By Patrick Adrian
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CLAREMONT — City councilors were mixed in opinion about the plan to designate Section 8 housing vouchers to 10 apartment units in the new Goddard Block building.
The council held an informational discussion on Wednesday to learn about the agreement between the Claremont Housing Authority, a local public housing agency, and Kevin Lacasse, owner of the Goddard Block, to transfer 10 of the housing authority’s annually allotted housing vouchers to the Pleasant Street structure in the form of “project vouchers.”
Section 8 vouchers are subsidies that assist low-income individuals and families with their housing rent. The program is operated by the federal agency of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) who allots the Claremont Housing Authority 140 vouchers each year, which the authority distributes to qualifying applicants.
The housing authority is currently looking to convert to a different type of voucher. Instead of the currently used “tenant vouchers” — which a tenant may use to rent any apartment that meets program qualifications — the housing authority wants to use more “project vouchers.” Unlike tenant vouchers, whose subsidy follows the tenant when changing homes, a project voucher is attached to a specific unit and gives that subsidy to whoever is the tenant.
Michelle Aiken, executive director of the Claremont Housing Authority, told the city council that she typically has about 10 undistributed vouchers per year from her annual allotment. Since HUD’s funding formula to housing programs is based on the vouchers in use, transferring those unused vouchers to the Goddard Block building creates more budget predictability for the housing authority and eases some of its administrative work.
City Manager Ed Morris said he wanted the council to hear from Aiken and the property manager Marcia Franklin of Alliance Asset Management, who will be overseeing management of the Goddard Block. The council has no voting jurisdiction in the decision, but Morris needs to sign a document in the housing authority’s application to convert to project vouchers. Morris said he wanted to know if there was a council-consensus prior to signing the document.
Of the eight councilors in attendance, four councilors said they were in favor of the plan while four councilors were opposed.
Councilor Erica Sweetser, expressing dissent to the plan, said that attaching Section 8 vouchers directly to apartment buildings creates an impression of “Section 8 housing,” a stigma that she would prefer not to see downtown.
Sweetser said that she’s found about 15 past newspaper articles in which Lacasse and other project proponents repeatedly said this building “is not Section 8 or low-income housing, but affordable housing” or “workforce housing.”
“We are working really hard to revitalize downtown,” Sweetser said. “For me, putting a building that has a set [number of] 10 Section 8 housing vouchers, that sort of contradicts revitalizing downtown.”
Other councilors pointed out that there were always going to be Section 8 vouchers affiliated with the Goddard Block project. If the 10 apartments didn’t have project-vouchers attached to them, they would be occupied by tenants holding tenant-vouchers.
Of the Goddard Block’s 36 apartment units, nine units (or one-fourth) are market-rate. Eight units are for families earning 50% or below the area’s median family income and 19 units are for families earning 60% or below the median family income. The median family income in Sullivan County is $73,600.
Franklin said that she can accept tenant vouchers issued outside of Claremont, such as the New Hampshire Housing Authority. Project vouchers at least guarantee to serve Claremont Housing Authority applicants.
“You’ll be utilizing them to people who are currently in the Claremont Housing Authority’s waiting list, so those people who have been waiting for two or three years will now be able to move into a unit, instead of sitting longer and waiting for a [tenant] voucher,” Franklin said.
Franklin said that federal law prevents her from giving housing priority to Claremont applicants over other New Hampshire applicants on the waiting list.
The councilors in favor of the project-voucher transfer were Mayor Charlene Lovett, Assistant Mayor Allen Damren and Councilors Abigail Kier and James Contois. Given that Section 8 applicants from anywhere in the state can be placed into Claremont housing, they preferred that at least 10 applicants applied through the Claremont-based program.
Councilors Sweetser, Jon Stone, Deborah Matteau and Nicholas Koloski said they were opposed.
“I’m a little concerned that we’re taking away vouchers that would go to the general community,” said Councillor Deborah Matteau. “There will be 10 less when there’s a waiting list.”
ed. note — Councilor Nicholas Koloski said he was simply opposed to the plan, not still in need of more information. Additionally, “Nicholas Matteau” was corrected to read “Deborah Matteau.”
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