For the past year, we have been honored to work with a diverse and very knowledgeable group of citizens on the Greenfield Affordable Housing Project Task Force (GAHP). This task force was created in 2018 by then-Council President Rudy Renaud, in response to a communitywide meeting on homelessness. The group’s task was to research best practices for addressing Greenfield’s need to increase the stock of affordable housing. In November, we finished our year-long effort and officially reported to the new council in January.
When we first began a year ago, we expected we would be spending our monthly meetings walking around town, identifying empty homes and buildings ideal for renovation. We expected our report would say something like “Council should consider this lot on Federal Street or this building near downtown as a prime property for transformation into affordable housing.” Not so!
It turns out that MJ Adams and the Economic Development office, and Building Inspector Mark Snow already have a working list of vacant buildings. That list was improved further over the summer thanks to the legwork of a summer intern in the mayor’s office. Likewise, our planning and zoning boards, several members of council, and our new mayor (herself a planning board veteran) are more well-versed on ordinances than any committee could expect to become in a year of monthly meetings.
So, while it feels a bit of a let-down, what we heard from nearly every expert we consulted, and the gist of the Greenfield Affordable Housing Project Task Force report given to the council in January, is this: What is missing in Greenfield is housing advocacy. Nearby cities, Amherst and Northampton, have long had housing partnerships … citizen-led, mayor-appointed, standing committees comprised of those representing the interests of people with low and moderate incomes; the housing and real estate industry; social service agencies; legal experts; bankers; members of the faith community; planning/zoning board members. This group advocates solely for housing and homeless issues. It assists in the development of low- and moderate-income housing stock; weighs in on block grant funds; supports zoning and planning board initiatives; promotes early intervention in homelessness; can function as the liaison with the community over thorny issues.
Councilor Otis Wheeler served on the Greenfield Affordable Housing Project Task Force last year, and now he and Councilor Tim Dolan are presenting zoning changes that support the goals of the Greenfield Affordable Housing Project Task Force report, FRCOG’s Greenfield Housing Study, and the 2014 Sustainable Greenfield Master Plan. Mayor Wedegartner, who attended several of our Task Force meetings as a candidate, is on board to appoint Greenfield’s first housing partnership later this spring. We encourage these efforts and feel strongly that they support the goal of increasing the affordability of housing in Greenfield.
You can find our full Greenfield Affordable Housing Project Task Force report on Councilor Dolan’s website https://timdolan.net/
Amy Clarke and Mike Penn-Strah are co-chairs of the Greenfield Affordable Housing Project Task Force.