After the March 13 letter from PHA Executive Director Craig Welch suddenly popped up in the March 18, 2024, City Council packet, the future of the Sherburne School has moved front and center. Welch asked the Mayor and City Council to send a letter of support to “one or more of our congressional delegation to partially fund” the development of “workforce housing at the Sherburne school property in partnership with the City.”
What is going on here?
After months of unanswered questions, Pannaway Manor residents must be nervous. Would the March 21 meeting of the Mayor’s Blue-Ribbon Housing Committee finally provide answers?
Guess again.
If you watch the video of the meeting, you will see an intricate dance by Portsmouth Housing Authority (PHA) representatives Tom Ferrini and Adam Ruedig in a skillful effort to avoid giving clear responses to straight-forward questions from the Committee.
To further muddy the waters, Assistant Mayor Kelley made an impassioned plea about how, after all, using PHA to turn the Sherburne School property into housing, has been the topic of a continuous 3 to 4-year conversation. No one should be surprised.
So much for Kelley’s “robust discussion.”
After observing Ferrini and Ruedig dodge and weave, one Committee member observed that PHA currently lists Sherburne School as a “signature project.” And there is no arrangement with the city? Isn’t that premature? Has the size of the project been determined, or the cost? How much money is being requested from the federal government?
Again, PHA representatives wouldn’t admit that it is a done deal and explained:
We’re just waiting for the City Council to say they want to work with us. Then we will design the project, e.g. the number of units, the costs. The city has to take the first step. The public process will be used.
Who could have known the March 13 letter is simply part of an “earmark process to the federal government.” It is not an application for tax credit housing. This is a different process that communities use to get money from the federal government.
To paraphrase, the PHA says, “We just needed to put a project name on the application.” (A later motion to submit the letter without specifically naming Sherburne School failed the Committee vote 3 – 8).
What actually is in this (as it turns out 7-page) application, you know the one that is not specifically about Sherburne School but used that as the project’s name?
Fortunately, one committee member asked to actually see the application and it is included in the April 11 packet for the Housing Committee meeting.
Just scroll down to Sherburne School CDS Application-March 2024 on page 10 of the packet. Quite a bit of information. The workforce housing project, which should start on January 30, 2025, is estimated to have 80 units of workforce housing at a cost of $24 million.
Nothing to see here, according to PHA and City Council.
But will the residents of Portsmouth be able to fully take advantage of this project? PHA’s responses to this question will astound you.
Since you employ federal tax credits as a way of encouraging investors in your affordable housing projects, will Portsmouth residents’ applications for these units receive priority?
PHA Response: They will receive “preferences.”
What does that mean?
PHA Response: It’s a “technical answer’ (and I may have to get back to you) but “this is federal law and applies to all citizens.”
In other words: “No.”’
To Pannaway Manor residents: The workforce housing project at Sherburne School that doesn’t exist is going to break ground soon and your quiet neighborhood is about to be invaded by folks from New York!
Source featured image: City of Portsmouth
