Blackstone voters to rule on housing project
Special Town Meeting Tuesday to decide fate of veterans housing
BLACKSTONE – Special Town Meeting voters Tuesday will be asked to approve a land use change that will pave the way for a project to construct a permanent housing cooperative for homeless veterans.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Blackstone-Millville Regional High School auditorium, 175 Lincoln St.
The single warrant on the article asks voters to approve a change of use for a portion of Veterans Park - a large expanse of vacant land on Elm Street that has been sitting idle since 1997. The article is being recommended by the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee.
Approval of the article is an important first step to allowing Soldier On, a private non-profit organization that helps veterans reestablish their lives through housing and other services, to build its fourth Massachusetts housing location in Blackstone.
“The sole article on the special town meeting warrant is in essence an article to authorize the change in the use and to authorize the disposition of a portion of the parcel acquired by the town back in 1997, which is called Veteran’s Park,” says Blackstone’s attorney Patrick Costello.
“A portion of that property is restricted to public water supply use and for the protection of certain well areas, and that, will remain in place,” he said. “The remainder of the property, which the town initially thought might have additional value for water supply purposes, turned out not to be suitable for such purposes so the land has been vacant.”
The proposed 75- to 150unit housing project in Blackstone would be similar to Soldier On’s 71-bed transitional living facility in Pittsfield, Mass, where veterans own their own one-bedroom and loft-style apartments, in a community with other veterans. The Blackstone project would be built by Soldier On, which would pay property taxes to the town. As part of the deal, Soldier On will build for the town a soccer and softball field on site.
The town is hoping to break ground on the project in the spring pending special town meeting approval on Feb. 2.
The tentative plan is to build the athletic fields first, which would be completed by the fall of 2016. The housing would be built around that in increments over a period of two to three years.
“In order to see such a project through, we need an
authorization vote to change the use of the subject property,” Costello said in reference to Tuesday’s meeting.
The Blackstone facility will be modeled after the Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Community, a housing model that is being replicated nationally by Soldier On. That facility was built at a cost of $6.1 million with a combination of federal, local, and private foundation money and is subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Human Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The veterans pay anywhere between $580 and $682 for rent. They also pay $2,500 to buy a limited-equity ownership in the develop- ment, which allows them to share in the success and maintenance of the community mutually.
If a veteran is unable to cover this down-payment, local banks will give them loans at no interest, or they will give outright donations to Soldier On. If they move, Soldier On will buy back their share for $2,500.
Blackstone officials say an added benefit of having a similar facility in Blackstone is that it will help the town meet the state’s requirement that it have at least 10 percent of year-round housing stock qualify as “affordable.” The state defines that as within reach of a household earning less than 80 percent of the area median income.