← Boards & Commissions Committee · 2026-03-30 · Boards & Commissions Committee
Reappointment of Joe Viola, 134 Howard Street, Melrose MA to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, for a term of one year, said term set to expire on the last day of January, 2027.
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
D. (ID # 2026-355): Reappointment of Joe Viola, 134 Howard Street, Melrose MA to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, for a term of one year, said term set to expire on the last day of January, 2027. Motion to Recommend made by Councilor Park Seconded by Councilor Vandiver All were in favor and motion passed RESULTS: PASSED [UNANIMOUS] TO: City Council AYES: Cal Finocchiaro, Elizabeth Kowal, Christopher Park, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams, Bradley Freeman NAYS: None Comments and Discussion: Joe Viola shared his experience serving on the housing trust, noting its formation within the past year and their efforts to develop guidelines, applications, and strategies for addressing housing needs in the community. The meeting focused on discussing affordable housing opportunities in Melrose, particularly at the Ripley School site and other locations. The Affordable Housing Trust 3 Fund committee explored options for developing 10-15 affordable units for seniors, with the possibility of using city-owned land or private land through land leases. The committee also discussed the current 80% AMI affordability threshold and considered the potential for deeper affordability levels, while exploring funding sources including free cash allocations and CPA funds for sustainable trust fund capitalization. V. ADJOURNMENT The City of Melrose does not discriminate based on disability and is committed to hosting accessible meetings and events. Individuals with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication, written materials in alternative formats, or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures, in order to access the programs and activities of the City of Melrose or to attend meetings, should contactthe City’s ADA Coordinator, Polina Latta platta@cityofmelrose.org. Motion to Adjourn made by Councilor Vandiver at 7:29 PM Seconded by Councilor Finocchiaro All were in favor and meeting was adjourned 4 Charlie McCabe 14 Orient Avenue Melrose, MA 02176 January 8, 2026 Mayor Jen Grigoraitis City of Melrose Via email Mayor Grigoraitis, I would like to request reappointment to the City of Melrose Conservation Commission. I have served my first three-year term, ha
Transcript
▶ 29:22 Ryan Williams: Second. Okay. Motion to recommend by Councilor Vandiver, seconded by Chris Park. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No one's opposed. That passes. Thank you so much, Ellen- Okay. Yeah ... for coming in. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate your time, as always. Last but not least, ID 2026-355, Reappointment of Joe Viola of 134 Howard Street to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund for a term of one year, said term set to expire on the last day of January 2027. Thank you very much for your time tonight.
▶ 29:53 Speaker 6: Thank you for having me, and I think this is a great idea. Thank you. I'm really happy to come in and have this discussion in person, so- Good. We're happy to have you ... thank you for the invitation.But as you all know, the housing trust was formed within the last year. Mayor Jen was able to bring aboard a diverse number of individuals who've been hard at work over the past year trying to strategize and come up with guidelines and applications, and strategize about housing needs for the community, and things to do to keep the housing trust solvent, ways to grow it and keep it sustainable. And how to get into the community and hear people where they are and understand their thoughts on what it's like to live in the community and maybe tell us their stories about how they came here and... I think of somebody like myself. I came here 20 years ago, and I've watched housing prices increase over the past 20 years. And I'm sure you all have children, and you think about, "Well, how are my kids going to be able to live here?" That's my personal reason for wanting to serve on the trust, is to make sure we're creating opportunities for others to live in this community. So, it's been a great year, and I know our chair, Amy Tierney, has a plan to come before the full council at some point and to give you an update and to let you know what we've been up to. But, again, I'm happy to answer any questions. And just to say, I was thankful for my appointment, and I look forward to continuing to serve. So...
▶ 31:47 Speaker 1: Thank you. President Freeman.
