By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
The Sullivan County Commissioners authorized the application for the Counties for Housing Solutions (C4HS) technical assistance program through the National Association of Counties for using county land for affordable housing, in what County Manager Derek Ferland called “an interesting opportunity that bubbled up on our radar.”
The county is planning to team up with the other 10 counties across the state in hopes of hitting a required 200,000-person population to qualify for the program that includes free virtual technical assistance to help develop affordable housing with county land that is not being used. Ferland said the intriguing aspects of this is the fact that it is free and also involves underutilized county owned land as affordable housing.
He said this is something that the commission has kicked around in the past, and this would be a window of opportunity for free technical assistance in case they ever want to go this route.
Ferland explained that he did research about whether they could get all 10 counties involved to meet the 200,000-person population requirement, and a representative at NACo said to have a lead county and then letters of support from other counties. If the combined population was 200,000, they would allow this group to apply.
“This might help us to find a way forward to do it,” Ferland said. “The other cool thing is working with the other counties. So far Grafton and Cheshire, the old Connecticut River alliance coming back in action, are the ones who are going to sign on to help us get to the population threshold. But we would share this information to all 10 counties.”
Ferland said Rockingham County has also shown interest.
According to information provided by Ferland at Tuesday’s commission meeting, NACo is opening applications for the “C4HS technical assistance sprint” that is a partnership with Smart Growth America. It involves the selection of six counties, parishes or boroughs with a population of more than 200,000 to be part of a 12-week program spanning from April 1 to June 17.
“These fast-paced technical assistance sprints are designed to be high-intensity and implementation-focused, with a county being on track to develop county-owned land for residential uses at the conclusion of the session,” an informational sheet provided by NACo stated. “Participants will work through a step-by-step plan to identify available land, evaluate site selection, engage communities, partner with potential developers and identify financing for affordable housing development on underdeveloped land.”
Ferland admitted that with only six entities being chosen the chances may be slim that they are picked, but they also won’t know if they don’t apply.
“They may be intrigued with the fact that there are a couple counties working together,” Ferland said. “It is hard to say but if we don’t apply for it, I know we aren’t going to get it.”
Chair Joe Osgood interjected, “I agree with that.”
The application is due on Feb. 21, and Ferland said it is “not a heavy lift” and should have opportunities to help with both county land and municipal land in case there are ideas for housing projects.
“The key word here is free, and it is information we don’t have to act on, but if we ever decide to contemplate exploring housing on county land, this could really come in handy,” Ferland said.
Commissioner Bennie Nelson moved to allow Ferland to move forward with the application, and the board voted unanimously in favor.
The selected teams will be announced on Monday, March 10.
