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Affordable housing is the focus of Pennies for Poverty’s next session in their Invisible Neighbors Series, taking place Wednesday, September 18. Experts in municipal planning and development are set to highlight how other communities have balanced the interests of wary neighbors, applied sources of financing, and adapted tools like zoning to promote affordable housing. Starting at 7:00 p.m., the event will take place at the Central Congregational Church, 14 Titcomb Street, Newburyport.

The session is important because incomes have not kept pace with the big jumps in housing costs on the North Shore, across Massachusetts, and in the nation. This lack of affordable housing, especially rental housing, hurts our communities’ long-time residents, discourages people drawn here for work, and can threaten the social, civic and economic vitality of our region.  So, what can be done?

Using a roundtable discussion format, the session features panelists who know the tools available at the federal, state, and local levels to increase affordable housing and have worked with other communities to do so.

  • Whitney Demetrius, Municipal Engagement Associate, Citizens Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA)
  • Madeline Nash, Senior Project Manager, Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC) and Member, Newburyport Affordable Housing Trust.
  • Rick Taintor, Former Planning Director in Framingham, MA and Portsmouth, NH and consultant to municipalities and state and federal agencies.

“This session is an opportunity to help our local communities shift from a sense of complaint about affordable housing to a civic interest in finding solutions that will better support our families, neighborhoods, and the community as a whole,” said Susan McKittrick, Pennies’ President. “The Pennies Invisible Neighbor series is a community discussion on a wide range of challenges and opportunities for Newburyport, Salisbury, Amesbury, and other nearby communities.”

About Pennies for Poverty: 2 Cents 4 Change, Inc.

Pennies’ mission is to ease the impact of poverty on the people of Greater Newburyport by endorsing models of assistance that promote dignity; supporting allied organizations both financially and collaboratively; increasing community awareness of poverty through citizen education; and inspiring and encouraging volunteerism.

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