Selectmen Approve Housing Authority's Request to Reprogram Funds

The Board of Selectmen approved the Housing Authority's request to reprogram a total of $828,704.24 from four separate funds.

The board reprogrammed $143,429.95 from the fiscal year 2010 Homebuyer Assistance Program, $397,423.50 from the fiscal year 2012 Affordable Housing Pool, $224,423.50 from the fiscal year 2013 Affordable Housing Development Pool and $62,976.79 from the fiscal year 2013 Homebuyer Assistance Program.

Housing Authority Development Manager Fran Price told the board the loss of these funds from the general funds might affect other projects.

“I think we are all concerned with the ongoing reduction in Federal funds,” Price said. “We had a forty percent cut last year. If they made the same cut, they would have to eliminate the program. We are expecting only a five percent cut this year. But it’s very little and it’s harder to use.”

The project is moving forward. The housing will be set-aside for people earning less than 60 percent of the area median and in some case, lower tiers. The building would house eight one-bedroom units, 20 two-bedroom units, and four three-bedroom units.

“These projects move slow, but the pace is accelerating,” Brookline Housing Authority Chair Patrick Dober said. “Next week, we’re going out with the advertising for pre-qualifications for construction managers. That is the first step of the public procurement of a construction team.”

The Housing Authority is finalizing the details for construction so that they can build a high quality structure, which was approved by the town within budgetary constraints. 

“It’s a very challenging process, but we are making progress towards that goal,” Dober said. Dober said that the state would provide the majority of the funding through subordinate debt funds and tax credits. The state has made this support public.

Selectmen Dick Benka called the 86 Dummer Street project “one of the more exciting affordable housing efforts this town has undertaken in recent memory if not in it’s history.”

In 2010, the Brookline Board of Selectmen had committed $1.7 million to the 86 Dummer Street project, the largest form of affordable housing in Brookline in over thirty years.