Why shred the state’s Affordable Housing law?

Before and after the CCA affordable housing plan

CCA says the real problem is for-profit developers who exploit the law

By Will Collette

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance sent out an urgent e-mail message to its supporters in an effort to rally them to a Town Hall workshop and special Town Council meeting on December 7 on affordable housing.

According to the CCA e-mail (which uses  Planning Commissar Ruth Platner words): “In CCA's opinion, for-profit developers should not be allowed to build more dense developments for higher profits under the guise of affordable housing.”

I agree.

Nah, not for me

In fact, I think most reasonable people agree that private developers who want to build large market price developments with just enough token units of affordable housing to qualify under the law are wrong for Charlestown. Wrong for a lot of places.

So, if this is the real problem, why does the CCA, with Platner and Town Council President Tom Gentz leading the charge, propose a radical over-reaction? Why do they propose to shred the state’s affordable housing law by a sneaky sleight of hand trick of simply labeling homes that have lost housing value in this harsh housing market as “affordable,” without doing anything to actually try to help people to get affordable housing?


Why not deal with the problem you have identified - nasty for-profit developers - and stop this terrible attack on the whole fabric of the affordable housing law?

Of course, I’m talking about the Platner-Gentz Affordable Housing Deconstruction Act which would eliminate the state’s affordable housing crisis by simply allowing cities and towns to count as “affordable housing” any property that could be used as a residence whose assessment has dipped below the figure deemed to be “affordable.” Whether or not those housing units are actually available for rent or sale. Whether or not they’re even habitable (for example, we would count the tiny, non-weatherized vacation cottages).

By changing the definition of “affordable,” Platner and Gentz make the problem disappear. Poof! It’s gone.

Shame on them for their cynical assault on common decency.

Charlestown does not need CCA word games. Charlestown needs affordable rental units. We have almost none that exist, never mind available.

On November 20,  I reported that there were a grand total of two rental properties listed on Zillow.com, one a trailer home for $950 a month, the other a house for $1995 a month. As of December 4, they were gone. Zillow.com lists ZERO rentals in Charlestown at any price.

Except one

I don’t hate for-profit developers with the same burning passion as Ruth Platner. My bad. I guess in Charlestown, it’s wrong to think that for-profit developers shouldn't automatically have to burn in hell.

I have met several people who have built housing developments at some time in their lives and none of them eat kittens for breakfast.

But I don’t see for-profit developers as the solution to Charlestown’s affordable housing problems, especially when they propose developments with only a token number of affordable units. Or no affordable rentals.

I like non-profit developers. I also like (and support) Habitat for Humanity. I like the current projects working their way through the system – the Shannock Village project and the Churchwoods Project the Oyster Works is designing for the Episcopal Diocese land in the Cross Mills district. 


I fear that it’s only a matter of time before these projects get mugged and murdered by NIMBY assassins, but I hope the best for their survival and success, nonetheless.

We need more projects like those. And more Habitat homes.

One of South County Habitat's homes

I can get behind a push to recruit non-profits to come to Charlestown, sit with our Affordable Housing and Planning Commissions and launch a mission to create the 280 or so affordable housing units - including rentals - we need to hit the 10% mark required by state law.

If the CCA really hates for-profit developers so much, this is a much more ethical and positive way to beat them. Take away the for-profit developers’ edge by closing the affordable housing gap in Charlestown in partnership with non-profit housing groups.

Or does the CCA or Ruth Platner or Tom Gentz prefer their draconian – and deceptive – approach of simply defining away the need for affordable housing without doing a damned thing for the people who need it?