Monday, May 5, 2025, at 6:30PM
Amey Tucker Spencer Trust Fund Meeting
(Town Council Sitting in their Capacity as Trustees)
Followed by
Town Council Meeting
AMEY TUCKER SPENCER TRUST FUND MEETING
TOWN COUNCIL SITTING IN THEIR CAPACITY AS TRUSTEES
Present: (Town Council sitting as Trustees): President Jordan Jancosek, Vice President Liana Cassar, Trustee Braxton Cloutier, Trustee Kate Berard, and Trustee Kerry O’Neill.
Also, Present: Town Manager Phil Hervey, Assistant Town Solicitor Amy Goins, and Town Clerk Meredith J. DeSisto
President Jancosek called the AMEY TUCKER SPENCER TRUST FUND MEETING to order at 6:36P.M.
Motion by Vice President Cassar and seconded by Trustee Cloutier approved the minutes of the meeting of the Amey Tucker Spencer Trust Fund meeting on April 7, 2025. The motion passed in favor 5-0-0-0, President Jancosek, Vice President Cassar, Trustee Berard, Trustee Cloutier and Trustee O’Neill; no one opposed, no recusals and no abstentions.
TM Comment: The Housing Board of Trustees is requesting revisions to the downpayment assistance program for first-time homeowners using Spencer Trust funding and the $500,000 approved by voters at the 2021 Financial Town Meeting for affordable housing. The Board is also recommending an “Aging-in-Place Accessibility Program.” (See attached memorandum from the Housing Board).
1. Housing Board Proposal - Summary
First-Time Homebuyer Assistance Program (Revised)
The Board is proposing to revise the eligibility guidelines for the first-time homebuyer downpayment assistance program such that the unit to be purchased would not have to qualify as an official Low-Moderate Income Housing Unit based on State law, such that it would not count toward the Town’s 10 percent affordable housing target. To qualify as affordable, one of the requirements is a long-term deed restriction of at least 30 years.
· The proposal calls for a 15-year deed restriction with conditions that could require repayment:
o If buyer stays in the home for 15 years, the deed restriction is voided and no payment penalty is due at re-sale.
o If buyer sells the home before 15 years (from date of deed recording for original purchase) to an eligible income buyer with a new 15-year deed restriction, there is no payment penalty due.
o If buyer sells the home before 15 years (from date of deed recording for original purchase) to an ineligible buyer; full refund of the HBT subsidy will be due and payable upon resale.
· To access Spencer Trust funds, the homebuyer would need to be a current Barrington resident.
· To access the Town funds (the $500,000), there would be no residence requirement.
Aging-in-Place and Accessibility Program
The memo describes this program as follows:
An aging-in-place and accessibility improvement program to use the Spencer Trust and Barrington Housing Board funds for home repair and improvement projects for individuals and families at or below 100% of AMI out of the scope (financially or otherwise) of the Barrington home repair program that currently exists, up to the amount of $50,000 as an interest-free forgivable loan with the following schedule:
[See Page 3 of the Housing Board memo]
Examples of proposals to be considered for this program: accessible showers, stair chairlifts, ramps, kitchen adaption for accessibility. This program will be subject to an earned income and asset-based eligibility qualification.
2. Restrictions on Use of Funds
Assistant Solicitors Peter Skwirz and Amy Goins have provided a memorandum on the use of various sources of local funding for the Housing Board proposal: 1) the Housing Trust Fund; 2) the affordable housing funding approved by voters at the 2021 FTM; and 3) the Spencer Trust.
1) Housing Trust Fund
Current Balance: $0
One of the purposes of the Trust Fund was to receive funding from payments in lieu paid by developers as an alternative to building units to comply with the Town’s inclusionary zoning ordinance. The payment in lieu option no longer exists. There are no funds in the Trust Fund.
Any use of Housing Trust funding would need to be spent on deed-restricted LMI housing, according to the Solicitor memo.
