AMHERST — A vacant former school building on East Street could be an ideal site for an affordable housing project, based on a consultant’s report that will guide the Amherst Municipal Housing Trust over the next five years.
The idea of transferring the East Street School from town ownership to the trust, possibly for use as a single-room occupancy site that would provide apartments for individuals transitioning from homelessness, is among ideas embedded in the Housing Trust Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2018 to 2022, a 30-page document provided to the Select Board last week.
Prepared by Jennifer Goldson of JM Goldson community preservation + planning of Boston, ideas outlined for the first two years include adopting a municipal property disposition policy and working with town officials to acquire at least one town-owned property. Then, for the later years, ideas include fostering development of a second town-owned property, working with housing agencies in Amherst and exploring new or expanding housing assistance programs.
Select Board Chairman Douglas Slaughter, who serves on the trust, said the report includes aspects of ensuring shelter and housing for people of all income levels.
He added that the report will help the trust to move forward on “actionable items.”
The report specifically cites the 2.3-acre East Street site with the 1893 building that remained an elementary school until 1973, but has been used infrequently over the past 44 years. Some renovations were done to enhance the building for possible occupancy by the Leisure Services and Supplemental Education department, but those plans were later abandoned.
“A developer wants a predictable path to site control and offering public land for affordable housing development provides a substantial subsidy to help make such development feasible,” Goldson writes.
In a memo to the Select Board, John Hornik, chairman of the trust, wrote that the strategic plan will help prioritize work. The priority is to expand affordable housing, with the trust acting to support and encourage developers.
Hornik notes that the town exceeds the state-mandated 10 percent set-aside on the Subsidized Housing Inventory, but “the trust does not recognize this as the last word on the need for affordable housing in Amherst.”
Long term, Goldson calls on the trust to expand housing assistance programs.
“These programs could provide assistance with rental costs, including a rent-to-own program, or home-buying costs.”
The trust, Hornik wrote, already has proposed that the town develop an outreach program to assist individuals and families on the edge of homelessness, which would be similar to programs that prevent evictions already in place in Northampton.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.