Affordable Housing Initiatives

Three affordable housing legislative initiatives will come before the April 2, 2001 Special Town Meeting-- STM-6 to establish an Affordable Housing Trust Fund, STM-8 to amend the Land Bank Act to increase the 10% for affordable housing to 35%, and STM-9 to provide for a100% property tax exemption for the value of property deed restricted for affordable housing purposes.

The Affordable Housing Trust Fund would not only capture the 10% of Land Bank proceeds available for affordable housing, but would also expand the list of allowable uses to include the rehabilitation or restoration of existing buildings or construction of new buildings on previously developed sites, and the hiring of an affordable housing specialist.

Deposits into this fund would include 25% of the proceeds generated by the sale of any land acquired by the Town through tax title foreclosure (over $1.1-million is owed the Town by the 89 properties currently in tax title).

Articles STM-7 and ATM-36 then set aside 10% of the Town's Land Bank Funds for FY 2001 and FY 2002-- $25,394 and $26,029, respectively-- for this fund. In order to make the Land Bank Act a more perfect fit for the Town of Provincetown-- which had the highest median sales price in 2000 for any town on Cape Cod-- home rule legislation is proposed to increase affordable housing's share from10% to 35% of Land Bank proceeds, and to deposit them automatically in the Trust Fund.

The amount available for affordable housing would increase from $600,000 and $2-million over the 20-year life of the Land Bank Act. [That petition will also ask the legislature to allow the Town to use Land Banks to maintain all Town-owned open space properties, and not just those purchased with Land Bank funds.]

In pursuit of the Board of Selectmen's FY 2001 Goal "to work towards increasing the percentage of affordable housing units in Provincetown to 10%," a property tax exemption for properties deed restricted for affordable housing purposes is being proposed. The home rule petition would seek a 100% tax exemption for that portion of a property's full and fair assessed value which is deed restricted as affordable housing. Taxes not paid by such properties-- which could reach 6.5% of our total year-round housing stock by next year-- would be shifted to other property taxpayers. Should this petition pass, it will be a measure of our community's commitment to reallocating our financial resources to provide housing that is affordable.