10 New Affordable Family Housing Units Available in Sudbury

The Sudbury Housing Authority announced at a meeting at Musketahquid Village last Tuesday that 10 new affordable housing units would soon be available for families in town.

The authority, which owns, maintains, and manages a number of rental properties for low-income residents, plans to begin advertising the availability of the new units to those eligible in early July via the local media.

“Families are the greatest need in Sudbury,” said Sudbury Housing Authority Executive Director Jo-Ann Howe. “We’ve been trying to do this for 20 years.”

Those chosen as recipients of the units, which are located in five new modular houses in various parts of town, will be able to move in by Dec. 1.

On another successful note for the Authority, Howe will be presented with a Massachusetts Local Housing Hero award by the Massachusetts Housing Partnership later this week for her years of effort in championing affordable housing in Sudbury.

As a letter from the partnership explained, “the award goes to people nominated state-wide who have demonstrated great passion and tenacity in supporting affordable housing.”

However, not all news was good at Tuesday’s meeting, as members of the Authority discussed the possible impacts for local organizations such as theirs of regulation shifts that are currently under consideration by the state legislature.

In the wake of a scandal in Chelsea in which a housing authority director received a large salary package, the Governor’s Commission on Public Housing Sustainability and Reform was convened to propose changes. But to the dismay of many smaller authorities, like the one in Sudbury, rather than dealing with corruption among their larger counterparts, the proposed reforms call for increased centralization of oversight – in essence consolidating today’s small independent housing authorities into larger ones.

“It isn’t responding to an existing problem on the ground,” said member Steve Swanger. “They’re not really looking at what the issues are.”

Howe concurred, explaining that many successful housing projects would not be possible without strong local advocacy.

“There’s a real advantage to having decisions made locally,” she said.

The new regulations could be passed by as early as the end of this month, before the state legislature breaks for the summer.