Concord’s Community Preservation Committee is recommending that the upcoming Town Meeting vote to appropriate $500,000 to be used by the Concord Municipal Affordable Housing Trust. The funds would be available to support one or more affordable housing projects or the purchase of small houses. The Trust already has a list of such projects which are consistent with the town’s 2023 Housing Production Plan.
I am proud that Concord has for decades recognized in its long-term plans and its votes at Town Meetings that it has a scarcity of affordable housing. Concord’s substantial efforts by many people and organizations to add such housing has helped, but we all know that replacements of teardowns with big expensive ones, the inflation which has accelerated the normal increases in the cost both of building new homes and of purchasing existing ones, etc., have made it even more difficult for people with low or moderate incomes to purchase houses in Concord. The proposed appropriation will of course not completely solve the problem, but it will certainly help.
Please vote for this appropriation so that our town may continue its admirable tradition of welcoming people from various backgrounds.
Steve Carr
Musterfield Road