A housing trust fund has been created in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts.
The purpose of the Springfield Housing Trust Fund is to provide a source of money for the development, preservation, rehabilitation, and adaptive reclamation of housing, according to City Councilor Jesse Lederman, lead sponsor of the ordinance that created the fund.
“I think all of us know the challenges our city faces when it comes to housing,” Lederman said. “We often hear about the housing crisis in the Boston area, but we also know individuals here in the city of Springfield need help.”
At a special meeting last Friday, the City Council voted unanimously to pass the ordinance creating the housing trust fund after granting first-step approval at a meeting on March 7th.
Initial funding is expected to come from the city’s share of federal American Rescue Plan Act money. The amount has not been set.
“The creation of this housing trust fund will allow for the City Council, the administration, and community organizations across Springfield to be very intentional in the coming years about setting priorities to address housing and moving forward to actually deliver on some of those priorities,” Lederman said.
Lederman said the first initiative for the housing fund should be a grant program to help low and moderate-income homeowners pay for exterior repairs.
City Councilor Melvin Edwards, a co-sponsor, said the idea for the housing trust fund came from discussions begun a couple of years ago with local housing experts and tenant advocates.
“There are a lot of people who have contributed to motivating us to move this forward,” Edwards said.
The future of Springfield depends on the city having affordable housing, said City Councilor Zaida Govan.
“I always think of the high school graduates that are either going to college or just starting their lives here and they don’t have affordable housing to move into,” Govan said.
In a statement released after final passage of the housing trust fund ordinance, Mayor Domenic Sarno said it will help his administration’s commitment to preserving and rehabilitating the city’s housing stock and eliminating blighted properties.
The fund will be administered by the Springfield Redevelopment Authority.
A committee of residents, housing experts, non-profit organizations, and people from the fields of real estate and finance will serve as advisors to the fund.