▶ 31:49 Bradley Freeman: Thank you for being here, Joe. One question I wanted to just get your sense on, it's something the housing trust fund is looking at, is a group of us were at the library on Tuesday night. I think you may have been there. Other folks in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund were there to talk about the two sites that are to be developed in Melrose, including the Ripley School. Mm-hmm. And during that conversation, there was obviously a passionate discussion about the need for affordable housing. And just picking back on something that Ellen said earlier about affordable housing for the senior population so that they can remain in Melrose, but it also frees up that housing stock and lets the houses continue to turn over. Mm-hmm. And I was thinking about it in Lynnfield. I'm not sure if you've looked at Essex Village at all, but they have an affordable housing units for seniors there that are subsidized by the city. You have to be a Lynnfield resident, 55 and older. There's a waiting list, and it's a great program. Mm-hmm. And obviously, there's a cost associated with that and also the availability of land. But could Melrose look at doing something small like that at the Ripley location or another location where you can get 10, 15 units in dedicated to seniors at an affordable rate that's either city-owned or privately owned through a land lease? And is that something that the housing trust fund would play a role in?
▶ 33:02 Speaker 6: To answer the first question, I think, yes. Obviously, in order to have a program like that, you need to have the land. When the municipality is looking to dispose of land for affordable housing, you hold a lot of the cards. The second part of that is affordability, and being able to provide subsidy to housing developers to write down the affordability. That's an important part of what a housing trust could do. I don't know the particulars of both sites. We haven't really spent a lot of time. It's maybe not our role. There are other capable planning board and other boards and committees, including the city council, to think about the reuse of those properties. But I think absolutely. I think if there was an opportunity to dispose of town land and to also subsidize a private developer, I think that's something the city could do. I think that would be feasible.
▶ 34:02 Speaker 1: Councillor Park and then Vice Chair Van der Merwe.
▶ 34:05 Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you for your service so far.
▶ 34:09 Christopher Park: And I had a question about the actual term of affordable housing. A lot of my constituents have often voiced their support for what Affordable Housing Trust does and what its intent is. Mm-hmm. But the actual definition, a lot of people are surprised that, as I understand, it is available to households earning 80% or less of the AMI, Boston Area Median Income. And that's still, as we all know, Boston and the surrounding areas is very high in terms of level of income. Mm-hmm. What are your thoughts on the actual definition, and do you agree with it as its current standing, or do you think it needs to be revised as something a little bit more reasonable for other residents looking to get into affordable housing?
▶ 34:59 Speaker 6: Yeah, I think what you're saying about 80% AMI, that's a general standard lots of municipalities try to meet in order to have housing units counted on the subsidized housing inventory when they're created. But I also have seen other municipalities-- If you can bring resources to bear, if you have a housing trust and you have money you can put into a project, you're able to sometimes negotiate even deeper affordability than an 80% AMI. While the 80% AMI is an important threshold, and ideally you get a long-term deed restricted unit out of the use of your housing trust funds, but if we're able to potentially subsidize other affordable housing development through private developers, I think the housing trust could help write down and provide even greater affordability for folks at the 60% AMI level, even deeper than that. But-Sometimes it comes down to zoning, and it also comes down to your ability to negotiate with local controlled resources. So, hopefully that answers your question.
▶ 36:25 Speaker 2: So you wish it could be lower?
▶ 36:27 Speaker 6: I think there's a need. I don't think it would surprise anybody that the supply doesn't meet the demand in Greater Boston, Melrose, and every other town in Greater Boston. And, there are a lot of people who would love to live in the community that they work in, but for some reason can't afford to live here because even an 80% AMI unit might be out of their reach. I've always been an advocate for trying to provide affordable units across a range of incomes, and I think that's a laudable, noble goal for a community.
▶ 37:03 Speaker 2: Thank you.
▶ 37:06 Speaker 1: Vice Chair Vandiver.
▶ 37:07 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. I was interested in the letter you wrote us. You mentioned that you've approved a funding request for three units at 87 West Wyoming Avenue, and I was wondering if you could help us understand. I'm just curious, what does that mean specifically? Does that mean that those are now subsidized units, or?
▶ 37:28 Speaker 6: I missed the first part of that question. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry about that.
