Residents concerned about low-income units
By Priscilla Miller
Monadnock Ledger-Transcript Staff
Original Publication Date: Thursday, November 16, 2006
JAFFREY Plans to renovate the downtown Cheshire Jaffrey Mills for a 30-unit affordable-housing project have some residents worried. State Representative Stephen Pelkey brought some citizen concerns to the Planning Board Tuesday night.
Pelkey said several residents contacted him with concerns about low-income housing coming to downtown Jaffrey. He said he was a looking for a definition of “low-income housing.”
“Are we now going to become a magnet for overflow Section 8 housing from Manchester and Lowell?” Pelkey asked.
The Planning Board granted approval for the project in February. The makeover of the building, located just west of the Contoocook River, is to begin in January and is expected to be complete approximately a year from now.
Mill developers Chris Davies and Bill Caseldon, principals from Great Bridge Properties of Manchester, went before the Planning Board on Tuesday with a request to separate the west building from the east building through a subdivision and condominium agreement. That would allow the housing project to move forward.
The Planning Board OKed the two-lot subdivision and the technical subdivision to separate the east and west buildings into two condominium units.
Attorney Tom Hanna, representing Great Bridge, said the financing of the housing project dictates the need for a subdivision. He said the two-story east building is not part of the housing project.
Subdividing and “condo-ing the structure into two units,” Hanna said, is the solution to getting the east building off the housing project mortgage. “The individual apartment units would not be condominium units,” he said.
Davies said the east building has Planning Board approval to be used as commercial space.
Caseldon said the project is not Section 8 housing. He said it is for low- to moderate-income households.
He said a household of three people earning 60 percent of the area median income upon move-in would be eligible for the reduced rents Great Bridge is planning to offer.
He said it’s not subsidized housing.
The median household income for Cheshire County is $42,382, according to Jaffrey Economic Director Brandon Gray.
Caseldon also said Great Bridge sells the affordable housing tax credits to institutional buyers, which allows them to set and keep lower rents.
Davies said the tax credit program is wonderful for communities. He said it helps them save old mills and provide first-class housing to people who don’t make big salaries.
Caseldon said they hire a management company to screen tenants and would employ a coordinator to monitor the building.
On Wednesday, Davies further clarified the difference between Section 8 housing and the affordable housing project Great Bridge is trying to do in Jaffrey.
“In Section 8 housing, there is a subsidy to help the tenant pay the rent.” He said the subsidy, or voucher, comes from a state, local or federal housing authority. “We don’t have that,” said Davies. “It’s all private pay.”
He said Great Bridge would not turn away a tenant who had a voucher to help pay their rent, but they have no vouchers to offer.