2) Town Funds approved by voters at the 2021 FTM for affordable housing
Current balance: Approximately $502,000 (these funds have not been assigned to the Housing Trust Fund)
According to the Solicitor memo, because the FTM motion was for the “creation of ‘affordable housing,’ the electors intended these funds be used for the creation of LMI deed restricted housing that would count toward the Town’s 10% LMI housing requirement imposed by state law.” The Town would need to “obtain relief from this restriction by going back to the FTM or FTR and seeking permission to use these funds for some other purpose.”
3) Spencer Trust
a. Current balance – 2016 appropriation by Trustees: Approximately $370,000. This is for current Barrington residents only, as per the motion of the Trustees below.
On March 1, 2016, the Spencer Trustees approved a motion “to place $400,000 of accumulated income from the Amey Tucker Spencer Fund into a restricted Spencer Trust Fund to be used for the poor and unfortunate who are, at the time of their application, residents of the Town of Barrington, for the purpose of home ownership, repair, and related issues and to authorize the Finance Director to disburse for such purposes those funds to be administered by the Town Manager or his designee or to the Housing Board of Trustees or their designee provided that any grant over $50,000 must first be approved by the Amey Tucker Spencer Fund Trustees and the Town Council and further that any funds so disbursed which are repaid shall be returned to that restricted account.”
b. Current balance 2021 appropriation by Trustees: Approximately $75,000. No Barrington residency requirement (see motion below).
Amended Motion by President Conway and seconded by Trustee Carroll to add $75,000 to the Home Buying Down Payment Assistance Program without the conditions that existed for the previous allocation of funds. The motion passed in favor 5-0-0-0, President Conway, Vice President Kustell, Trustee Brier, Trustee Carroll, and Trustee Humm; no one opposed, no recusals and no abstentions.
According to the Solicitor memo, there is “no restriction on using the Spencer Trust funds in the manner suggested by the Housing Board. So long as the down-payment assistance program continues to have income qualifications that limit the program to those the Council, sitting as the Board of Trustees, considers poor and unfortunate, then there is no requirement that the Spencer Trust funds be used to create LMI housing. Thus, the Council, sitting as the Board of Trustees, could approve the use of the Spencer Trust fund to implement the changes to the downpayment assistance program recommended by the Housing Board.”
Motion: (No motion provided)
The Spencer Trustees meeting on May 5, 2025, discussed the use of Spencer trust funds for affordable housing. Phil Hervey explained that while Spencer funds can support non-state-defined affordable housing, other funds like the 2021 Housing Trust Fund cannot. The proposal includes revising the down payment assistance program to remove the 30-year deed restriction.
Town Manager Hervey said that the detailed proposal has been attached, and there is a lot to it. He suggested if the Trustees would like to list out some questions that we can follow up with further review at the June meeting.
Kate Berard and Amy Goins debated the interpretation of "affordable housing" from the 2021 FTM resolution, emphasizing the need for deed restrictions. Trustee Berard said that her concern is to be protective of that money earmarked and we do not have the power to move it without a vote from the electors – either at an FTM or at an FTR.
Finance Director MaryAnne Crawford stated that the funds are committed funds, and the only way that can happen is by a vote. Currently, she said that the account is $502,000.
Trustee Berard asked if ADU’s (Accessory Dwelling Units) are to be counted as affordable.
Assistant Town Solicitor Goins confirmed that these dwelling units can be counted for one half of a unit.
The trustees agreed to seek further clarification from the Housing Board and vote in June, pending additional input from the Housing Board of Trustees with the following list of questions:
Tom Rimoshytus, 1 Howard Street asked for clarification in which we have the Housing Board of Trustees, which is supposed to be helping the Spencer Trust and then he said Trustee Berard brought up the $500,000 from 2021 and asked if they are combined?
Trustee Berard explained that the state has defined affordable housing with a required percentage, with required deed restriction. She further explained that affordable housing is actual affordable housing – something that works in practice. She said that in her opinion the numbers do not match up and would not match in our town.
President Jancosek adjourned the meeting of the Spencer Trust at 6:54 PM. The motion passed in favor 5-0-0-0, President Jancosek, Vice President Cassar, Trustee Berard, Trustee Cloutier and Trustee O’Neill; no one opposed, no recusals and no abstentions.
Meredith J. DeSisto, CMC
Barrington Town Clerk