our community. For these reasons, I ask for your vote on May 11.