Affordable Housing Commission Looks To Fight Misinformation

The town’s small Affordable Housing Commission took its act on the road Monday, with a presentation before seniors at Swift Community Center. It was, more than anything, an opportunity to fine-tune their message before facing possibly more challenging audiences.

“Please, stand up, talk to your neighbors, attend a meeting if you can. Be part of the solution to help us get more affordable housing,” AHC member Bill Daly urged audience members.

Affordable housing units are in short supply in East Greenwich, which is required by state law to have at least 10 percent of its housing stock be “affordable” by 2015. East Greenwich has 4 percent. An affordable housing unit is that for which the price is set so that it would be affordable for someone with an income between 80 and 120 percent of the median for Kent County.

Affordable housing is not subsidized housing - Section 8, for instance - but the difference can be difficult to explain and the specter of affordable housing can prompt homeowners to rally against it when it threatens to come too close.

In East Greenwich recently, the issue arose most dramatically last March, when about 20 residents of Stone Ridge attended a Planning Board meeting to express their opposition to having an eight-house extension on Granite Drive include two “affordable” units.

By town charter, any development of six or more residences needs to include 20 percent affordable housing, in an effort to meet state requirements.

Despite pressure from the homeowners, the Planning Board told the developer that permission to build the houses was contingent on two of them being affordable.

According to the statute, affordable housing units must look like the other units around it. To save money, the developer could reduce the overall size of the residence by a small percentage. In addition, it could eliminate high-end amenities, such as granite counter tops.

What town officials and commission members fear is that a developer could propose to build a large affordable housing complex just about anywhere in town and the town would have a very difficult time stopping it if it remains not in compliance.

“Eventually, we’re going to run out of time and you have some developer come in and want to plunk down an apartment complex in the middle of Stone Ridge and they’re going to be able to do it. They’re going to say, 'East Greenwich, you didn’t do your job,’” said Daly. “What we’re trying to do is to encourage it to happen naturally.”

While some audience members were in favor of affordable housing, they weren’t sure that even “affordable” in East Greenwich was really all that affordable. Arthur Watson of Potowomut said he’d looked at the Cottages on Greene development, but then heard the affordable unit’s price was $239,000.

“That’s a lot of money,” Watson said. “I walked away.”

Rosemary Kelly of East Greenwich said she didn’t think most of the people in the audience had the sort of yearly income commission members said would be needed to qualify for an affordable unit - about $58,000.

But both Kelly and Watson balked at the idea that people who qualify for affordable housing were in any way less inclined to keep up their residences - an argument heard from some of the Stone Ridge residents in March.

“That’s a form of prejudice, that’s bigotry,” said Watson.

“I think if folks go out and buy a house, I think they’re proud of the fact that they’ve bought a house and they’re going to do their darnedest to keep it up,” Kelly said.

The Affordable Housing Commission plans to talk to other community groups, such as the Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce, in coming months. Their new brochure is attached here as a pdf.