Funds will be aimed at furthering work, support for municipal housing trusts
Posted on March 4, 2016
FRAMINGHAM, March 4, 2016 --- The Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) announced today that it has been awarded a three-year grant to support municipal affordable housing trusts.
The award is being made by the Kuehn Charitable Foundation. Created by housing developer Bob Kuehn, the foundation supports affordable housing and historic and open space preservation. Kuehn died in 2006 and left the majority of his estate to his foundation.
Kuehn had a lifetime interest in transforming historic buildings into mixed-income housing and helped lead the effort to pass the Community Preservation Act (CPA) into law in 2000. Now adopted by over 150 communities, CPA funds are a major local funding source of municipal housing trusts.
MHP will use the three-year grant to support a staff person and other efforts that will promote efforts and best practices of municipal affordable housing trusts.
MHP made the announcement today in Framingham before 80 municipal employees and volunteers attending a workshop on how to use CPA funds for affordable housing.
“This grant will help us increase our efforts to help communities set up and operate trusts to their fullest potential,” said Susan Connelly, director of community assistance at MHP. “We would like to thank the Kuehn Foundation for helping us continue the important work of helping communities address their affordable housing needs.”
Although the concept of local housing trusts is not new, more communities have formed their own trusts since 2005 when a state law was passed allowing towns to adopt trusts through their local legislative body rather than having to gain approval from the legislature through an often time-consuming home rule petition. Since 2005, the number of communities with local housing trusts has grown to over 100.
Since 2005, MHP’s work with municipal trusts has increased. MHP’s community assistance team has worked directly with communities and has also provided statewide trainings and has published two trust guidebooks. MHP has this void because there is no organization that provides trusts with advocacy, training and technical assistance, unlike the CPA’s Community Preservation Coalition.
For more information, contact MHP Director of Public Affairs Ruston Lodi at rlodi@mhp.net or 617-330-9944 x227.