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Photo Mary Ann Bragg
Truro resident Susan Kadar wants the five Outer Cape towns to petition legislators for relief from income eligibility limits for affordable housing. |
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Higher ‘affordable’ income sought
By Mary Ann Bragg
Banner Staff
TRURO — Susan Kadar wants the five Outer Cape towns to work together to create more housing for working people.
Her mission these days, with many facts and figures rumbling around in her head, is to make her case in front of each of the five boards of selectmen in the coming weeks.
Her goal is to expand, for the Outer Cape specifically, the definition in state law of wage earners who qualify for “affordable housing” from 80 percent of area median income to 120 percent.
More job holders in the mid-range of incomes could then find year-round homes in the towns where they work, Kadar says.
For the Barnstable area in fiscal year 2006, according to federal figures, the median family income is $66,800, and a two-person family with an annual income of $45,900 would qualify for what the state now certifies as affordable housing.
“When I talked with the principal of our school, Truro Central School, I asked, ‘Are all of our teachers and support personnel able to live in Truro?’ And the answer was, absolutely, no,” Kadar said.
Kadar is Truro’s representative to the Cape Cod Commission. She is on the Truro Housing Authority and on the board of the Lower Cape Cod Community Development Corporation. She’s also Truro’s town moderator. She has written about her ideas to all five selectmen boards, and wants all the towns to help petition state legislators for the change.
“Of the Truro police force, only six live in Truro, and those are the most senior members,” Kadar says. “And every time there is a change [in staff], the number is lowered because people simply cannot afford to live here.”
Of the five Outer Cape towns, Truro has the steepest hill to climb in creating housing for workers and their families. In a state program that certifies low-income housing (at 80 percent of median income and lower), less than one percent of Truro’s year-round residences fall in that category. Eastham is next lowest, with 2.3 percent. Wellfleet is at 2.7 percent, Provincetown 6.3 percent, and Orleans 8.9 percent.
Kadar would like housing for incomes between 80 to 120 percent median income to be counted on the state’s certification list as well, and she’s suggesting that towns need to come up with innovative ways to encourage home owners to offer housing for those income levels.
So far, a response to Kadar’s proposal has come only from the Provincetown selectmen who agree generally about the need to discuss housing regionally but want to up the ante. The Provincetown board would like to see the amount go up as high as 150 percent of the median and still be counted toward community housing goals.
Orleans Board of Selectmen chair Margie Fulcher says that she has seen Kadar’s letter but her board hasn’t yet talked about it. “I think she’s on the right track,” Fulcher said. “Of all the towns, we’re the closest to reaching 10 percent. But I kind of look at that percentage as, at one time, it was all right but I think we’re beyond that time now.”
mabragg@provincetownbanner.com
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Farewell, Stanley
In the News
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May 18th, 2006