To the editor:

Dear members of the Committee on Appropriations, this letter is to echo and support Town Council President Mike Carroll’s letter of May 4, 2021 regarding funding of a capital reserve account to promote affordable housing in the amount of $500,000 as approved by the Town Council. As President Carroll eloquently demonstrated there are many good reasons to support this appropriation. The Housing Board of Trustees wants to emphasize the following ones:

• Barrington needs affordable housing. Less than 3 percent of housing units in town are affordable, well below the statewide requirement of 10 percent.

• Affordable homes in town have been disappearing for years. The current spike in housing prices only exacerbates that trend. Once a more modest home is torn down and replaced with a more expensive one it cannot be made affordable even with down payment assistance.

• Increased affordable housing will result in increased diversity in Barrington.

• Many people who work in town cannot afford to live in Barrington. A community is stronger and more cohesive when the people who work in it can also live there.

• The appropriation is modest and not ongoing. A one-time investment of $31 per capita represents a very reasonable request. If we truly believe in affordable housing and greater diversity, we need to support those goals financially.

• The 2021 budget year offers an opportunity to establish an Affordable Housing Fund without a meaningful tax increase.

• The appropriation is structured to allow the Town Council and Housing Board of Trustees to be flexible in how it uses the funds to promote affordable housing in response to market conditions. We currently have two models, the Sokoloff Plan and the Down Payment Assistance Program which launched in April.

For these reasons as well as those elaborated on in greater detail by President Carroll, we strongly encourage you to adopt the Town Council’s budget including the funding for the Affordable Housing Fund.

Thank you for your consideration and your service to Barrington.

Regards,

Chris Brady, Carla DeStefano, John Fitta, Roni Phipps, Shayla Simmons, Laura Turner, Benjamin Reiss, Pamela Lauria, Thomas Peck

The Barrington Housing Board of Trustees