New Program to Educate Cape Cod Officials about Affordable Housing

HYANNIS – A series of workshops begins in October to educate municipal leaders and town staff across the Cape to better tackle affordable housing crisis.

Housing Assistance Corporation and the Community Development Partnership have partnered to start the Cape-wide Housing Institute.

The institute is a six-week program designed to provide support, training and technical assistance to town and regional leaders to help them make better decisions about land use policy and the development of housing.

“I think a lot of folks kind of get into these positions where they are wanting to contribute, make a difference and set important local land use policy but really kind of lack the skills and experience and knowledge,” said Jay Coburn, the executive director of the Community Development Partnership.

The free program consists of one two-hour workshop each week beginning the week of Columbus Day. Each session will be provided on the Upper, Mid, Lower and Outer Cape to make attendance convenient for officials in all 15 Cape Cod towns.

Participants who attend all six sessions will receive a certificate of completion.

Alisa Galazzi, the CEO of Housing Assistance Corporation, said the concept is not new as institutes have been in other areas of the state.

“People are really craving this information because it is such an important issue not only in our region but in the state and it is very complex,” Galazzi said. “There are a lot of rules – a lot of regulations – a lot of ways to get projects ramped up.”

Coburn said the organizations are working to get as many officials as possible to attend before the sessions begin in the fall.

A database of email addresses of all town officials is being compiled and community organizing practices are being used to spread the word.

“Then we also will be recruiting a captain or two in each town to help go to each one of those committee board meetings, make the announcement, sign people up and get people engaged,” Coburn said.

The sessions were set up regionally to make it easier for officials to attend but also to get the towns from each region to begin to work together.

“We’d like, actually, all the people from the Outer Cape in a room over a six-week period getting to know each other sharing the challenges and solutions in their own community and then maybe getting together and starting to think about regional solutions,” Coburn said.

The sessions were also timed to be completed before the town meeting season to try to help get projects moving forward.

Over the next year HAC and the CDP will follow the teams of participants and document policy changes and new strategies being adopted as a result of completing the institute.

The institute is the first part of the Cape Community Housing Partnership, a three-phase strategy to increase the region’s affordable housing capacity.

The second phase, advocacy training, will being in early 2018 with the final phase, a public education campaign, to begin later in 2018.

To register for the Cape Housing Institute and for more information, visit capehousinginstitute.org.

By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter

About CapeCod.com NewsCenter

The award-winning CapeCod.com NewsCenter provides the Cape Cod community with a constant, credible source for local news. We are on the job seven days a week.



CapeCod.com
737 West Main Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
Contact Us | Advertise Terms of Use 
Employment and EEO | Privacy