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Housing office expands municipal workforce housing, seeks Wake Drive design funding
Summary
The town's housing office told the Finance Committee it now manages about 40 employee housing units, has leased more for transient housing, and is requesting capital funds to design and build municipal housing at Wake Drive as a longer-term solution.
Christy (last name not specified), director of the Housing Office, updated the Finance Committee on municipal workforce housing operations and a capital proposal for town-owned housing.
She said the department manages about 40 units used by municipal employees and licenses lease units to employees as the program has grown. That operating line item increased to reflect additional leased units and occasional transient housing placements where the town pays leases without offsetting license payments from occupants.
Christy said the housing office secured a seasonal communities designation under the state Affordable Homes Act and has issued RFPs for development of vacant trust land. She said the office is close to filling a deputy housing director position and has hired a rental property manager to handle the rise in unit count and complexity.
On capital, Christy described a request to fund the design and construction of municipal housing on Wake Drive. She said that owning municipal housing is a long-term strategy intended to reduce the recurring operating expense of leasing units from private homeowners. She did not provide a final construction cost in the meeting; the concept is in the town's capital request list.
The committee asked for confirmation of the current managed-unit count, which Christy gave as 'just about 40' units and said the Wake Drive project is intended to take pressure off leased operating costs over time.
