Posted on June 30, 2014
DEVENS, June 30, 2014 --- The Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) recently recognized a municipal employee from Yarmouth and the Town of Amherst with Housing Hero Awards for their outstanding efforts to increase the supply of affordable housing in their communities.
Mary Waygan, administrative assistant in the Town of Yarmouth's Community Development office, received a Housing Hero Award for monitoring the use of town housing funds, managing a buy-down 
program, helping residents find affordable homes and overseeing a program that encourages motels to create permanent units.
The Town of Amherst was recognized for its ongoing efforts to preserve and increase its affordable housing supply in a market where the presence of college students puts constant pressure on the town's affordable housing supply. Amherst has maintained an affordable housing supply of over 10 percent since 1988. At its recent spring town meeting, the town voted to expand its supplemental housing bylaw to allow smaller units, voted to establish an affordable housing trust and OK'd by a near-unanimous vote appropriate $1.25 million in CPA funds to preserve 41 units in Rolling Green, a 202-unit expiring use rental apartment building.
The awards were presented by the Patrick Administration Undersecretary for Housing, Aaron Gornstein, on June 11 at an awards luncheon on the first day of MHP's eighth annual Housing Institute, a two-day training for local officials. This is the fourth year MHP has presented Housing Hero Awards at its Housing Institute.
MHP is a quasi-public state organization that uses bank funds to support and finance the development of affordable housing. Often times, MHP’s works with communities to help them figure out how to use public and private resources to increase their supply of affordable housing or to help them determine whether a surplus public property or land is suitable for housing development.
“At MHP, we could not do what we do without dedicated local people like Yarmouth's Mary Waygan and the elected officials, municipal officials and volunteers in Amherst who work hard every day to maintain and grow their supply of affordable housing,” said Susan Connelly, MHP’s Director of Community Housing Initiatives.
To nominate a Housing Hero for 2015 and to find out more about next year's Housing Institute, contact MHP's Carsten Snow at csnow@mhp.net.