Vicksburg Square is a 21st-Century Plan
January 9, 2012: The Lowell Sun, Editorial
The state of Massachusetts needs affordable housing – housing that can be purchased or rented at a reasonable cost so that young professionals and older citizens can survive and thrive in this high-cost state.
It gets more difficult every year, as salaries remain stagnant and rising housing and health-care costs take a bigger chunk from disposable income.
It’s a primary reason why companies choose to locate in low-cost states, because living in Massachusetts represents a financial strain on middle-class workers.
For too long, the state’s residents have considered this problem as a government issue. No, this problem is for both the public and private sectors to try and solve, with all citizens playing a key role.
We find it odd that the Trinity Financial Group of Boston, the same development team that is behind the transformation of Lowell’s Hamilton Canal District, is battling uphill to win support for an affordable-housing project at a former U.S. Army barracks site in Devens. The project certainly deserves scrutiny as do all housing construction proposals; but it also deserves people to be open-minded about what new housing means to the region’s future as well as the state’s.
It is disturbing that some critics would rather see the run-down barracks remain idle, without purpose, rather than bring them to life, serving workers and families that would add energy, vitality and economic power to the Ayer-Harvard-Shirley-Devens corridor.
Trinity is proposing to knock down the barracks and transform them into a mix of affordable and market rate housing. The proposed Vicksburg Square complex would total 246 units; 78 for senior housing and 168 for all the rest, with a preference going to veterans, active military personnel and their families. Eighty percent of the units would be designated as affordable.
As with every proposal at Devens, the plan must pass muster with three primary communities – Ayer, Shirley and Harvard.
Trinity is doing its best to inform residents and town officials about its work. On Thursday, it funded a trip to several affordable-housing projects it has developed in the Boston area. Three local residents accepted the offer and viewed the complexes. Sun reporter Hiroko Sato was there to capture their reactions, which were generally positive.
Many residents in Trinity’s Boston area complexes were working professionals who used the commuter rail to get to jobs at Boston hospitals or companies in the financial district.
If Trinity officials accomplished anything, it was to show who is the 21st-century face of affordable housing. They are working people and retirees, some of whom hold part-time jobs. The units ranged from $1,400 to $2,500 a month, depending on size and water view – that’s right, a water view.
The stigma of affordable housing as hurting property values is a myth. Trinity’s properties have value in location, on-site management, and technologicial amenities, and that’s why there is a waiting list of potential clients.
Vicksburg Square represents positive potential for Devens, area communities and Massachusetts. It should get the utmost consideration for moving forward.
© Copyright 2012 The Lowell Sun.