▶ 37:32 Kimberly Vandiver: So I believe that you recently approved a funding request for three units at 87 West Wyoming Avenue. Right. Okay. I'm sorry. Yep. And, just curious what that entails. Does that now mean that those are available to rent at an 80% AMI, or what were the particulars of that?
▶ 37:52 Speaker 6: So, right. Housing trust funds in this case were able to leverage funds from the North-- I can't remember the name of the consortium. The North Suburban Consortium, they control other federal funds. The inclusion of housing trusts help leverage that funding, which in turn allows the Melrose Affordable Housing Corporation to make those units available to their long-term deed restricted units. From my perspective, it's a great use of the funding because it allows the housing corporation to provide those units, for long-term affordability. Another important use of trust funds is absolutely to leverage. The whole subsidized affordable housing structure is a lot about using your resources to leverage state or federal resources. So, I think having a trust that helps attract those other resources, such as Melrose Housing Corporation was able to do, it's an opportunity that we might not have otherwise had if there wasn't a housing trust. I hope that answers the question.
▶ 39:18 Kimberly Vandiver: That's really helpful, and I hadn't realized that. I know that we are able to take money into the trust and spend our own money, but I hadn't realized that dynamic of being able to leverage other funding once you have a housing trust. So that's really helpful. Thank you. Sure.
▶ 39:36 Speaker 1: Councilor Finocchiaro.
▶ 39:37 Speaker 3: This might be a dumb question, but I like asking dumb questions. How do you secure your funding for the trust?
▶ 39:43 Speaker 6: How's the capitalize? So free cash allocation- Mm-hmm ... from city council. Yep. Payments in lieu for developments may have provided the units on site, instead of providing the unit, the funds would go into the housing trust. Okay. And other municipalities. And I heard the discussion earlier about CPA. That's another possibility. Mm-hmm. As you all have probably discussed at the council, if the CPA was something that was passed locally, it would- Mm-hmm ... 10% of that, a minimum of 10% would have to be used for affordable housing, potentially capitalize the trust fund. Okay.
▶ 40:30 Cal Finocchiaro: So are you exploring- Yep ... new ways to obtain a cash flow for the fund, or?
▶ 40:38 Speaker 6: I think we see our role as to advocate. Obviously, there are a lot of need for city funding. Mm-hmm. And when there's free cash available- Yeah ... advocating for an allocation of the housing trust if it's possible. I know it- Mm-hmm ... isn't always. Mm-hmm. We're sort of tracking what's going on with the state level, with the real estate transfer tax. Mm-hmm. More communities are having discussions about how that could be used to capitalize local housing programs. Mm-hmm. But I think the no-brainer in, is CPA, just for the variety of projects- Mm-hmm ... it would be able to fund your historic preservation, your open space and parks, and affordable housing. Mm-hmm. So that would be, I think, something a lot of us on the committee feel like that's something we should advocate for- Yeah ... as a housing trust.
▶ 41:40 Cal Finocchiaro: Yeah. I didn't mean to put you on the spot. I know- No, it's okay ... I do remember when we created this, there was a free cash allocation. Just didn't know if there was a steady income source or something that you were looking at, specifically, but you answered my question, so
▶ 41:55 Speaker 6: Yeah. I would finish by saying sustainability. I happen to be having this conversation with a colleague today who's on a housing trust in his community. Mm-hmm. And his same comment to me was, "Well, if we don't have this way to keep the fund sustainable, what are we doing here?" So, now that it's created, now that we have a committee, and we have guidelines, and an application in place, and there seems to be some local support and acknowledgement that it's tough to move into this community and buy a house and create a life here these days. Hopefully, there's the political support to support something like the CPA.
▶ 42:38 Speaker 3: Thank you.
▶ 42:42 Speaker 2: Motion to recommend?
▶ 42:44 Ryan Williams: Second. Motion to recommend by Councilor Park, seconded by Vice Chair Vandiver. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. So that passes. Thanks very much for your time. Again, really great to have you here, and appreciate the conversation very much.